Caspian was sitting within the shaded comfort of his carriage while his arms were folded upon each other as the driver took him to his destination, today he was sent on a mission to some detective investigation work on the disappearances of children.
Apparently the base knew for about  three weeks that a total of sixteen kids have been reported missing without even a trace to follow up on, the higher up's seemed to have dismissed it as kids just being rebellious and that they would turn up eventually but now it was a general concern that needed to be looked into as they started receiving more complaints.

The fact that it took so long for his superior's to act on nearly sixteen kids going missing and with no warning or previous reason made Caspian anger boil up inside, he thought how could upper management be so carefree about children going missing, children, although they may not seem more than brats at their age, were indeed the key to the future and not one of them should be overlooked. "Excuse me, sir, were near the slums of Nanohana." The driver pronounced, Caspian then spoke in response, "Ah, thank you for the ride, ill be getting off here." As he said that Caspian left the fee for the ride before jumping off before the carriage stopped fully moving.

Now back into the full gaze of Alabasta's intense sun Caspian shaded his eye's so he could see around, from first glance  it was clear to see the financial status it was currently in, the few children that were there  wore nothing but filthy rags that were fashioned into clothing as their skin was almost a putrid brownish color from the amount of filth gathered upon them topped with thin layer of sand, shops with creaked and battered signs and their doors with busted window's and knobs that didn't even allow them to close for privacy sake.

As his eye's begun to adjust to the intense light Caspian could now start to feel the gaze's of the citizens looking upon him with scowls full of disdain and uneasiness about his arrival, despite their being a marine base centered in Alabasta the amount of negativity he felt was uncanny as it reminded him of how peopled look at him in water 7 as a street rat, but regardless of the situation he wasn't here to play nice and make friends, he was there to find the children and save them, now all he had to do was wait for his partner to arrive onto the scene.

His partner was late. Caspian was to meet his partner nearly a hour ago in this spot but had only seen a few marine's who were just making their daily rounds, Caspian was one who excelled at keeping his patience in check, however due to the unknown situation the kid's could possibly be he quickly found himself getting annoyed. As the time passed by Caspian begun tapping his left foot against the ground while his hands were in his pocket at he looked both ways of the street continuously for any sign of his partner.

Since he had a bit of time to think he begun to try and gather what little information he knew about the case to help his investigation, it was now pushing a hour and a half and he was coming to the conclusion he was on his own with this one, he repeated the only fact he knew to himself,"Their are sixteen kids missing from the poor district of Nanohana without a trace" He repeated one word, "Sixteen..." It was then he started to think harder, if sixteen kids were really missing it would take a building big enough in Nanohana to house all of them, and it would still be he case if someone abducted them.

However, if he considered the possibility that someone did abduct them then he also thought about how the building could possibly look small but hold a secret room within, as it would be better to avoid attention, in either case he wouldn't make much progress on this case unless he had a partner to help him solve it. Breaking out of his thoughts he saw a approaching figure wearing a distinct marine uniform coming his way, as they got closer he could see that heir frame was rather lean but what caught his attention more
was that they had very strongly built jaws and even in the slight opening of their mouth he could see razor sharp teeth, although he looked human Caspian sensor's was telling him it was a another species.

Once they made their way up to him Caspian would turn his body to face them, the figure wasted no time in explaining that the person that was to be Caspian's partner was just stabbed and died of his wounds, the face Caspian made was surprise mixed in with a inquisitive look, how timely was it for his partner to be eliminated right before starting the mission. He took a deep breath through the noise before exhaling out their mouth and speaking to the deliver as they handed him a message, "Tell me, did he have any type of information on him about a case of missing kids? Pictures, letters, anything really would be helpful." once the person answered he would ask one more question although it was stranger, "If you were on this investigation what course of action would you take?"

The fishmen and human hybrid marine began to explain what little information he had on Caspian's late partner, apparently, he had no concrete evidence to tell him but he did state that by observing the passed marine it appeared that he had been caught off guard as he had a sword ran through him from the front, he also mentioned that the marine basically had nothing on him although the fellow marine in front of him felt that at one point he may have been carrying a bag. This was indeed a strange yet timely scene of event's, a marine falling in action happens all around the grand line and new world every day but for someone related to an abduction case and suddenly dies the day of is no mere coincidence Caspian was willing to let slip past him, it was then the marine who had shared this information with him gave him the idea that it may be wise to check his late partner's house as they could have documents, photo's, or to retrace his steps, an idea Caspian would follow up on.

Caspian took another deep cleansing breath while his eyes were closed as he took all this new information in at once, Caspian then within his mind replayed the scene of his partner's death to piece together the new information he had been given, his death wasn't just having his throat cut with a knife nor being fatally shot from afar but was stabbed with a blade directly in front of him...

