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| - "Hurhurhurha..." giggled Thoosa to herself as she wobbly paddled a canoe up to the abandoned shore of an islet. As soon as the fore of the canoe struck land, Thoosa wasted absolutely no time in leaping out of the canoe and onto the sandy beach. Thoosa would then immediately proceed to unsteadily make her way up the coast. It wasn't long before Thoosa found herself to be approaching a tower of sorts. The kind of tower you would see in a production of Rapunzel. Standing guard, at what appeared to be the only reasonable entrance to the tower, was a pair of ironclad humans. Not your ordinary breed of humans though. But rather the substantially larger breed. The kind of humans that a Blue-Dweller could be forgiven for mistaking as giants. "What in the world?" muttered the first of the ironclads, more to himself than to his companion, at the very sight of Thoosa. It was very strange for the ironclad to be visited by anyone while he was on shift. And stranger still for the ironclad to be visited by what seemed to him to be a random drunkard of all things. But the strangest thing of all had to be the fact that the seemingly drunk visitor was some kind of one-eyed abomination... "Halt!" dutifully demanded the second of the ironclads from Thoosa. In response to the second of the ironclads, Thoosa came to a complete stop in acquiescence to his demands. However, not long after Thoosa did so, she commenced to gradually raise her head. Judging from the manner in which Thoosa was doing so, both of the ironclads could tell that Thoosa was seemingly searching the tower's walls for something. But what that something could be was a mystery to them. "State your business!" "I can see him," giddily answered Thoosa with a lecherous lick of her lips, greatly confusing the ironclads as she did so. It was then that Thoosa practically exploded with excitement. In a frightening display of predatory lust, Thoosa started to incessantly drool a puddle onto the ground before her feet. She anxiously clenched her hand into fists and then commenced to hop in place. Both of the ironclads couldn't help but to shiver as Thoosa's eye begun to reflect with a glimmer of unchecked desire. "I can see him! I can see the prince! It's true! The rurmors were! There really is a prince in this tower!" "So that's how it is," snorted the first of the ironclads an instant before he raised his flanged mace overhead. "Our liege is the rightful king of Presbyter! So in order to maintain the peace, Prince John is to remain in isolation for the rest of his-" "Poppu Karucha..." begun Thoosa an instant before she proceeded to use a leap to rocket herself straight up to the first of the ironclads' face. Before the first of the ironclads could so much as instinctively dilate his eyes in fear, Thoosa slammed a right haymaker into his left cheek. Said haymaker struck with enough force to send the first of the ironclads cartwheeling all the way to the ocean. And even then the first of the ironclads was cartwheeling along the surface of the ocean itself for quite some time. Eventually though, the first of the ironclads splashed into the ocean before floating to the top of it. Unmistakably unconscious. "...Faia! (Pop Culture, Fire!)" "B-b-but that's impossible!" spluttered the second of the ironclads in disbelief as Thoosa landed on her feet. The second of the ironclads then gritted his teeth in righteous fury before he launched a right hook at Thoosa in hopes of splattering Thoosa with the sheer hardness of his iron gauntlet. Much to the second of the ironclads' confusion, Thoosa did not make any attempts to avoid his hook. Instead she simply raised her left arm into the air! "Ha! What stupid girl! Do you really think you can block MY punch with just one-" "Saikuroppu Supesharu..." started Thoosa with a very cocky grin on display. Just a few moments before the second of the ironclads' fist would have squashed Thoosa, the muscles on Thoosa's left arm inflated to about three times the size of her head. As a result, Thoosa managed to simply CATCH the second of the ironclads' hook as if it was naught but a baseball that had been playfully thrown towards her. Before the second of the ironclads could react to this development, Thoosa utilized his hand as leverage for swinging him around and around and around. Not that long after, Thoosa flung the second of the ironclads towards the closed gates of the tower. “...Gure-to Suingu! (Cyclops Special, Great Swing!)” "What is going on out-" was all a tower guard managed to say before the second of the ironclads smashed straight through the tower's gates and then dropped directly onto him with a loud thunk. "I-I-Is that the Silver-Horned King?" stammered another tower guard at the sight of the fallen second of the ironclads. As the tower guard did so, Thoosa giddily pranced over the remains of the tower's gates and into the tower's lobby. In the meantime, Thoosa's left arm was shrinking back to its normal size. "PLEASE tell me that's not the Silver-Horned King!" "It's me alright," groaned the second of the ironclads, or the Silver-Horned King as he shall henceforth be known as, as he groggily pushed himself back onto his face. "This is crazy. How can such a tiny girl have so much strength in her? It's unreal I tell you," "Now where are those stairs? There has got to be some way for me to get up to my DREAMY prince," giggled Thoosa in singsong tone of voice. Much to the utter disbelief of the Silver-Horned King and the many tower guards, Thoosa then proceeded to skip RIGHT BY THEM. Paying them absolutely no heed as she set out in search for a way to climb the towers' many levels. "The prince in the tower. I'll bed him in an hour. Wash up in the shower. Make us both smell like flowers," "Just who the hell do you think I am!" roared the indignant Silver-Horned King before he lunged towards Thoosa with the both of his arms blurring into a flurry of punches. Thoosa widened her smil in response to the Silver-Horned King's violent approach. She then performed a complete about-face; swaying like a pendulum as she did so in order to avoid being punched during the performance. As she finished the about-face, Thoosa threw a straight punch with her right. And as a result of her perfect timing, Thoosa's punch caught the Silver-Horned King right in his nose. With a grunt, Thoosa quickly converted the straight into a hook which launched the Silver-Horned King through one of the walls of the tower. After spending a good amount of time hurtling through the air, the Silver-Horned King would crash onto the sands of the islet. Unmistakably unconscious. "Not my prince! That's who!" answered Thoosa only an instant before she burst out into laughter. "Hurhurhurha!" "W-w-what kind of monster is that?" stammered a tower guard whose body had been paralyzed by the horrific implications of the Silver-Horned King's defeat. "Unbelievable, simply unbelievable! She defeated the Silver-Horned King with her bare hands?" "H-h-hey! One of you need to go alert the Gold-Horned King!" snapped the Captain of the Tower Guard at his subordinates. "Otherwise we have no chance of victory here!" "N-n-no dice Captain!" outright sobbed one of the tower guards as he hung up the receiver to a Ko Den Den Mushi. "Word from the top is that they can see the Gold-Horned King floating in the East Blue!" "You mean to tell me that the Gold-Horned King and the Silver-Horned King have BOTH been taken out?" snarled the Captain of the Tower Guard as he watch Thoosa frolic about the place with seemingly no care in the world other than the location of the stairs. "Taken out by this LITTLE GIRL of all people?" "Excuse me, but where are the stairs?" asked Thoosa of a tower guard, immediately prompting the tower guard to fearfully point towards a nearby door. For the Captain of the Tower Guard, that was the last straw. "Thank you very much!" "I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!" screamed the infuriated Captain of the Tower Guard as he withdrew his rapier from its scabbard. With a quick thrust, the Captain of the Tower Guard propelled a beam of air towards Thoosa's head. Without taking so much as a single glance at the Captain of the Tower Guard or his beam, Thoosa titled her neck JUST enough for the beam to completely miss its target. As a result of such, the beam slammed into the very door which lead to the stairs. Upon making impact with the door, the beam exploded into a gale of slicing winds. Said gale easily ripped the door to shreds and as a result opened the way for Thoosa. "I'm much oblige, much oblige indeed!" thanked Thoosa with a toothy grin on her face as she gleefully proceeded to race up the stairs. In a fit of rage, the Captain of the Tower Guard immaturely stamped his foot upon the ground before he took after Thoosa. Because Thoosa wasn't in that much of a rush, it wasn't long before the Captain of the Tower Guard caught up to her. "Hmm? Did you need something mister?" "Don't screw with me!" spat the Captain of the Tower Guard right before he thrust yet another beam of air towards Thoosa, hoping that the close-quarters would prevent Thoosa from dodging. With a haste that was very close to being downright incomprehensible to the Captain of the Tower Guard, Thoosa dashed into a leap onto the wall and then utilized the wall as leverage for a leap which took her over the Captain of the Tower Guard's beam. "You have got to be kidding me! She's not just strong, but fast as well?" "Saikuroppu Supesharu, Furea Faia! (Cyclops Special, Flare Fire!)" chimed Thoosa as her leap took her to a wall that she subsequently kicked off of as a means of propelling herself straight towards the Captain of the Tower Guard. The Captain of the Tower Guard reared his rapier in preparation for skewing Thoosa, but it was then that Thoosa begun to spew the brightest of radiances from her mouth. The Captain of the Tower Guard wasn't sure if it was a flame or simply pure light. The only thing he knew for sure was that the radiance was blinding him far worse than any darkness ever had. “Poppu Karucha, Obafuroingu Hito! (Pop Culture, Overflowing Heat!)” called Thoosa as she took full advantage of the Captain of the Tower Guard's blindness to assault him with impunity. After a few mid-air spins, during which she transferred a large number of vibrations originating from just about every other muscle in her body to the muscles within her right leg, Thoosa slammed a fiery kick into the side of the Captain of the Tower Guard's head. With an expression of terror firmly plastered onto his face, the Captain of the Tower Guard was set ablaze from the top of head to the tips of his toes and then sent cartwheeling through the wall of the tower's staircase. Shortly afterward, the Captain of the Tower Guard crashed onto the floor of the tower's lobby with enough of an impact to produce a sizable crater. "How strange of him to attack me when he was being helpful just a few moments ago," noted Thoosa with a shrug. The cyclops then continued her climb up the tower, completely unimpeded this time around. After a good, five minutes of running; Thoosa found herself standing before a grandiose door. With a gulp of nervousness, Thoosa kicked down the door and then proudly strode inside of the following room. "Hello my prince. Your Princess Charming, has arrived!” “Forbsville, Presbyter. It's a lot more urban than I thought it'd be,” commented Zacchaeus Ibrahim as he docked his sloop at a wooden pier rather than the sizable wharf that the larger ships were choosing to dock at. At the very sight of him, a fisherman jumped to his feet and then quickly burst into a sprint towards the town ahead. Ibrahim couldn't help but to sigh at the fisherman's retreat, even though he was fully accustomed to such reactions by this point. Just about all World Government officials were regarded with caution by most folks. While those who were unfortunate to have the World Government's insignia emblazoned onto the back of their suit jacket were downright FEARED. And as you've might have guessed, Ibrahim was amongst those unfortunates. “It keeps the pirates away at the very least,” “Kobarabarabahahaaaa!” “Or not,” sighed Ibrahim as he finished securing his sloop to the pier. With much hesitation, Ibrahim turned around and as a result came face-to-face with a lanky man whom was holding the both of his arms overhead while at the same time pointing the both of his hands downward. “Kobarabarabahahaaaa! Looks like I've got ourselves another customer. Kobarabarabahahaaaa!” heartily guffawed the man with all of the mirth of a birthday child. “Kobara- kobara-kobarabarabahahaaaa!” “What do you want,” groaned Ibrahim with a droplet of sweat trickling down the side of his head. Much to Ibrahim's chagrin, his question served as prompt for yet another bout of laughter from the man before him. “Kobarabarabahahaaaa! I want what's due to me! This is private property you see?” explained the skinny-skinny man in a number of chortles and simpers. Ibrahim blankly stared at the man before him for quite some before he finally resigned himself to simply shaking his head. “How much would you like?” asked Ibrahim of the man, a most devilish smirk arising to his face as he did so. The main questioningly raised an eyebrow at Ibrahim before simply shrugging off Ibrahim's unexplained mirth. “100,000 File:Bsymbol.gif!” cheered the man, happy that he apparently managed to sucker yet another foreigner to Presbyter. Much to the man's surprise though, Ibrahim placed a grand total of 500,000 File:Bsymbol.gif into his hand rather than the 100,000 File:Bsymbol.gif he demanded. “H-h-hey. What is-” “That's five time as much as you charge,” snickered Ibrahim with a glint of malice reflecting from his eyes and fangs. “So I expect five times as much of a service from you. Guard this sloop and its contents with your LIFE. If so much as a SINGLE CHIP OF ITS WOOD is misplaced, you can expect a complaint from me. Is that understood?” “Kobarabarabahahaaaa! What you makes you think I care about any complain of...” was all the man managed to say before Ibrahim showed his back to the man with a thumb pointing towards the insignia that was emblazoned there. The insignia of the World Government itself. “...s-s-so what? That's just for show isn't-” “It's not for show,” snickered Ibrahim with eerily luminescent eyes and bared fangs, appearing like an absolute demon to the man before him. “The name is Zacchaeus Ibrahim. Scum such as yourself would know me as the Harbinger of the Saudade. Even pirates must pay their due. So now it is time you payed yours. With your very life if need be. Fail to perform as I have asked and you will find that even Impel Down itself pales in comparison to the kind of fate that a TAX COLLECTOR can inflict upon you!” “H-h-hey!” stuttered the now-regretful man as he backed away from Ibrahim, offering Ibrahim all 500,000 of his beli back. “I-I-I never wanted any trouble. Just an easy paycheck! The kind the guys down at the wharf get all of the time. I-I'm sorry okay! Please don't make me do this!” “I'll be back in a few days,” apathetically responded Ibrahim as he took a picture of the man with a peculiar-looking Mushi and then proceeded to take his leave from the pier altogether. Leaving the now-despondent man in his wake. “Please do try to have fun keeping my possessions safe from my innumerable enemies. Lest you'll soon find yourself with innumerable enemies in return. Ta!” “It tastes SO good!” squealed Thoosa after having swallowed an entire mouthful of cheesecake. Thoosa gently placed her hands upon her cheeks and then swooned into the air. Literally into the air where she was kept aloft by naught but the pure euphoria she was experiencing at the moment. Eventually Thoosa gradually sank back into her chair at the table of a fancy coffeehouse. Immediately after she did so, Thoosa reached for another piece of cheesecake with her fork. But before Thoosa could retrieve the piece, the cheesecake's plate was slid away from her. “Nhuuu!” “So what's your name?” asked Prince John as he slid the cheesecake's plate away from Thoosa, a coy smile forming on the Prince's fair face as the Prince did so. Thoosa couldn't help but to pout in response to Prince John's behavior. However, it wasn't long before Thoosa dismissed her pout with a snort aimed towards the Prince and then proceeded to stubbornly crossed her arms. Prince John simply chuckled at Thoosa's resistance before he theatrically raised his own fork into the air, catching Thoosa's eye as he did so. “Don't mind if I do,” “Nhuuu!” abruptly cried Thoosa as she uncrossed her arms and then futilely attempted to reach over the table for the plate of cheesecake. With a knowing smile on his face, Prince John slid the cheesecake a bit closer to himself before he placed his fork back onto its respective napkin. He then took a sip of his apple cider as he awaited the inevitable begging. “Give it to me! Give it to me Prince! I want it! I want it badly!” “So tell me...” begun Prince John with a victorious chuckle, sliding the plate of cheese cake just a bit closer to Thoosa as he did so. “...what is your name?” “It's Thoosa,” sniffle a defeated Thoosa, earning herself the plate of cheesecake from Prince John as a result of doing so. With a squee, Thoosa forked off another piece of cheesecake for herself and then stuck the piece into her mouth as quickly as she could. “So good! It's just so good! Ahh~” “Thoosa is it?” said the Prince more to himself than to Thoosa as he watched Thoosa pick away at the cheesecake with little to no restraint. “It's truly a beautiful name. But I'm afraid it happens to be a wearisomely common one amongst your kind,” “How do you know so much about, well, everything?” asked Thoosa while she was sucking on her fork in order to ensure she consumed as much of the cheesecake as she could. “Weren't you in that tower most of your life? Where did you learn all of this from?” “I believe the rule is...” begun Prince John as Thoosa forked off yet another piece of the cheesecake. “...that information would only be traded as punishment for surrendering. So until I've surrendered to my taste buds, I will not be revealing even the most minute of details,” “Hurhurhurha,” suddenly laughed Thoosa, piquing Prince John's interest as she did so. It was then that, without so much as a single warning, Thoosa shoved her fork into Prince John's mouth alongside the cheesecake that was attached to the fork. The pupils of Prince John's eyes immediately dilated to the size of a baseball as the image of Thoosa sucking on the fork came to his mind. To make matter worse, it was at that exact point that his tongue begun to register the SWEETNESS of the cheesecake. Against his better judgement, Prince John absently wondered whether it was the cheesecake he was tasting or the soft lips of the cyclops whom saved him from eternal captivity. “So tell me, what is your name my little prince?” “It's John,” instinctively answered Prince John in a rather loud moan of all things. As soon as the Prince realized what he had just done, his face instantaneously flushed into a sanguine that was far more prominent-looking than even blood itself. A grin of predatory lust made its way to Thoosa's face as the Prince's face continued to grow redder and redder. With her trademark laugh, Thoosa removed her fork from the Prince's mouth. Taking extreme care to leave the cheesecake behind as she did so. Right after Thoosa did so, Prince John found himself being racked with an extreme longing. For, in spite of the fact that the cheesecake was still present, a good portion of the sweetness had left Prince John's mouth alongside the fork. And by this point the Prince had a rather profound taste for such sweetness... “I'd like to have my seconds now,” stated Prince John in a manner that was as dignified as he could manage at the moment, trying to preserve as much of his pride as he could. “John is it?” parroted Thoosa as she slid the cheesecake John's way, visibly startling John as she did so. “It's truly a beautiful name. But I'm afraid it happens to be a wearisomely common one amongst your kind. Hmm? Oh I'm sorry. Was there something else that you wanted from me? My prince?” “I-I-I...” stammered John in defeat. He knew there was no way he was going to do anything but surrender. But he didn't know how to surrender in this situation. How does one go about asking for such a thing? And right in the middle of the public to make matters worse! “...I want-” “EVERYBODY PUT YOUR HANDS INTO THE GODDAMN AIR!” “To not have my first date ever be ruined by a random mugging,” sighed Prince John with a roll over his eyes. Thoosa frowned at the interruption, looking up to see what all of the commotion was about as she did so. Much to Thoosa's confusion, their apparent mugger was a boy with not just one of the scrawniest physiques she's ever seen but sickly white, ear-length hair as well. The mugger had a flabbergasted expression on his face, as if even he couldn't believe that he was mugging the coffeehouse, and was dressed in a manner that wouldn't even have been fitting for a bum. To put it simply, the mugger was a very sad sight to see. And he didn't in the least bit appear as if he could posed a threat to Prince John. Much less Thoosa. “I-I-I'm serious! G-g-give me all of the 1 File:Bsymbol.gif bills t-t-that you have or else!” practically whimpered the mugger, inducing naught but a sweatdrop from the coffeehouse's personnel and patrons alike. Prince John maneuver into backwardly sitting in his chair, chuckling at the cuteness of the mugger's timidness as he did so. “D-d-don't make me resort to v-v-violence!” “Here kid,” chuckled one of the waitresses as she willingly handed the mugger a bill of 1000 File:Bsymbol.gif for his trouble. The mugger stared at the bill for a rather long amount of time before suddenly offering the bill back to the woman. “You don't want it? Was this all just a cry for attention then?” “Absolutely not!” refuted the mugger with a stomp of his foot. “I'm seriously robbing you guys...it's just that I can only count by ones. So I need all of the money in 1 File:Bsymbol.gif bills so I can know how much I've collected,” “Aww! Isn't he just adorably stupid?” cooed Thoosa, prompting just about everyone in the coffeehouse to nod in agreement with her. “I'm n-n-not adorable!” vividly protested the mugger with his arms flailing about the place. It was then that, by complete accident mind you, one of the mugger's hands came down upon a wooden table and chopped it cleanly in half. Immediately the entire coffeehouse gaped in unison at the table's destruction. And it was only at this time that Thoosa took notice of the fact that the cobblestones that the mugger was standing on had been beaten into an earthen crater by the mugger's stomps! “I'll say it one more time, give me all of your 1 File:Bsymbol.gif bills or else!” “Tell me kid...” spoke the man seated at the now-destroyed table as he withdrew a flintlock pistol from his person. Immediately the coffeehouse as a whole flew into a panic. Everyone but Thoosa, Prince John, mugger himself, and a few others begun to scream at the top of their lungs at the very sight of the flintlock pistol. While completely ignoring the screams of the people around him, the main lifted his flintlock pistol so that its barrel was perfectly aimed at the mugger's chest. The man then adopted an arrogant-looking scowl as he placed a finger on the flintlock pistol's trigger, softly pressing upon the trigger as a non-verbal threat to fire. “...where do you get off interrupting my meal with such blatant nonsense? And how's about I take your life as payment for that very meal? The one your antics spilled on the-” “S-s-stop...” stuttered the mugger only an instant before he socked the man quickly enough to prevent the man from firing his flintlock pistol in retaliation. Everyone within the coffeehouse, including even Thoosa and Prince John, couldn't help but to allow their mouths to drop into enormous gapes as the mugger's punch sent the man wildly hurtling through a wall of the coffeehouse into being embedded within the wall of the neighboring structure. To make matters worse, it wasn't long before that very wall gave in and collapsed right on top of the man. “...talking! N-no more talking for a-a-anyone! Just give me the 1 File:Bsymbol.gif bills or else you'll end up like t-t-that guy!” “H-h-how could a wee-little fella like that do something like THAT,” stammered out a flabbergasted Prince John. Thoosa could only shake her head in disbelief cause she didn't exactly know the answer to that question herself. “You!” suddenly exclaimed the mugger as he pointed at Prince John of all people. “You look wealthy. Give me all of your 1 File:Bsymbol.gif bills or else that lady friend of yours is going to get a booboo!” “That's lady friend with benefits!” corrected Thoosa, loudly slamming the palms of her hands down upon her table as she did so. “Thank you very much!” “Shouldn't you have been more concerned about the threat of injury?” asked Prince John with a droplet of sweat trickling down the side of his head. Prince John then turned his attention back to the mugger with a shrug. “Looks can be deceiving. I don't have so much as a single beli on me. And even if I did, there is no such thing as a 1 File:Bsymbol.gif bill. Amounts that low are minted as coins,” “Liar!” accused the mugger with clenched fists. “Coins aren't made of mints! You better stop playing games with me