When Caspian tried to replay the scene in his mind he came to the same conclusion every time, that his partner either knew his murderer well enough that he had known he was the one assigned to the abduction meeting or that he was in cahoots with him and they had a disagreement that ended up with the result of having to kill off one of them to prevent information from getting out, the latter being his partner for today's mission, Caspian himself had no concrete information to even say this but as it was his superiors and equals alike had vastly underestimated this problem in its early stages allowing it to grow this troublesome, and he was not so willing to do the same and did his best to consider ever possibly outcome that leads to his partner's death.

When Caspian finally exhaled he opened his eyes again and looked at the marine in front of him, "Thank you for giving me the update, I'll proceed on my own from here. May I ask for my partner's home location?" Once the marine shared his partner's home location Caspian immediately began walking away from his fellow marine to head there, his first course of action was to initially talk to the missing children's parents, but with the timely demise of his partner during this mission he wouldn't put it past the murderer to be watching his home at the very moment simply waiting for the marine's currently investigating to leave so that he may burn the house down and any secret's lying within its walls.

It took Caspian twenty-four minutes to reach his destination as there had been many twists and turns on the way and he was still rather new to the city of Nanohana, but when he got there he was meant with the sight of an average sized home of one floor, just like most of Nanohana's home's it was well painted with a mix of yellow and blue in stripes form the bottom to the top, the building has a window in the front that had been cut into four panels separated by two thin metal bars formed in a cross formation, in other words, it was an entirely normal looking home for Nanohana's taste.

Caspian proceeded inside where he was meant with the sight of three other marines currently investigating the scene but upon seeing him they stopped to address him as the nature of Caspian look despite the marine uniform aroused suspicion, "Who are you and what rank?!" a marine who wore the standard marine sailor uniform hat and all barked right into Caspian's face causing his spit to find itself on his cheek, with a swipe of his left thumb he wiped it off while announcing who he was, "Caspian Towls, Ensign. I am here because the murder suspect was my partner for a case I'm working on, so if you wouldn't mind as being so kind to move out of my way so we both can do our jobs." The marine backed off immediately, apparently, there was quite a large gap of rank as he visibly started sweating a little and quickly got back to his searching.

With the confusion of his sudden appearance out of the way Caspian began looking around the house, just like the outside, it was ordinary and quite devoid of any true personal style as it was basically the poster child for "Marine soldier" as indicated by the only few pictures of the wall is that of the World Government flag waving in the air and a few other pictures he must have taken through his career as a marine, Caspian felt the need to ask, "Have any of you found something, anything? Even if it's for indecent purposes or something that wouldn't actually be considered as suspicious?" Not to Caspian, the same marine who had just barked of him answered in an upbeat tone as if he was attempting to impress him to make up for his rudeness earlier, "Nothing sir! This house is clean as far as we know!"

But for Caspian that was the problem, it was too clean, It was utterly devoid of personal taste his late partner had pictures of his accomplishments but he had no pictures of him as a child, friends, family, there was nothing truly personal to bring out a better picture of his life which only made Caspian believe his partner was even dirtier then he previously thought, anyone who completely stripped their home of all personal belongings besides the bare necessities had something to hide, although this proved his theory that his partner was somehow involved with the abductions of the children it didn't bring him any closer to finding out where the children were.

Caspian walked around the house looking for even the tiniest hint of a clue to further his investigation, he went alone to search the master bedroom of the house hoping that he was the sort of person to hide things he doesn't want anyone to see where he lays his head, when he got to the entrance of the room it had already been searched through by his people and was now an utter mess, much like downstairs there was no pictures or anything of the sort he could use to help him iron this problem out, although he thought coming to the house would help him find concrete evidence it seemed that it was a dead end.

With no further purpose of being in the house, Caspian began to make his way back towards the others, as he turned the corner and saw one of their faces he began to speak, "Alright guys there nothing here, let's pa-!!?" Before Caspian could finish his sentence two black balls broke through the front window panel, it didn' take long for Caspian to notice that the black balls were two bombs that had been thrown and the fuses were already lit, Caspian immediately turned back and headed towards the bedroom and closed the door and jumped on the bed quickly grabbing the thick sheets before hitting the floor and throwing it over himself as he rolled under the bed just as a loud explosion due to the combined force of the bombs went off, the force of the bombs causing the house to collapse upon itself.

A large crowd gathered around a man standing on top of a large rectangular wooden stage talking about the injustice of working wages in Water 7, the crowd at first had been nothing but hushed whispers of those agreeing with the point and others who remained silent out of fear of what would happen but as the man went on to prove his point the crowd has become increasingly engaged in the conversation so much so that the local vendors selling their ware's had stopped paying attention and was focused on the loud roaring of the crowd.