and just hand over the bucks! B-b-but only the 1 b-b-beli ones though,” “Coins aren't made of mints?” a confused Prince John repeated after the mugger right before he suddenly realized what the mugger had mistaken the meaning of his words for. Of course, such a realization left Prince John speechless in the face of the mugger's sheer stupidity. Speechless and sad. Saddened by the fact that anyone COULD be so stupid. Suddenly Prince John wished he had some money to give the mugger for his troubles. “Dear child, bless your heart. Just...bless your heart,” “I don't need your blessings! Just your money!” expressively whined the mugger in a temper tantrum-sort of way, completely ignorant of the phrase's derogatory undertones. “Seriously! This is the last warning for ALL of you. If you guys continue to horde the 1 File:Bsymbol.gif bills to yourselves, Allied Mundi is going to start swinging!” “How about I count it for you?” offered the waitress from before, her eyes practically sparkling with pity. “And maybe I can teach you some of your multiples while I'm at it,” “I guess that might be alright,” considered Allied, causing a great many to sigh out the breath they had been holding. “But it's a lot to count you know. A whopping 52,000,000 File:Bsymbol.gif,” “FIFTY-TWO MILLION BELI?” screamed everyone in the coffeeshop, Thoosa and Prince John included. “I told you it was a lot to count,” giggled Allied with sheepish grin. The waitress gawked at Allied for a short while before she unceremoniously fainted. “Huh? W-w-what's wrong lady? Did the very thought of counting so high up wear you out or something?” “There is no way you're collecting that much money in 1 File:Bsymbol.gif!” yelled an incredulous Prince John. “Especially not from a place like this! You would need to rob a bank or something to collect that much in 1 File:Bsymbol.gif,” “B-b-but I already did that,” sniffed Allied with watering eyes. At first everyone went “Daaw!” at the cuteness of it all. But then their brains registered the meaning behind Allied's words. And as a result, all hell broke loose. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU ALREADY DID THAT?” “It's a LOT more urban that I thought it would be,” grumbled Ibrahim as he strode along a cobblestone and repeatedly swatted away at the next grubby hand which tried to pick at one of his pockets. In stark contrast to the implications of its name, the heart of Forbsville was filled to the brim with a variety of shops. And of course, there were an equal variety of thieves whom were ready and willing to prey upon those seeking to enjoy the services of those shops. And the variant Ibrahim seemed to be attracting the most was the pickpocket. Or pickpockets that is. “That tears it,” snarled a fed up Ibrahim as his Kenbunshoku Haki informed him of the approach of yet another hand that was reaching for the coin sack that was dangling from his hip. Right before the hand could lay its fingers upon the coin sack, Ibrahim snatched it into his own. Much to Ibrahim's surprise, the hand was soft to the touch. Ibrahim had originally planned on squeezing the hand until he managed to crush as many of its bones as he possibly could. But instead of doing that, the adolescent Majin utilized the hand as leverage for yanking the hand's owner right out of the crowd and into Ibrahim's face. This time around, Ibrahim was not surprised by what he saw. “Yeah, yeah. You got me. Good for you,” grumbled an elven woman with a rosy complexion, a pair of eyes which each shone as green as an emerald, and jet-black hair which extended as far as her modest bust. The elf's right ear was pierced with a single, gold ring whilst her left ear was pierced with two of them. And she was dressed in a high-collared jacket, a t-shirt which bottom was tied in a manner that left her midriff open for view, a brown belt which had a dainty-looking rapier hanging from it, a pair of pants with a slit cut into each of them, and a pair of boots. “Now hand me some of that coin I was trying to steal. Or else the next thing you'll be getting is a rape charge from my upcoming scream,” “I can easily afford to take such a charge to court,” snorted Ibrahim with a roll of his eyes. “But I'm willing to bet that you can ill-afford to do so. More likely than not, the court fees alone will place you in an inescapable debt to the state. While the penalty you receive after your inevitable defeat will all but assure you a prison sentence for your inability to pay the mandatory reparations,” “Well...” droned the elf as she backed as far away from Ibrahim as his grip on her hand would allow. “...that's a new one. Never met a guy with a response like that before,” “The others probably weren't S-Class Tax Collectors,” Ibrahim dryly pointed out just as the elven woman futily started to try and pull her hand free of his own. For as long as three minutes, Ibrahim quietly watched the elven woman struggle for naught. By the fourth minute, it became apparent to Ibrahim that the elven woman was NOT going to simply give up. “Your persistence is admirable, but futile. My grip has been reinforced with the Busoshoku Haki. Not enough to induce any visible changes, but more than enough for one such as yourself to handle. I suggest you resign yourself to parley,” “Surrender isn't in my dictionary,” grunted the elven woman as she placed a foot on Ibrahim's chest so that she could use the Majin himself as leverage in her bid to pull her hand free of his. Unfortunately for the elven woman, such leverage prooved itself to be completely and utterly useless to her cause. “But I do have resignation in there. So yeah, let's talk!” “Zacchaeus Ibrahim. Tax Collector,” stated Ibrahim as a short introduction. “Arid. Pickpocket and Blackmailer!” exclaimed the elven woman with pride. Ibrahim questioningly raised an eyebrow at Arid's exclamation, non-verbally questioning whether or not Arid should be as proud about her occupations as she seemed to be. “What? Shame isn't in my dictionary, you know?” “Right,” said Ibrahim in an empty tone of voice, having decided to simply leave Arid's pride as it was. “I have a proposition for you,” “I'm not a hooker,” suddenly blurted out Arid without so much as a single warning, stunning Ibrahim as a result of having done so. “My desperation for cash hasn't developed to that point yet. Now if you would excuse me-” “I wasn't propositioning you for sex,” explained Ibrahim as he slammed his free hand right into the very middle of his face. “I meant that I'm willing to pay you for a service-” “You're REALLY not helping your case here,” snickered Arid at Ibrahim's second poor choice of words. Ibrahim merely stared at Arid for a short while before it finally occurred to him what Arid meant. Ibrahim then perform a rather loud facepalm with his free hand once again. “Since my raw beauty has apparently dropped your mind into the very deepest of the gutters, allow me to hazard a guess. You want me to steal something for you?” “No,” said Ibrahim in a groan that carried all of the frustration that had been inflicted upon him by Arid's antics. “I want you to accompany me. I was hoping that the presence of another would curb the pickpockets' tendency to chose me as their target,” “You're absolutely right about that!” agreed Arid in a manner that was more than just a little to enthusiastic for Ibrahim's taste. “From my experience, a couple is always less of a target than a lone individual. And the reason for that is because one of them is almost always standing in the way of my path to the coin. So it's much less of a hassle to target someone whom is by his- or herself than it is to somehow make it pass such an obstructive individual,” “I see,” chuckled Ibrahim an instant before he quickly modified his grip of Arid's hand so that his fingers were entwined with hers. “I believe this should suffice,” “Huh?” uttered Arid with her head tilted in a manner that was cutely reminiscent of a bewildered puppy. “We'll walk like this. Hand-in-hand. With you on the side of my coin sack. That way it becomes that much less of an inviting target. Just as you explained,” chuckled Ibrahim some more. “Yeah. But. Well,” murmured Arid more to herself than to Ibrahim as she mused over the fact that her scheme had beeen ruined by something as simple as holding hands. “Ah damn it,” “If you were expecting me to allow the very pickpocket I caught in the act of stealing from me to simply walk beside my coin sack unimpeded, you highly underestimated me. Besides, did you not say that a COUPLE is less of a target? Don't you think we should look the part?” chuckled Ibrahim for good this time. Arid glowered at Ibrahim for his teasing before she uttered her own groan of frustration. “How much am I being payed for this?” “100,000 File:Bsymbol.gif,” “HUNDRED THOUSAND BELI?” literally spat Arid in disbelief. With Arid's hand still within his own, Ibrahim simply shrugged. “Whenever the World Government asks me to travel in-between the Blues, they give me 600,000 File:Bsymbol.gif for the travel expenses. Normally, I manage to save all of that money for myself by sailing myself to my destinations. Rather than paying for some kind of ferry,” explained Ibrahim with yet another shrug. Ibrahim was then met with a gentle squeeze upon his hand and an excited grin from Arid. “Well then, where to my love?” cooed Arid in a manner that Ibrahim couldn't help but to believe to not be an attempt to fall into character. But rather an attempt to endear herself to him. Sweet. “City Hall,” answered Ibrahim with a grin of his own. A cocky grin that was unique to arrogant Zacchaeus such as himself. “Where the Good Duke awaits!” “H-h-how did things turn out like this?” wheezed a bloody pulp of a man an instant before he dropped to the ground and fell unconscious upon the ruins of the coffeeshop. What used to be a fine place to take a load off was now nothing more a hill of debris. A hill which had yet to be annexed by any king or queen. “I thought we were all supposed to be ganging up on Mundi,” huffed Prince John in-between desperate gasps for air. The Prince was armed with just a rather simple-looking longsword that he looted from a fallen contestant so-to-speak and was currently standing on a lower part of the hill than any of the other six contestants. “How did this round up becoming a tag-team royal rumble?” “All of the innocents have been evacuated...” grumbled a brunette woman whose figure was more than voluptuous enough to be worthy of worship. Said woman had a number of flintlock pistols on her person and her portion of the hill was higher up than John's but lower than the portions of the other five. “...so Aharon-gochou, is any more of this really necessary?” “Hurhurhurha,” literally drooled Thoosa whilst she was ogling Iroppoi, the brunette woman for those of you whom didn't catch on, to a far greater extent than anyone was aware of. Using her Cyclopsian gaze to peer right through all of Iroppoi's clothing. Thoosa was completely unarmed and, as you might have guessed from the pattern, she stood higher than Iroppoi and Prince John. But lower than the others. “Is it really necessary for you to talk? My sexy goddess. Hurhurhurha,” “In order to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again, we must arrest the perpetrators of this crime!” zealously answered the black-haired man who Iroppoi had just referred to as Aharon. Much like Thoosa, Aharon was completely unarmed. Also, he stood at a greater elevation than Thoosa, Iroppoi, and Prince John. But at a lesser one than the remaining three. “Necessary Justice isn't Lazy Justice! It goes beyond just the now. Aren't those your words, Iroppoi-ittouhei?” “A fearsome man carrying the surname of Mundi,” murmured a haphazardly dressed blonde woman while she was examining a bounty poster. Not the kind of posters that were issued by the World Government mind you. But rather the kind to be issued by some less scrupulous organizations. Not that far less scrupulous though. With the World Government being as corrupt as it was.... “We've confirmed that he is a Mundi; however, I'm not so sure if he fits the fearsome part...” “He is surely fearsome in battle. Perhaps that is what they mean by fearsome this time around,” proposed a more finely dressed blonde woman with a shrug. Said woman was none other than Dokumi Amimono. A world-class assassin with a bounty of 200,000,000 File:Bsymbol.gif. While the blonde who was introduced before Dokumi was Akuginu Amimono. Dokumi's older sister whom was also a world-class assassin with a bounty of 200,000,000 File:Bsymbol.gif. “I hope it was. It'd be kind of refreshing for them to start using fearsome for strong people rather than strong-looking people,” Akuginu was unarmeded while Dokumi was armed with a pair of white-bladed daggers. Akuginu stood above Aharon, Thoosa, Iroppoi, and Prince John. While Dokumi stood above Akuginu, Aharon, Thoosa, Iroppoi, and Prince John. “All of you shut up!” demanded the current King of the Hill, the small-boned Allied Mundi himself. Allied then threw his hands into the air before he flew into a short-lived rant. “You guys just keep on talking and talking. Talking and talking! Well I've had just about enough of it! No more talking for you, and no more asking from me! I am just going to TAKE your 1 File:Bsymbol.gif bills!” “We've been over this!” screamed Prince John with a finger point at Allied in an accusitive manner. “There is no such thing as a 1 File:Bsymbol.gif bill! Get over it!” “I said no talking!” roared Allied as he threw himself off of the top of the hill into a dive towards Prince John. “Just for that, I'm going to take yours fist!” “Come and try!” growled Prince John as he readied himself for a confrontation with the now-former King of the Hill. “Purinsu Cha-mingu no...” “His back is exposed. Let's do it!” said Dokumi as she clapsed her hands together and started to retch as if she was trying to make herself vomit. “Amimono Kenpo...” “If we must,” sighed Akuginu an instant before she started to mimic Dokumi's actions. “...Supure Inoru! (Webbing Kenpo, Spray and Prey!) It was then that the sisters simultaneously begun to discharge webbing from each of their mouths. And while their individual webbing were en route towards the descending Allied, they tangled into a unified whole which was perfectly shaped like a net. “Tch,” snorted Aharon at Allied's descent. Aharon then willed a sizable, dart-like object into protruding from each of his shoulders. With a grunt from Aharon, the dart-like objects rocketed from Aharon's shoulders straight towards Allied Mundi. “Mari-n Panku, Taikuumisairu! (Marine Punk, Anti-Aircraft Missile!) “You leave my boytoy alone!” demanded Thoosa of Allied an instant before she released the limits upon her right arm, immediately causing the arm to swell to a massive size. “Saikuroppu Supesharu...” “If I must,” groaned Iroppoi before she literally lashed out with her leg at an incomprehensibly fast speed; projecting a wildly hurtling, crescent air blade towards Allied as a result. “Rankyaku, Suto-mu Regguu! (Storm Leg, Storm Leg!)” “...Jaberin! (Prince Charming's Javelin!)” finished Prince John as he thrust his longsword two times. Prine John then thrust a third time, propelling a lengthy needle of air towards the incoming Allied as a direct result of doing so. “Chuusei Kentou...” snarled out Allied as he outstretched an arm towards the hill of debris. Less than a moment later, Allied's outstretched arm suddenly seemed to pull itself and the entirety of Allied's body towards the hill. As soon as the hand of his outstretched an arm came into contact with the hill, Allied quickly pushed off of the hill as a means of throwing himself sidewardly through the air. “...Seibi: Anchoring Fist! (Neutron Boxing, Complete Equipment: Anchoring Fist!)” “That's not good,” understated Prince John as the very worst case scenario started to play out. First, Aharon's dart-like objects rocketed into the net of combined webbing that had been created by the Amimono Sisters. Because of the combined webbing's sheer strength, the dart-like objects each got tangled into the net rather than pierced through it as one might have expected. Unfortunately, such an entanglement slowed the webbing down JUST enough for Iroppoi's crescent air blade to slam into its very center. As Iroppoi's crescent air blade exploded into fierce of gales, the net of webbing and dart-like objects were grinded together into a miniature sandstorm of poisonous grains. Before the sandstorm could manage to calm into a harmless sprinkle upon a vacant portion of the hill of debris, Prince John's needle of air slammed into it. Explosively. “That's not good at all,” “WHAT THE FU-” was all a bystander managed to say before the BOOM. What was once a miniature sandstorm of poisonous grains exploded into an enormous one. Not only was the entirty of the hill encompassed within the sandstorm, but also a large amount of the neighboring structures as well. Allied, Dokumi, Akuginu, Aharon, Thoosa, Iroppoi, Prince John, and more struggled to hold their breath as the toxic winds raged all around them. And all but two of them were too encumbered by how the winds were obscuring their vision to act any further. With the two exceptions being Allied Mundi and Thoosa. “Chuusei Kentou: Seibi: Anchoring Fist! (Neutron Boxing, Complete Equipment: Anchoring Fist!)” called Allied as he outstretched an arm towards Prince John. Like before, it wasn't long before the arm seemed to pull itself and the entirety of his body in the very direction it was outstretched towards. As Allied continued his descent towards Prince John, he reeled his outstretched arm back in preparation for a mighty punch! ”Chuusei Kentou...” “Hurhurhurha!” laughed Thoosa as she leaped towards Allied in order to intercept Allied's descent towards Prince John. Thoosa then reeled back her resized arm in preparation for a mighty punch of her own. “...Wan Hitto Nokku-auto! (Cyclops Special, One Hit Knockout!)" “...Seibi: Proton Hook! (Neutron Boxing, Complete Equipment: Proton Hook!)” finished Allied as he and Thoosa each threw a right hook towards the other's right fist. Allied's right hook was augmented by a centrifugal force which had been produced as a direct result of his perfectly proper technique. While Thoosa's right hook was augmented by the release of the full potential of the muscles within her right arm. The impact between these augmented hooks was cataclysmic. First and foremost, there was a light. Even the luminescence of the sun itself was overshone by the sheer brilliance of Allied and Thoosa's clash. And then there was a shockwave. A billow of energy which was quick to sweep everything away from Allied and Thoosa. The venomous squalls which had been blowing around them, all of the people whom had been encompassed within the aforementioned squalls alongside them, the even the very hill of debris the two of them had been fighting upon! EVERYTHING, had been tossed aside. Everything but Allied and Thoosa themselves. “This guy is strong!” thought Thoosa as the recoil of the impact separated Allied and her from each other. Both Allied and Thoosa went backflipping onto a landing atop of one of the neighboring structures. The two of them then stared each other down. Allied with wavering eyes and Thoosa with a lustful gaze. “That tears it! I want him as well! With the Prince as my beauty and him as my beast, I may finally find some contentment in life! Hurhurhurha!” “Could you please stop that?” asked Ibrahim of Arid as he walked with the elven woman giddily skipping alongside him. By this point the two of them were clear of the markets. All around them were office buildings owned by either the World Government, the Kingdom, the Dukedom, and or a corporation of some sort. Smaller businesses and freelancers were notably absent. It wasn't that they couldn't have been around. As a matter of fact, there were several buildings that looked as if they could have been affordable to such individuals. But rather, they were simply not around. As if there just weren't any small-timers in operation any more... “You're making me feel like a pedophile here,” “Yeah right,” snorted Arid as she continued to skip along Ibrahim, showing absolutely no signs of stopping anytime soon. “I look FAR older than you do,” “But you're sure as hell not acting like you are,” muttered Ibrahim underneath his breath. Unfortunately for Ibrahim, elves had VERY good hearing. “I'm not acting under my age. You're acting OVER your age,” huffed Arid with an melodramatic turn of her head. “Is that-” “Oh my SOLOMON! I, like, TOTALLY can't believe this!” heard Ibrahim while he was refuting Arid's claim. Ibrahim then came to an immediate halt, causing the skipping Arid to overstep because of her complete inability to move Ibrahim along with her. As Arid fell onto her but, Ibrahim slowly looked over his shoulder and onto the last person he ever wanted to see again in the entirety of his life. El. “No way. Just no way! This, like, can't be true. Bra-chan! It's Bra-chan! Bra-chan is here!” “Bra-chan?” snickered Arid in an uncontrollable. Ibrahim paid Arid no heed as his body instinctively begun to tremble at the very sight of El. Though his body may have been afraid, Ibrahim's mind was filled with nothing but rage. After a brief struggle with his instincts, Ibrahim forced his face into a glower. “W-w-whoa there! Are you okay?” “No. I am not,” answered Ibrahim as he pulled Arid around him so that he was standing face-to-face with El. “What do you want, El?” “Like, OMG! It's been, like, forever Bra-chan!” gasped El an instat before he ran up to Ibrahim and enveloped the Majin in a hug of all things. Immediately the Majin tensed up as much as he possibly could, unintentionally tightening his grip on Arid's hand as he did so. “Oh and LOOK AT DAT! Your ears are growing back in place,” “Yes they are,” said Ibrahim without any change of behavior. His body was still shaking and his face was still in a glower. But as El pulled away from Ibrahim, that glower begun to revert back into an expression of sheer terror now that El was back in Ibrahim's sight. “It's, like, about time you've gave them a trim again. Don't you think?” giggled El with his hands upon Ibrahim's shoulders. At that, Arid couldn't help but to butt in. “Why in the world would he do something like that?” blurted out Arid. Not so much as a second after Arid did so, she suddenly found herself on the ground with El's hands wrapped around her throat. Before Arid could even THINK of screaming, El tightened his hands around her throat with just enough force prevent any air from escaping it. El then placed his face only a few millimeters away from Arid's so that she had no choice to look into his crazed eyes. “Cause it would be just ADORABLE!” explained El in naught but a whisper. Arid couldn't even bother to be disturbed by El's explanation, because she was by far too busy with her futile struggle for even so much as a single gasp of air. “Probably not as adorable as your CORPSE is going to be. But hey, at least he'll get to live to see the cutness of-” “That's enough,” was all a nearly unconscious Arid heard before she was finally granted her wish of blessed relief from El's strangling. El confusedly blinked as he abruptly found himself being yanked away from Arid and then tossed through the air into the window of a vacant building. As El slid down the window into a drop onto the ground, he toothily grinned at the sight of Ibrahim having an arm outstretched towards him. “That's far enough, El!” “Was that some measure of resistance I just experienced?” asked El of Ibrahim whom proceeded to ignore El's very existence so that he could tend to Arid. “I'm sorry for getting you involved in all of this,” apologized Ibrahim in a murmur as he tried to place a 100,000 File:Bsymbol.gif into Arid's hands. Much to Ibrahim's surprise, Arid quickly clenched her fist as tightly close as she could get it. Just so that Ibrahim couldn't place the money into her hand. Arid then shook her head as a sign of discontent. “Arid, why?” “Didn't I tell you?” wheezed Arid with a giggled as she rubbed at a bruise on her throat. “ I'm not a hooker. So you can't pay me to go away,” “Is that so?” chuckled Ibrahim as he stood to his feeet and looked over his shoulder at a now-standing El. “Well this is about to get rough. For me that is. So you probably wont be getting another chance to accept this money. Sure you want to decline it?” “Absolutely!” grunted Arid as she withdrew her rapier from its scabbard and then used its foil to push herself onto her feet. “Keep all 100,000 of your beli. But in exchange, keep me around as well! I've long grown tried of being just another rat on the street! I want to be someone. Someone of worth. Come on, give me a position! You have that kind of power right?” “You're tired of being just another rat on the street, so you've decided to become just another corpse in the ground?” mockingly asked El in an honest tone of voice. “That's, like, SO lame. I think you would have been better off where you were before,” “Shut up you stupid, poopoo head!” spat Arid right before she showed El her tongue. “I think I'd rather pay you the 100,000,” “You shut up to!” “What did you just call me?” asked El of Arid at a strangely low volume. Arid and Ibrahim questioningly raised an eyebrow in unison with each other as El lowered his head in what appeared to be shame? Then, without warning, El's head suddenly caught aflame with a spectrally purple blaze. El then looked up at Arid