However, to a young Caspian who had thought nothing of but his next meal the significance of the conversation was far beyond what he was capable of paying attention to, for him this was merely a chance to catch some free food to eat so that he wouldn't starve on the streets, Caspian thanked his lucky star for this man who he had no idea existed up until now as his political talk succeeded in distracting the apple vendor to the point that he would say the man was practically memorized by it.

He began to slowly make his way to the apple vendor as he had been about six meters away initially watching from the distance, he got real close to the wall and started moving at an even pace towards the apple vendor trying his best not to catch his attention by accident, after some slow movement he finally found himself in the man's shadow.

"WE AS THE PEOPLE SHALL NOT STAND FOR THIS INJUSTICE!" the man on the wooden stage cried out sending the crowd into an uproar as well as the apple vendor, although to Caspian he had thought he had been caught and somewhat froze in his steps, but upon realizing that he hadn't been noticed he proceeded to slide over out of the man's shadow and to his right side where the apples were located, while he reached for an apple with one hand he watched the man from his side moving at a natural pace he felt the tips of his finger's grab onto one and just as he felt one slightly roll closer into his grasp the crowd started to scatter as a large amount of marine's started to come to contain the mob, the apple vendor who had been memorized up until this point broke out and immediately turned to see Caspian and shouted, "Hey! what ar?!"

Deciding that it was either sank or swim Caspian immediately ducked down and with a quick movement of his right leg swung it out knocking the vendor off his feet making him land on his own vending stand, Caspian no longer trying to hide his presence opened his shirt and grabbed four apples and made a dash for the alleyways as the marine's we're busy containing the mob. Caspian hadn't stop running for several minutes to make sure nobody had followed him, he took a quick look around the corner of where he just came to be absolutely sure and after finding nothing he looked at his apple's with a glimmer in his eye while his mouth started to slightly drool from the imagination of how pure and fresh the taste was going to be.

Something came over him to make him look up and when he did he saw two children around his age looking at  him, no that wasn't right, they weren't looking at him but instead the apple in his hand, the following sound was one Caspian knew all too well, the sound of a hungry stomach. Although he felt for the two children in front of him he stole his meal ticket fair and square, he shouldn't have to share it just because they were hungry too, Caspian was just about to take a bite out of his apple but before he could one of the children's eyes widened at the sight of it and it made him hesitant in taking his first bite, at this point he could have told them to scram or go somewhere else, but he simply couldn't for a reason he himself could not explain.

Caspian looked down at his shirt at the four apple's he had stolen, surely he could last days with just these four apple's but what about the two in front of him? He didn't know how long it been since they had their last meal or when their next one would present itself, as these thoughts swirled in his young mind he became even more hesitant to eat alone, could he live with himself if these two were to die because of starvation or suddenly killed for messing with the wrong people just to get some food? Caspian had already stolen many times and each time his face would become more well known and one day he would be caught, but by sharing what he had now he could prevent others from doing the same in this very moment.

With the answer clear Caspian grabbed two apple's and outstretched his hand, the children hesitated but quickly grabbed it from his hand and started to run with it, Caspian was slightly disappointed as he at least expected a thank you, but nonetheless, he had done a good deed because when it came down to it the life he lead was hard and truly no child deserved it, perhaps one day he would be able to do more than just giving away two apples that he stole to unfortunate others like him, but for now all he thought about was making sure he ate his apple so he could live to see another day.






"Wake up..." Is what a soft whisper was saying to Caspian "Wake up..." Who was that....it was so dark he couldn't see anything, suddenly the voice got louder, "I SAID WAKE UP DAMMIT!" Caspian felt the sharp pain of a knuckle hitting his forehead and his eyes shot open as he yelled out in pain, after a few moments he stopped screaming and blinked as he realized he was back in the marine base in Nanohana, he turned to look at Pathos his commanding officer, his eyes then changed to look at himself and saw that his chest area had been bandaged up, he stared down for a few seconds then looked at Pathos and realized that during the explosion he must have been knocked out, "How bad is the damage?" Pathos sat down in his cheer crossing his arms over his chest, "Luckily you only fractured a rib and our medical team was able to put it back in place so you should only feel some soreness." Caspian didn't hesitate to ask his next question, "And how long have I been out?" Pathos snickered, "For someone who just woke up you ask a lot of questions instead of worrying about your health, relax you only been out for eighteen hours."