and Ibrahim with a perfectly crescent smile on his face. “So, I'm a poopoo head? Is that how it is? Well then, that's fine. That's just grand and dandy!” “Is he seriously angry about being called such a thing?” asked Arid in complete and utter disbelif at the effectiveness of her insult. Which even she didn't think was going to get to El's head. “You have got to be kidding me,” “Mousho Mousho no...” begun El as the blaze engulfing his head begun to intensify, producing a wave of extreme heat which proceeded to wash over Arid and Ibrahim like a tsunami. It wasn't long before Arid and Ibrahim were both stickily drenched from their own sweat. And soon after that, Arid was quickly forced to drop her rapier in order to avoid having her hands burned by the heat the rapier was conducting from El's heat emissions. “On second thought, maybe we should run!” considered Arid out loud as the blaze engulfing El's head suddenly became opaque in a manner that only allowed El's eyes and his perfectly crescent smile to be seen through it. “Really, REALLY soon!” “That was my FIRST thought!” responded before he turned tail and burst into a sprint, taking hold of Arid's hand so that he could drag her behind him. “...Dabiken! (Fierce Heat Fierce Heat Cremation Fist!)” crazily laughed El as he punched towards Arid and Ibrahim in the midst of their retreat, discharging a fist-shaped conflagration from the punch as he did so. Said conflagration scorched the cobblestone streets ashen and completely incinerated all of the buildings in its path towards Arid and Ibrahim. Much to Arid and Ibrahim's combine horror, it wasn't long at before the conflagration begun to catch up to them. But just when it seemed like the conflagration was about to fierily sweep over them, a giant of a man dropped right in-between them and the conflagration. The man then wasted no time in outstretching his arms so that the conflagration would impact against him rather than sweep over him. As the conflagration slammed into the man with a towering explosion, Arid and Ibrahim couldn't help but to allow their mouths to draw into a gape. However, it should be noted that Arid and Ibrahim were not gaping from horror. By rather from amazement. For the man standing within the rising explosion wasn't burning to a crisp. His clothing surely was. But the man himself was remaining surprisingly unharmed... “That's no good sir, you know?” garbled the man in the deep voice of a true man as the explosion he was encompassed within begun to die down into sizable flame. With a huff and a puff, the man snuffed out the entirety of the flame in a single blow. And as a result of the man doing so, it could now be seen that the man was currently standing within a very large pile of ash. Where all of the ash had come from, neither Arid nor Ibrahim could tell. But from the knowing smile on the man's face, Arid and Ibrahim could tell that the man himself knew exactly where all of that ash had come from. “Vandalism is prohibited, you know?” “What about his attempted murder?” cried out Arid and Ibrahim, outraged by the fact that the man dared to simply skip over that. “Presbyterian Justice doesn't include prosecution for crimes that technically weren't committed, you know?” explained the man in another garble, eliciting a sweatdrop from Arid and Ibrahim as their only response to his explanation. The man then took the time to turn his full attention towards El. “I have business with this man. So if you would excuse us...” “Like, whatever makes you think that I, like, care at all about your business?” asked El of the man. “Because of my business, I will protect this man. And I don't think you can defeat me before my boys inform the Marines about what is taking place here, you know? I think it'd be terribly inconvenient for one such as yourself to have a bounty, you know?” “Tch,” literally spat El with an angry stamp of his foot. El then looked Ibrahim in the eyes as he said his parting words. “Bra-chan, don't you be forgetting to trim em up!” “T-t-thank you,” sighed Ibrahim in relief as El merrily skipped away from the scene of various crimes. “Thank you very much. I-I-I really can't thank you enough,” “Don't mention it, you know?” garbled the man with a bit of gurgly laughter mixed into it. The man looked over his shoulder at Arid and Ibrahim. He then gave the two of them a thumbs way. “It's the least I can do for what you're about to do for me, you know?” “Of course...” snorted a severely disappointed Arid. “...there is a catch. There is ALWAYS a catch,” “Not so much as a catch as it is a request. One I would have asked of you anyway,” garbled the man as he offered his hand to Arid. “The name is Powers. Central Powers. And you?” “Arid,” answered Arid as she took Central's hand and shook it. As soon as Arid let go of his hand, Central offered it to Ibrahim next. “Zacchaeus Ibrahim,” stated Ibrahim as he shook Central's hand. “Zacchaeus Ibrahim,” parroted Central in a garble as Ibrahim and he broke their hand shake. “Than it's just as I thought, you know? You're the S-Class Tax Collector the World Government has sent to audit the dukedom,” “Does that mean you're the good Duke Powers himself?” questioned Ibrahim in a prolonged groan of frustration. “PLEASE don't tell you're looking to get some kind of tax exemption for this duchy. Because I-” “Trouble yourself not my friend,” garbly chuckled Central as he turned to walk away, gesturing for Arid and Ibrahim to follow after him as he did so. “For I have no such request in mind. Not that I think one as practiced as yourself would surrender in the face of an obstacle as weak as guilt, you know?” “For the sake of my family, I MUST uphold my obligation to the World Government. So I just can't do things like that,” murmured Ibrahim more to himself than to Central. “As I've said, I have no such request in mind. So you should be at peace, you know?” reaffirmed Central as he lead Arid and Ibrahim to the door of a most elaborate-looking building. A building that looked as if it belonged to some kind of noble. “We should go inside, you know? It's would be best for us to have this discussion in private, you know?” “Yes! We know! So stop asking if we do!” screamed an irritated Arid as she angrily threw her arms into the air at Central's repetition. “Stop complaining,” snorted Ibrahim as Central opened the door to the building and the three of them walked inside. “THAT DOES IT!” roared an infuriated Akuginu Amimono as she rose out of one of the many smaller piles of debris that had been created by the destruction of the debris hill. Following Akuginu's rise was the rise of Dokumi. Whom looked just as pissed as Akuginu, but wasn't anywhere near as vocal about it. “ALL OF YOU DIE NOW! EVERY, SINGLE, LAST ONE OF YOU!” “Amimono Kenpo...” begun Dokumi, quietly and to herself, as she commenced to twirl a dagger in each of her hands. “Th-Th-Thoosa!” shouted Prince John in-between coughs as he pushed himself out of a pile of debris as well, heavily breathing for the air he had denied himself while the poison had been dancing about the air. “Thoosa! Are you alright? Thoosa!” “Mari-n Panku..." wheezed Aharon as he pulled himself out of being firmly embedded within a brick wall. As Aharon did so, a dart-like object protruded from the palm of each of his hands. Afterward, Aharon wasted no time in leaping into the air and then taking aim at the raging Akuginu. “....nobody will die today. Not on my watch. Mari-n Panku, Kuutaichimisairu! (Marine Punk, Air-To-Surface Missiles!)” “...Madanaifunage! (Webbing Kenpo, Magic Bullet Knife Throwing!)” finished Dokumi as the dart-like objects erupted from the palms of Aharon's hands. The dart-like objects then started what would have been a short journey towards Akuginu if Dokumi's knives hadn't seemingly flown straight from Dokumi's hands and intercepted them in mid-flight. While the dart-like objects may have dropped to the ground as a result of their impact with the knives, the knives simply continued to remain aloft before one of them eventually proceeded to speed straight towards Aharon. “What in the-” was all Aharon managed to say before he was forced to quickly lunge to his left in order to avoid being impaled by the knife that had been speeding towards him. Much to Aharon's surprise and displeasure, the knife impacted against the wall behind him with more than enough force to induce the entirety of the wall into exploding. The explosion threw Aharon into a hurtle through the air where he was soon met by a pissed off Akuginu. “Well...this is going to suck!” “Amimono Kenpo, Bokushingu Guro-vu! (Webbing Kenpo, Boxing Glove!)” seethed Akuginu an instant before she spewed a layer of silk over the entirety of her right hand. Akuginu then clenched her right hand into a fist before she used it to corkscrew punch Aharon in his right shoulder. “Satsugaite, Rasen-tsuki! (Killing Hand, Spiral Punch!) “GRAUGHAAA!” screamed Aharon as the blood vessels, bones, and muscles within his right arm were twisted out of place by Akuginu's punch. As Aharon was dropped by Akuginu's punch, he would soon be horrified by the sight of the second of Dokumi's knives. Ascending straight towards him. “This is going to suck even worse!” “I doubt that,” grunted Iroppoi as she performed geppou as a means of flying into a lash of a kick which easily knocked the second of Dokumi's knives away from Aharon. The second of Dokumi's knives would then go flying into the very building Thoosa was standing upon. Toppling the building as a direct result of its impact with it. “Jakkuhoippu! (Jackwhip!)” “H-h-huh?” stammered the lovestruck Thoosa as the building she was standing on suddenly begun to crumble beneath her feet. Having been caught off her guard, Thoosa was in no position to do anything but fall. “Wah!” “Thoosa!” anxiously screamed Prince John, having finally caught sight of Thoosa as a result of Thoosa crying out from the shock of her sudden descent. As Prince John burst into a sprint towards the crumbling building, Allied Mundi decided that it was as good of a time as any to be opportunistic. The failure of a mugger swiftly leaped into being some distance above the falling Thoosa and then raised his right hand into the air in preparation for a finishing blow. “No! You stay the hell away from her! Purinsu Cha-mingu no Ribon! (Prince Charming's Ribbon!)” “Chuusei Kentou, Juuki: Metal Guard! (Neutron Boxing, Heavy Weight Equipment: Metal Guard!) snorted Allied as Prince John thrust a spiraling blade of air towards him. The air blade spiraled around Allied just so that it coulde implode onto him from all directions. To Prince John's extreme frustration, the implosion inflicted little - if any - harm upon Allied. Allied then wasted no time in outstretching his arm in Thoosa's direction. “Chuusei Kentou: Seibi: Anchoring Fist! (Neutron Boxing, Complete Equipment: Anchoring Fist!)” “NO!” literally cried Prince John as Allied kicked upon the air behind him in order to rocket himself towards Thoosa fist-first. Thoosa grimaced at the sight of the incoming Allied and then desperately attempted to spew the brightest flame she could muster into Allied's face. When she only managed to burp out a mere spark, Thoosa internally facepalmed for forgetting about her earlier usage. Fire-breathing wasn't at all Thoosa's thing. So she never put herself through very much endurance training for it. Right then and there, Thoosa swore to become a better fire-breathing. Or at the very least a more enduring one... “THOOSA!” “You have my gratitude, Iroppoi!” thanked Aharon an instant before he outstretched his remaining, functional arm towards Allied's path of descent. Aharon then grunted as the hand of the aforementioned arm suddenly gained both a blue complexion and absurdly lengthy fingers. Dart-like objects protruded from the tips of each of those fingers only an instant before they erupted into a short flight towards Allied Mundi. “Like I said, I'm not going to let ANYONE die today! Mari-n Panku, Kuutaikuumisairu! (Marine Punk, Air-to-Air Missiles!)” “Hmm?” uttered Allied as he heard Aharon's repeated declaration. Against his better judgement, Allied looked awat from Thoosa and towards Aharon. Allied had planned on turning his attention back towards Thoosa as soon as he'd seen what was up. But the sight of the incoming dart-like objects was more than frightening enough to make Allied throw that plan right out of the highest window of the tallest skyscraper. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAA...” “Tch,” snorted Dokumi as she used her teeth to disconnect each of her hands from a set of web that had been connected to one of her daggers. Dokumi then conjured a layer of webbing over her skin as she leaped into the aerial fray. “Amimono Kenpo, Dokuhifu! (Webbing Kenpo, Poison Skin!)” “Think you can handle the rough one?” asked Iroppoi of Aharon as she took a hold of the collar of Aharon's shirt and then kicked upon the air as a means of launching the two of them back up towards where Akuginu was somehow floating. “Geppou! (Moonwalk!)” “Without a shadow of a doubt!” answered Aharon as he willed his left hand into transforming even further, causing the fingers of that hand to extend to half the length of his own height and become flexible enough to be mistaken for being elastic. Aharon then balled his transformed hand into a fist that was around the size of his very own torso! “Mari-n Panku, Kikaimari! (Marine Punk, Wrecking Ball!)” “This time you're dead!” maniacally laughed Akuginu at Iroppoi and Aharon's approach. After a nod from Aharon, Iroppoi slung Aharon towards Akuginu at record speed. Akuginu grinned at Aharon's rapid ascent before she threw yet another corkscrew punch at the Petty Officer. “Satsugaite, Shukketsushi-tsuki! (Killing Hand, Bleeding to Death Punch!)” “And while he deals with that...” begun Iroppoi as she used her hips to spin in midair and from there throw a roundhouse kick in Dokumi's direction. Following Iroppoi's roundhouse kick, the air was compressed into a crescent blade which soared straight towards the approaching Dokumi. “...Rankyaku! (Storm Leg!)” “...AAAH!” the terrified Allied continued to scream as loudly as he could as Thoosa's back came within inchest of the ground, his fist came within inches of Thoosa's fist, and the dart-like objects came within inches of just about his entire body.. “First thing's first, you know? My name may be Central Powers, but I am not Duke Powers,” garbled Central from the confines of an incredibly comfortable armchair. While Ibrahim was listening to Central garble from an armchair of his own, Arid was darting about the place in awe of just about everything in sight. The very concept of an ornament was completely new to Arid. Thus, to Arid, all of the all of the grandfather clocks, paintings, rugs, stained glass, and more were each amazing in their own right. Far more amazing than what Central seemed to have to say. And thus far more worthy of her time. “I'm actually just Captain Powers, you know? As in, the Captain of the Forbsvillean Guard. The Duke Powers you've most likely been looking to meet is none other than my younger brother, you know?” “Younger brother?” questioned Ibrahim. In the background, Arid leaned back and forward in unison with the sway of a grandfather clocks's pendulum. “I vividly remember being told that the heir apparents of this duchy were always the eldest child. Never was I told that the eldest child could lose their inheritance to a younger sibling,” “You were told the truth, you know?” sighed Central rather than garble as he usually did. As he did so, Arid patiently waited for a chance to capture the bird that had been sprung out by a cuckoo clock only moments before. “As the eldest, I was indeed the heir apparent to the title of Duke. But I had far more interest in combat than I ever did in sovereignty, you know? So I abdicated my right to dukeship to my younger brother, Entente Powers. But that was a mistake, you know?” “A mistake you say?” chuckled Ibrahim as Arid was distracted from her nerfarious plot by her reflection on the surface of a porcelain ducky. “Do you long for the return of your birthright?” “Not at all. I have no interest in governing others, you know? But I do have an interest in the well-being of this duchy. Which, unfortunately, isn't an interest shared by my brother. Not even in the least bit, you know?” garbled Central with a sour expression. “The fool only cares about filling his pockets with beli. He's even gone so far as to downsize the Forbsvillean Guard of all things. I no longer have the manpower needed to protect Forbsville in its entirety. Who knows what kind of shenanigans the pirates are up to in this town,” “I'm sure the town's FINE,” commented Arid while she was offering a scrap of pastry to a piggy bank, assuming that the entity was a living thing rather than a mere depiction. “Here piggy, piggy, piggy! Here's some tasy pastry,” “As much as I enjoy a history lesson, I'm going to have to ask you to get to the point already. What does any of this have to do with me and my duties?” said Ibrahim rather bluntly while trying as hard as he could to not snicker at Arid's antics. “You've been ordered to come to this place so that you could investigate the possibility of tax non-compliance, right?” asked Central as he flicked a bullet of air into the piggy bank, causing the piggy bank to explode into a myriad of coins. Arid shrieked at the explosion, but it wasn't long before her fear was completely overtaken by the awe induced by the presence of so many coins. “You mean to tell me that piggies have beli for-” “No! It was a fake! Get over it!” abruptly screamed Ibrahim at Arid out of the fear that Arid would have begun to slaughter random pigs for beli if he hadn't done so. As Arid took on an expression of Santa-Isn't-Real-level disappointment, Ibrahim turned his attention back to Central. “That is correct. The residents of this town should be making a killing from the trade of the medicinal herbs produced by the many farms on the town's outskirts, yet the recent taxes we've intook from this town do not reflect the existence of such a profit any more. The World firmly believes that Forbsville has been skipping out on it, and I have been dispatched to see whether or not there is any merit to this belief,” “If only it was as simply as that,” sighed Central. In response to Central's disuse of his trademark garble, even Arid finally started to pay attention to what Central was saying. “This town would be far better off being subject to embezzlement than what it's being subjected to at the moment, you know?” “So you're saying that the duchy isn't appropriating funds from the citizenry's taxes?” “That's exactly what I am saying, you know? The problem isn't embezzlement, it's piracy!” “I think I'm starting to understand,” chuckled Ibrahim with a nod of his head. “In hopes of keeping more of the treasury for himself, your brother downsized the Forbsvillean Guard. And because of that, the duchy is no longer capable of defending its assets from pirates and the like. And it's the loss of those assets that have brought down your profit and thus the amount of taxes you pay. Embezzlement isn't the issue. The issue is a security crisis that has gone unreported for rather obvious reasons,” “Close but no cigar, you know?” garbled Central much to Ibrahim's displeasure. “The Forbsvillean Guard's duty is simply to defend Forbsville. Patrol of the duchy in general is the duty of a detachment of the Royal Guard. And those guys haven't been downsized in centuries, you know? The issue isn't a security crisis. Or at the very least, it isn't a security crisis yet. The issue is bribery, you know?” “You have got to be kidding me!” groaned Arid with a facepalm to Ibrahim's face rather than her own. Needless to say, Ibrahim was not amused. “When in the world did pirates start to travel in bandwagons instead of ships? I was bribing Royal Guards before it was cool!” “The one responsible for my problem is a man named Axis Mundi,” restarted Central in a garble as you've surely guessed by this point in the story, showing a picture of Axis Mundi to Arid and Ibrahim as he did so. “While the one responsible for your issue is a man named Allied Mundi,” “The Mundi Brothers,” groaned Ibrahim while he was tugging on the both of Arid's cheeks as due recompense for the facepalm. “Both of them have a personal bounty of 56,000,000 File:Bsymbol.gif, giving them a combined bounty of 112,000,000 File:Bsymbol.gif!” “Indeed. The Mundi Brothers. Axis Mundi has been raiding farms for about three years now. Strangely, he doesn't steal any beli or personal belongings. Nor does he take any captives. The brat only takes the most recent harvest of medicinal herbs, yet there is no evidence of him participating in any sort of black market. It's as if he is jut trying to sabotage us rather than make any sort of profit, you know?” garbled Central with a few shakes of his head. “In the meantime, Allied Mundi has been robbing anyone and anything he can. Been amassing ridiculously enormous amounts of wealth just so that he can hand it to my brother as a bribe. He tributes to the “Good” Duke every month in order to protect Axis Mundi from the repercussions of his raids, you know? Though now that I think about it, the kid didn't tribute this month. Or at the very least, he hasn't tributed yet,” “And now I do get it,” laughed Ibrahim once more as he released Arid's cheeks. Only to have his own cheeks yanked upon by Arid as the next portion of their cycle of playful vengeance. “Embezzlement isn't your problem, but it is what you want me to charge the duke with. With an embezzlement charge on his doorsteps, Duke Powers' only choices would be to either suffer imprisonment or report the actions of Axis Mundi to the World Government. If Duke Powers is taken to prison, you'll return to being the Duke and thus have the power to order the duchy's detachment of the Royal Guard to take action against Axis Mundi. And if Duke Powers reports Axis Mundi to the World Government, the Marines will take action against Axis Mundi. One way or the other, Axis Mundi goes down and peace will return to this duchy once again, you know?” “Yeah. I know. I know. You've got it all figured out now. World Government sure as hell chose a smart one to send my way,” laughed Central...in a garble of course. Kishishi... “So, what do you say? Would you mind doing this old man such a favor? Tax Collector!” “I wouldn't mind at all, Captain!” laughed Ibrahim in turn as Central and him stood up from their chairs and shook hands on it. “As a matter of fact, I'm kind of looking forward to it. It's not every day that a tax collector gets to save the day!” “Ooph!” grunted Thoosa as she crashed into the rubble of the building she had once been standing atop of. It looked as if her crash was going to be followed by a punch from Allied Mundi, but the failure of a mugger up and vanished into thin air only a few seconds before his fist would have collided against Thoosa’s face. Not longer after, a large number of dart-like objects soared over Thoosa’s face. Each of them having been only just a few inches away from coming into contact with Thoosa themselves. “Well that was conven-” “THOOSA!” heard Thoosa only a moment before Prince John threw himself upon her chest and pulled her into a tight hug. At first Thoosa could only blink at the sheer abruptness of the Prince's glomp, but it wasn't long before Thoosa was warmly hugging the weeping Prince back. “I thought I was going to lose you too!” “Come on now. Give me some credit. I'm not so weak as to be taken out by a single punch. No matter how strong it may be,” chuckled Thoosa as she ruffled Prince John's hair in an attempt to soothe the Prince. “I should have protected you,” sniffled the Prince as he lifted himself from Thoosa's chest and looked straight into Thoosa's eyes. “I-I-I will protect you! I'll protect you, Thoosa! I promise that I will!” “Nah,” snorted Thoosa as she took Prince John's hands into her own so that the both of them would stand to their feet in unison with one another. “To protect someone, is to keep them away from the dangers of life. And I'm just not the kind of floozy that can just sit on the sidelines while someone she cares about is in danger. So want nothing to do with this being protected business; however, I could surely use a partner! Someone who will fight by my side. In sickness or health. In poverty or wealth. So, my Prince. Do you want to be my partner, till death do us part?" “Thoosa,” happily laughed Prince John as he readied himself to say the two most important words he'll ever say. “I d-” “WAAAH!” heard Prince John an instant before Akuginu Amimono crashed into the debris right next to him with enough force to be bounced back into the air. Akuginu would then hurtle for some time before inevitably crashing into a lengthy skid THROUGH a cobblestone street. Much to Prince John and Thoosa's astonishment, Akuginu immediately stood up as if nothing had happened to her at all. As a matter of fact, it looked as if Akuginu's descent had only managed to induce anger rather than inflict harm. “THAT TEARS IT! THE MARINE BOY DIES! RIGHT HERE! RIGHT NOW!” “Trolololololololololol,” laughed Aharon as he started to land right next to Prince John with his “wrecking ball” still in place. However, before even the both of Aharon's feet could touch upon the ground, an individual flashed into Thoosa and Prince John's view. The individual was much too fast to be seen as anything other