Caspian grunted as he swung his legs over the bed and stood up, "Where is my top uniform?" Pathos was silent for a moment, "It's usual procedure to detain you for at least twenty four hours after surviving an explosion not only for your health but for answers." Caspian found his top uniform on a nearby hanger and spoke as he put it on and buttoned back up, "There are still sixteen kids missing, parent's angry and upset about no one doing a thing, and from what I gathered so far, we have traitor's in our midst, I can't just sit back and sleep while I let everyone else do the work."

Pathos stood up and fixed his uniform, "I can't force you to rest but you should know that one of the people who blow up the house you were in was spotted by a civilian and one was arrested and is held in the interrogation room for questioning but is to be released in an exactly an hour and forty minutes." Caspian quickly turned around to look at Pathos as this was the most relevant piece of information he had heard about this case since he took it, "Can you get me a time slot to see them?!" Pathos quickly answered, "Absolutely not, like I said you're required to be off duty for at least twenty four hours. And it seems nobody actually saw our suspect do anything so we can't keep them detained for any longer anyway. However, if a certain someone was to ambush them after they have been discharged for questioning, then it's out of the marine's hands to intervene." Pathos gave a small smile as he left while saying those words, Caspian didn't need to think hard to knew what he meant, he basically told him outside the base he could ambush the suspect and force them into answering questions without breaking any rules, all he had to do was wait.

With an hour and forty minutes wait ahead of him Caspian decided it was best to change into more civilian clothes as there was no way he was going to be able to ambush the suspect with him sticking out like a sore thumb, doing a quick check in with the nurse he was then discharged where he made a trip to his room in the Nanohana base, he hung up his uniform and put on a plain white t-shirt and over it a black jacket with white cotton buttons along the edges while black fur was located around the neck area,he then put on a dark shade of blue jean's that was secured by a brown belt while his shoes were also a black color, these clothes specially tailored to look fashionable while warding off the intense heat of Alabasta. Now that he was properly dressed for the occasion with still an hour and thirty minutes left he decided it was time to get something to eat, he hadn't had a good meal since yesterday morning and it's something about surviving and explosion to make a person even hungrier, he decided to give the local barbecue restaurant eleven meters away from the front of the base a try, he was hungry but he wanted to be able to see the suspect leave and follow them to a secure place where nobody would get in his way.

It was almost time for Caspian's suspect to be released, his gaze affixed towards the marine base entrance in the distance as he used a napkin to clean the barbecue sauce off his hands, the meal had been quite pleasant as it had been grilled bananawani that were cooked to utter perfection served with a side of french fries, now with his hands clean he picked up his drink of cold ice water to refresh himself from the heat as he waited for the last five minutes to pass by.

Suddenly he could see the front doors of the base open, it was three minutes earlier than expected but Caspian had been well prepared either way and now had ton's of energy from his meal, he quickly rose to his feet dropping his meal money as well as a 15% extra tip as he walked towards the base, as he got closer he could see that the suspect was female, she had bleach blonde hair that had been tied up into a ponytail in the back while in the front it didn't cover her eyes and was slanted towards her right side while on the top of her head we're googles, for clothing she had on a light blue sweater with long sleeves that stopped just short of her belly button while a black jacket was over it with the sleeves rolled up, she had a belt with pouches that she was sure was filled with various tools that secured her dark blue jeans with a brown pouch on the left side while her outfit was finished off with mid-length black boots.

Caspian's Suspect:

While Caspian got closer to the base but moved at a slightly slower than normal pace his suspect was forced to walk slowly while two marine comrade's we're behind her watching her like a hawk, although Caspian hadn't allowed himself to be too emotionally invested in the earlier events to others the women was most likely the person who threw the bomb-making her the murderer of three of their own ranks in one fell swoop and to see her be released only made their hatred of the women worst.

When they finally got to the exit of the base they shoved her out so hard she fell to the ground, she looked back at them with venom but they equally matched her look with their own, realizing that doing so would only make her situation worst the women looked back in front of her as she pushed herself off the ground back onto her feet, while the two marines's turned back to go into the base she dusted off the sand that was now on her before walking towards him albeit not actually noticing him, Caspian leaned against the wall and slightly turned his head to the shady side of the building he was up against to give off the appearance of a man just trying to stay cool in the heat as the women walked past him.

She seemed to pass without any signs of suspicion, Caspian simply let her pass as he waited a minute before starting to follow behind her while matching his pace with her's to keep an even distance between them only to slow down if she showed any sudden movements, she seemed to be quite the busy body as she first went to a market to buy groceries, then to a tol shop to look at their latest ware's, and then to a restuarant to get food, Caspian was beginning to wonder if perhaps she actually had nothing to do with the explosion and was just at a bad place at a bad time.