than a silhouette. A silhouette which slammed a full-fledge haymaker into Aharon's stomach before it simply vanished into thin air. Aharon retched as his rear foot touched upon the ground. He then stumbled around for a bit before inevitably falling face-first into the ground, unmistakably unconscious. Leaving a spooked Prince John and Thoosa in the wake of his sudden defeat. “You're one of them too, right?” heard Prince John and Thoosa in the direction of Akuginu. As the both of them turned towards Akuginu, Prince John and Thoosa were both surprised to see a man striding towards Akuginu. A man neither of them had seen till now. Said man had spiky, black hair which was all slicked back with the sole exception of a singel strand that hung over his face. His eyes were as luminescently yellow as the finest of gold bars and he was firmly clad in an elaborate suit of black armor. “One of those who were fighting with my brother,” “Shut up and get out of my way!” demanded Akuginu of the man as she threw a corkscrew punch at the man's heart itself! “Satsugaite, Shinfuzen-tsuki! (Killing Hand, Heart Failure Punch!)” “That was foolish of you,” scolded the man as he effortlessly caught Akuginu's punch within the palm of his hand and then squeezed with enough force to completely rip apart the silk Akuginu had gloved it in. As Akuginu staggered back from the shock of having been so thoroughly trumped, the man suddenly dropped as low as the ground itself only to just as suddenly rise into an uppercut. Said uppercut struck Akuginu right in the jaw and as a result Akuginu was launched into the air where she would hurtle far out of sight before eventually crashing through the window of a building. “Chuusei Kentou: Rising Star! (Neutron Boxing, Rising Star!)” “B-b-but those guys were strong,” stammered Prince John as the man turned away from the direct he'd sent Akuginu flying and towards Prince John and Thoosa. He then grinned at Prince John and Thoosa in a manner that displayed far more predatory lust than even Thoosa herself could muster. “H-h-how could they...how could they go down so quickly?” “Last two,” said the man an instant before Prince John and Thoosa could hear a pair of crashes take place. Prince John looked to the right and gawked at the sight of an unconscious Dokumi lying within a crater and Thoosa looked left to see that Iroppoi was in an identical position. Prince John and Thoosa then looked back at the man whose grin had considerably widened while they had been looking away. “R-r-run Thoosa!” stammered a visibly trembling Prince John as he quickly repositioned himself in-between Thoosa and the man. Much to Prince John's absolute horror, the man somehow managed to grin even wider after Prince John did so. Nevertheless, Prince John had no intention of hacking down. He had no intention of simply allowing things to be taken from him once again. No this time around. Not ever again! “Run as fast and as far as you ca-” “Baka,” snorted Thoosa, playfully chopping Prince John in the head as she did so. Thoosa then walked up to Prince John's right side before she raised her fists in preparation for combat. “I don't need your protection. I need your partnership!” “R-r-right,” said Prince John with a nod and a smile. A genuine smile which presence was a complete mystery to him. Though if he had to guess, Prince John would say that it was love. “Let's take him on then. Together,” “No!” heard Prince John and Thoosa as Allied Mundi dropped in front of the both of them with his arms outstretched. Prince John and Thoosa couldn't help but to be a little confused by the sight of their former enemy trying to protect them of all things. “Stop it right now, AXIS!” “I shall return to my vessel and use the Den Den Mushi I brought along with me to deliver my report,” said Ibrahim as Arid, Central, and he were moving to leave the building. “If something has happened to that Mushi, which a certain someone better hope isn't the case, I will simply have to resort to using one at a local inn or hotel,” “Sounds good,” garbled Central as he opened the door just in time to have a chubby man fall into his hands. An terribly injured, chubby man dressed in a white uniform of sorts. “But this sure doesn't look good thought. This doesn't look good at all,” “Onii-tama,” drooled the chubby man onto Central. Blood that is. The man was drooling blood, for his mouth was one of the many places from which an absurd amount of blood was leaking. “Help me, Onii-tama!” “Aren't you a little...” begun Arid with a grimace as Central pushed the chubby man of of him and into a stand. “...OLD to be using -tama?” “Entente has always been like this,” garbled Central with a shake of his head. “THAT'S ENTENTE POWERS?” screamed Arid in complete disbelief. “THAT IS DUKE POWERS?” “Afriad so,” garbled Central as he pulled Entente indoors and quickly sat Entente down in an armchair. “Brother, what have you done to yourself this time?” “He was strong. Too strong,” wheezed Entente in-between sobs that were completely and utterly failing to induce any amount of pity within anyone in the room. “All of the Royal Guards were defeated after only a few seconds of engagement. Please Central! You're my only hope!” “Please do not tell me you just tried to double-cross a pirate,” scowled Ibrahim at Entente, prompting Entente to spit blood upon Ibrahim's face. “Impudent commoner, do not presume that you are worthy of speaking to me just because I am in this admittedly sorry state!” snarled Entente at Ibrahim. At that very moment, Ibrahim decided that Entente was going to lose his dukeship. Ibrahim wasn't sure how he was going to make it happen, but Ibrahim KNEW that it was going to happen. One way or another. “I am Duke Powers. DUKE Powers. Know your-” “Shut up about that and explain yourself!” demanded Central of Entente. “Entente....were you really stupid enough to renege on your deal?” “W-w-what deal?” stammered Entente much to everyone's displeasure. “I have no idea what-” “There will be no games,” stated Ibrahim. Not ask. Not demanded. Stated. As a simple fact of the matter. A fact that was NOT up for debate. And as Ibrahim did so, he removed a flintlock pistol from his person and pressed its barrel up against Entente's crotch of all things. Just daring Entente to give him a good reason to avenge himself on the spot. “Speak. Now!” “N-n-no! Please don't-” “I said speak. Not cry,” warned Ibrahim as he manually cocked the flint on his pistol. “So what are you waiting for? Speak!” “A-A-Allied! Allied Mundi missed his deadline! S-s-so I amassed the Forbesvillean Detachment of the Royal Guard and marched out to capture him. But I round up running into his brother, Axis Mundi, instead. Thinking that I could use him as leverage against Allied, I decided to capture him. That way I could make Allied collect even more of the duchy's wealth for myself. But after some things were said, that Axis boy suddenly went berserk! He defeated all of the Royal Guards. And then he even had the nerve to beat ME to the very brink of MY life, leaving ME for dead after he finished doing so!” “So you drove him over the edge while monologuing did you?” groaned Ibrahim as he facepalmed Entente for being so stupid. “How classically cliche,” “I never thought that Axis Mundi could be strong enough to do such a thing,” garbled a troubled Central with plenty of shakes of his head. “It would appear that I have SEVERELY underestimated the boy,” “Aha!” laughed Arid with a finger pointed at Entente. Entente tried to bite Arid's finger out of spite, but the elven woman managed to pull her finger away in time to prevent Entente from doing so. “You got your just desserts! And now Axis is probably going to destroy everything you love in retaliation for you coercing his brother into doing your dirty work! Hahahahahaa! This is just fantastically karmatic! If it wasn't for the maniac almost strangling me to death, today would have been the most awesome day ever!” “You laugh weird,” pointed out Ibrahim, receiving nods of agreement from Central and Entente after he did so. “And you seem to be forgetting that Entente probably loves the city from which he gets the most taxes. As in, the city we're in NOW. So you better hope what you've said isn't-” Cue the sound Akuginu's crash. “Gosh dang it!” screamed Ibrahim in frustration, throwing his hands into the air as he did so. “Gosh dang you Arid. You're a freaking jinx! First El and now it's probably Axis Mundi!” “Shut up! No I'm not!” vehemently denied Arid with a stamp of her foot. “As a matter of fact, the jinx is probably you!” “Doesn't matter. We need to investigate. Well, I need to investigate. The two of you can hang back if you'd like,” garbled Central as he turned to leave. “Not a chance. This situation is apart of my job now. And I never leave a job unfinished,” declared Ibrahim as he followed after Central. “Well, you heard my boss. We're coming along,” giggled Arid as she skipped behind Ibrahim. Ibrahim was tempted to deny being her boss, but in the end he chose not to. For you see, most people hated Ibrahim. But for once, just this once, there were people who didn't hate him. Arid may be a woman-child and Central may be heading out of the frying pan into the fire, but Ibrahim very much enjoyed their mere presence. Thus he was not going to drive Arid away. Nor was he going to leave Central hanging. But rather he would keep them by his side. Not just because they were the only ones that wanted to be there. But also because they were the only ones he wanted to be there. They were not bodyguards or assistants. They were his friends! “Yeah,” whispered Ibrahim to himself and himself alone as he stepped outside, ignoring complaints and pleas from Entente Powers as he did so. “You heard the boss!” “Stop it right now, AXIS!” demanded Allied of Axis while he was standing with his arms held up in defense of Prince John and Thoosa. The cyclops and prince duo simultaneously tilted their heads in confusion as Allied did so. “Please! You can't fight here. If you do-” “Your contract with the Good Duke will be null-and-void,” finished Axis for Allied, prompting Allied to gape in surpirse. Axis then started to angrily grind his teeth together and shed tears of sorrowful rage before he continued. “You want me to stop so that you can keep on protecting me from behind my back? You want me to resume my work while my little brother spends every day of his life fighting to keep the heat off of me? You want me to be a scumbag who chases his dreams at the cost of his baby brother's dreams! Is that what you're asking of me? Is that what you want me to do? Allied!” “How did you-” “I went to that personal hideout you begged me to let you have. The one you claimed to be for meeting with the boyfriend whose very existence I have now come to doubt! Using my homophobia as a cover for your shenanigans, smart but low Allied! Very, very low!” Axis begun to explain in-between sniffs, surprising Allied with every word that came out of his mouth. “I decided I wanted to meet the man whom was dating my brother. Even if I found the very idea of it a bit nauseating, I still wanted to accept the person whom accepted my brother for THREE WHOLE YEARS. But do you know what I found when I got there?” “The FDRG lying in ambush,” sighed Allied as he resigned himself to the fact the cat was no longer in the bag. “Entente Powers...you impatient fool!” “That's right. The Forbesvillean Detachment of the Royal Guard!” confirmed Axis with a shiver. “I would have been less worried if it had been the freaking Marines man! At least the Marines bother to capture people. The FDRG operate as judge, jury, and executioner. The just up and kill people on the spot! I-I thought you were dead,” “What's going-” started Thoosa an instant before Prince John covered her mouth with his hand. “Shh!” hushed Prince John before he turned his attention back to the Mundi Brothers. “I'm watching the drama unfold,” “I've never known despair until that hour! That hour where I thought you were dead. Taken from this world far before your time. I was more than ready to just let the FDRG kill me so that I could follow after you, but then the Good Duke's blabbering let me know two things. The first was that you were alive, thank Gan Fall for that! The second was that I had been deceived and you enslaved!” “I was not a slave!” snarled Allied at his older brother, catching Axis completely off guard with his vehemence. “I was not a slave, Axis! I CHOSE to do this. Duke Powers didn't come to me. I came to him! I made the offering. I set the terms. I even upped the ante every now and then to compensate for your increase in activity. None of this has been shoved on me. As a matter of fact, I shoved it on the Good Duke. I even went so far as to threaten to kill him if he didn't take it,” “But why Allied?” growled Axis with confused shakes of his head. “Why did you do it? Why did you put yourself through this? There was no need. I'm strong! Stronger than you for Gan Fall's sake! And you know that. If you were confident in the fact that you could avoid capture and or execution for these three years, surely you must have been more confident in the fact that I could have done the same! So why did you cover for me when I can take care of myself!” “BECAUSE YOU CAN'T TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!” screamed Allied with a stamp which shook the ground enough to topple a nearby structure. Allied then accusatively pointed a finger at Axis. “Stop kidding yourself, Axis! If you want me to come clean, you need to come clean yourself! With yourself! You can't protect yourself. You never could, you will never be able to do so. You're too SOFT!” “S-s-soft?” stuttered a surprised Axis at Allied's accusation. “H-h-how am I soft? You're the one who-” “No!” interrupted Allied with a wave of his arm. “It's you! Not me! You're soft! TOO soft! You're the one who comes out of hiding to be a Good Samaritan. You're the one who knowingly takes on stowaways like the Good Duke takes on pounds! You're the one who cries yourself to sleep every time you kill someone. And you're the one who has spent THREE YEARS on this Gan Fall-forsaken island collecting leaves in a flat-out RETARDED attempt to cure everyone in the West Blue of the disease that destroyed our village. It's been TEN YEARS brother! GET OVER IT!” “Allied,” whimpered Axis with a crestfallen expression on his face. “I-I-I don't understand. Sure those things may be true, but what do they have to do with-” “That's right! You don't understand,” interrupted Allied once again. “Well let me help you understand. I'm not protecting you from other people. I'm protecting other people from you! I'm keeping them from making the mistake of crossing you, so you don't feel bad about kicking their ass!” “He didn't look like he was feeling bad about it to me...” grumbled Thoosa as she looked around at the fallen forms of Aharon, Dokumi, and Iroppoi. Though Thoosa could have used her Cyclopsian vision to take a look at Akuginu as well, she didn't do so because she didn't feel like exerting herself any further. “...but then again they had been involved in a fight against his beloved brother. So that might be-” “Shh!” “And I wanted you to succeed brother. I wanted you to fulfill your dream. But that dream was impossible for you - a man with a bounty of 56,000,000 File:Bsymbol.gif - to complete. So I made you a man without a bounty, so that you could make your dream come true. So that you would stop feeling so guilty about having infected our village with the Lunar. You were an asymptomatic carrier. You couldn't had known. The only ones who are responsible for anything, are the farmers you've been stealing from. The farmers who were cruel enough to up the price of their previously useless herb once they realized there was a need for it. The farmers who allowed hundreds of villages like our own to go extinct for nothing but the sake of making a profit!” finished Allied with a deep sigh. And then there was silence. Voiceless and noiseless silence. And the silence reigned surpreme for the longest time. Until... “Allied and Axis Mundi,” called Central as he led the entirety of the 100-man force of pikers that was the Forbesvillean Guard into surrounding Allied, Axis, Prince John, and Thoosa. To Central's left was the perky Arid and to Central's right was the stoic Ibrahim. The three of them were standing within the circle of guardsman just like Allied, Axis, Prince John, and Thoosa were. “The Forbesvillean Guard hereby places you under arrest for bribery, conspiracy, and piracy! You know?” "Wait a minute, do you really expect me to believe that this place even has guards?" asked Prince John with a single droplet of sweat trickling down the side of his head. "After all of the crap we've managed to pull so far without any kind of interference from any sort of authority, you expect me to believe that such an authority exists at all? Get real!" "Thanks for letting us know of your involvement in this mess," said Ibrahim rather dryly, prompting a facepalm from Prince John as he did so. "That admission to guilt is going to be really useful in the courtroom," "I just had to go and open my big mouth, didn't I?" grumbled Prince John under his breath. "Well, when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter. I very much doubt that my father would have allowed me to remain unwanted for very long, so this is naught but an earlier than necessary occurrence of the inevitable. Rather than some kind of worst case scenario," "Fudge the police!" enthusiastically hollered Thoosa with her hands placed around her mouth as an ineffective means of projecting her voice over a long distance. "The people shouldn't be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of its people!" "Stop trying to instigate a random uprising!" snapped Ibrahim at Thoosa. Only a moment before... "Wait a minute, you're right!" ...Arid wholeheartedly agreed with the cyclops. "Viva la revolucion!" "Don't agree with the enemy!" snapped Ibrahim at Arid this time around, but to no avail. For Arid was now firmly under the possession of the spirit of rebellion! "B-b-but that boy has a good point!" stammered one of the guardsmen out of the blue. "The FD used to be a state-of-the-art law enforcement agency. We were the best of the best of Presbyter. Even the FDRG itself wasn't as capable as we were! But nowadays, it's like we don't even exist! Take a good look around. Everything you can see has happened right under our noses! Can we really call ourselves guards when we can't even guard our own people?" "Listen, all of you!" shouted Central as more and more voices of dissent begun to arise from the very ranks of the Forbesvillean Guard. "I understand your discontent with the current situation, but don't you think we should all be focusing on the matter at hand?" "Captain Powers is right!" vividly cried Arid, eliciting a sigh of relief from Central and Ibrahim as she did so. However, immediately afterward, Arid begun to say things that horrified the both of them into a paralysis. "Forget these guys. Let's focus on the matter at hand. We need to overthrow Entente Powers, otherwise situations like this are bound to happen again and again!" "That's right little lady!" cheered a guardswoman as she lifted her pike in earnest agreement. "I've had quite enough of Entente Powers' incompetence!" "Incompetence?" snorted Arid a moment before she begun to say things that would have induced Central and Ibrahim into an eternal gawk if the two of them hadn't already been paralyzed by the sheer horror of Arid's former declaration. "Pah! Try corruption! The dirtbag hasn't been failing to deal with piracy. He's been actively coercing pirates into bribing him for leniency!" "Hey!" interjected Allied Mundi with a quake-producing and thus attention-grabbing stamp. "You take that back right this instant! The Good Duke didn't coerce me into doing anything! You hear? I bribed him of my own free will! Thank you very much!" "Hold on for just a second..." begun a guardsman who was trembling from the explosive rage he was working hard to contain within. "...are you trying to tell me that Duke Powers knew that all of this was going to happen? He knew about this...this....this DEVASTATION?" "That's it!" snapped another guardsman as he dropped his pike to the ground. "No more! I don't care!" "Here, here!" concurred a differnt guardswoman from before as she dropped her pike onto the ground as well. "I can't take it anymore either! Ever since Entente has taken the throne, it's just been one thing after another. Enough is enough!" "Forget Entente!" "Forget the abdication!" "Yeah, forget the abdication!" "That's right!" "I agree with you guys all of the way!" "Forget the abdication!" "FORGET THE ABDICATION!" "Take it back Central!" "Take your words back" "Take back the abdication!" "Take back the throne!" "Take back out our safety to the man whom has sold it to pirates!" "Well..." snickered Thoosa as the hundred men and women whom had been amassed to arrest them were throwing down their pikes one-by-one. Those men and women then proceeded to surround Central Powers instead, begging Central to take responsibility for the consequences of his selfish abdication as they did so. "...that escalated quickly!" "Thankfully, the escalation was in the right direction. I really think this city is going to be fine now. Now that its citizenry has taken its well-being into their own capable hands," snickered Prince John in turn. The Prince then took Thoosa's hands into his own before he begun to lead the cyclops away from all of the action. "Shall we take our leave of this land? The kingdom next over has way better food than the meals offered here either way," "After you my Prince," answered Thoosa with a warm smile. "Please, call me John!" laughed Prince John as Thoosa and he got gone while the going was still good. "Allied," sighed Axis with a shake of his head. Allied warily eyed Axis as Axis made his way towards him. “For three years, the both of us have been doing our OWN thing. But I think it's about time we got back to doing just OUR thing," "R-r-really?" stammered Allied in a tone of voice that was dripping with suspicion. "A-a-are you even sure about that? I don't want you turning in your sleep from regret!" "Absolutely!" chuckled Axis as he ruffled Allied's hair, earning himself a purr of approval from Allied as he did so. "You were right. Absolutely right. I was being soft. And because of that, I took a guilt trip which sidetracked the both of us from our journey through life. But no more. That's over and done with. I have no interest in atoning for anything if that atonement threatens to divide my beloved brother and I!" "If you say so..." begun Allied with a thoughtful expression on his face. "...but I see no reason why we should let these three years go to waste. How about we take all of the herbs you've collected over these three years and disperse em throughout the West Blue as you planned. Cure our home sea of the Lunar once and for all. And then we can finally resume our adventure," "Sweet," was Axis' only answer. But that was all Allied needed to hear to know that Axis was down with the plan. With a more than just a little bit of hesitation, Allied did something he hadn't done in three years. Allied outstretched an arm towards Aixs and then presented the arm's palm to Axis. At first Axis questioningly raised an eyebrow at Allied's gesture, prompting Allied to begin to hurriedly pull the arm away from Axis. But before Allied could finish doing so, Axis gently smiled and then took the hand of that arm into his own hand. Allied couldn't help but to blush a bit as Axis held his hand for the first time in three years. Something Axis used to do all of the time, but hadn't exactly had the time to do while he was obsessing over his atonement. As his way of coping with the embarrassment, Allied focused his gaze upon his feet and his feet alone. But as soon as Axis started to lead him away from scene of the crime, Allied immediately looked up with a toothy grin on his face. He looked up at his brother. The brother that he loved more than anyone or anything in the world. And the brother that loved him just as much. "I can't just usurp my brother!" Central tried to explain to the people around. "That would be setting a very bad precedent! You just can't do things that way!" "That's fine," snickered Ibrahim with Arid at his right side. All of the guardsmen were about to disagree with Ibrahim, but Ibrahim continued before they could begin to do so. "You don't have to usurp him. Because I'm going to remove him. With that charge of embezzlement we were discussing beforehand. I'm sure that if enough of the citizenry provide me with "proof" of having paid the same amount of taxes they were paying four years ago, I can surely make the case that Entente Powers has been keeping some of the World Government's due for himself. Not only that, but I can use the assets he bought with Allied's bribes as proof as well. There is no way he could have managed to afford such assets without having committed such embezzlement. And as far as any of us know, there isn't anyone else he could have gotten that kind of money from. Particularly not from pirates as a bribe. Wink, wink," "Sounds about right to me!" "Totally!" "Nice thinking, Ibrahim-sama!" "Indeed," garbled Central right before I end this story with a running gag. "Ibrahim, you're quite the guy. You know?"
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