[V] Out of Your League

MechaCake · 1 [V] Out of Your League Sat Oct 20, 2018 3:35 pm

MechaCake

Vagabond

Posts : 19
Join date : 2018-10-14

It was pretty rare that any kind of weather impeded the activity in the Ninth District. Today, Baltigo was in the middle of an extremely heavy rainstorm, but the various stalls in the market were just as busy as it would be on a sunny day. Pretty much the only thing that was different was the amount of tarp covering the various booths in the market.

Mal was here to find a bounty that probably had already left by now. There had been some transportation issues getting to the island, so instead of taking just a day to get to the island, it took him three. Mal knew he wasn't a known face in the Bounty Hunter community, but he still took the right precautions: he covered his entire body in a thick brown tarp made of animal pelt and instead of his glasses he wore a pair of goggles with the same prescription. His face was mostly covered and he tended to use an extremely gruff voice when attempting to find some information.

Thus far, his leads had dried up and his bounty was probably long-gone, but what the hell else was he going to do in the area? At the very least he could grab something to eat, buy some material for some experiments, and leave via the Sea Train. Mal had managed to procure some special Marinated Seacow Onigiri, so he was mostly just browsing at this point until he could re-board the Sea Train.

The shouts of merchants filled the area as they all just devolved into noise.

"Weapons for Sale! You won't ever hear from your enemies after purchasing my newly-forged swords-"

"Ships for Sale! Buy a deed to a new ship, custom-made to--"

"Exotics for sale! You want a Devil's Fruit? Well, we got Devil's fruit-"

Mal looked off to the Devil's Fruit stand to see that it was clearly just regular fruit with some paint on it. Yet, of course, there were at least a dozen people lined up to purchase some.

There wasn't a lot to trust in this Market: even if something looked appealing to the Bounty Hunter, he doubted he could even trust it. At the very least, he could trust a Junk shop, since it was mostly scrapped parts that most people didn't need: he nodded over to the aging owner of the stall and looked through the bins of parts and materials.

"Hello, zir. Vould you like a vwife?"

Next door to the junk shop was another stall filled with women kneeling subserviently in arm restraints and a short, hairy man in his mid-fourties. The price for the slaves were steep: 100,000,000 Beli for each. Today was clearly not a good day for business, since the Slaver who owned it decided to try and steal shoppers from the stall over. The Slaver spoke with a weird accent that Mal wasn't sure he had heard before.

"Vell, they don't have to be a vwive. They coul' be a maid or a mistress. Do what you vant with zem, just pay up."

Mal looked over the imprisoned women with pity, and the slaver in disgust. He had half a mind to shoot the Slaver if it wasn't for the well-armed guards watching over the women.

Then, one caught his eye. Mal felt his stomach lurch as he moved over to her and studied her features.

"Oh? Does this one satisfy your needs?"

Mal paused for a moment as the woman sat in silence. She had shoulder length, auburn hair, a round boyish face and a small scar on her left ear. They all wore see-through, scrappy garments.

"What is her name?"

"Vhat does it matter, her name. Her name is whatever you want-"

"What is her NAME?"

The Slaver was caught by surprised, but he finally gave up the information.

"I zink her name is... Holiday Mina?"

Mal exhaled in frustration as he briskly walked away from the tent carrying the slaves.

"Shit."

MechaCake · 2 Re: [V] Out of Your League Thu Oct 25, 2018 5:16 pm

MechaCake

Vagabond

Posts : 19
Join date : 2018-10-14

The sea train had long passed at this point. Mal sat in a dirty cot in the small room he had rented at one of the extremely seedy inns in the area. He nursed a bottle of watered-down rum he had purchased in the market for too low of a price. He could have been drinking varnish and probably wouldn't have noticed. The loud shouts and strange noises coming from the surrounding rooms probably would have annoyed him, but he was lost in his own head, thinking back to long, long ago.

The largest boat Mal had ever seen came into the harbor of the village a bit after lunch that day. The entire town came to greet whoever had set anchor on their little settlement, and out came a tall, dark-haired middle-aged man with a full-face beard in fancy clothes, a golden-haired woman in her early twenties, and an auburn-haired girl who looked around twelve or thirteen: Mal's age. Around a half-dozen servants also came out of the boat and bowed behind the small family.

Mal took out a spyglass and pointed it toward the girl: he analyzed everything about her face and expression. Her face was always in a scowl, her mouth always frowned and her eyes always had the spark of anger in them, but Mal kind of liked that.

"Greetin' the new citizens of our little home, are ya, Mal?"

Mal looked out of his spyglass and up to his father, who had a hearty mug full of mead in his hand.

"Yeah, so?"

Even at twelve years old, Mal had a certain... cynicism when speaking to his father.

"I see that look in yer eye, kiddo. Same look I 'ad when I met your mother: don't bother, though."

Sinjon took a big, hearty swig of his mead.

"That there is the Mina family: they're stupid rich, so don't ge' any ideas. She's outta yer league."

Mal leered at his father as Sinjon left. The father and mother of the Mina family shook hands with the mayor, and went on their way. The group of people followed them like a parade to their new home: a freshly built stone mansion right in the center of town that had just been completed.

The family disappeared into the complex and the party dissipated. That was, everyone except for Mal.

He sat at the stool near the fountain in the town square, constantly looking toward the door of the mansion for a few hours, until it became dawn. A disappointed Mal walked back home before it became night.

A few weeks later, Mal noticed her again. The Mina girl sat at the beach in a dirtied, expensive dress. She had scratches all over her face and neck, but she wore a grin like Mal had never seen before.

"H-Hello?"

Mina shot a look over to Mal who approached her from behind, albiet about 30 feet away from her.

"ARE YOU FLIPPIN' KIDS TRYING TO BEAT ME UP AGAIN?! I BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU!"

The Mina girl immediately threw a bunch of sand into Mal's face, and Mal started crying. After a moment, Mina realized her mistake and moved over to the kid she attacked to help.

"Jeez, jeez, I'm sorry. Some kids tried to attack me earlier so I thought you might be one of them-"

Mal sniffled and wiped the last of the dirt out of his face. Even though it had started with his harm, he was excited- he finally got to properly meet this girl.

"I-It's not a problem. My name's Mal Casair. You are--"

The Mina girl crossed her arms in seeming frustration at the question.

"I'm- my name's Holiday Mina but DON'T YOU EVER CALL ME THAT! I HATE THAT NAME!"

Mal was taken aback by how loud this girl was, but still tried to keep the conversation going.

"O-Oh, okay. What should I call you then?"

"Well, my friends used to call me Hol, so that's good I guess."

Mal put on a meek smile.

"Hol, then. That's a pretty name. "

"I mean, it's just a slightly more bearable version of the shitty name my dad gave me, but I guess it's cool or whatever."

"Yeah, yeah so um- you're strong, right? You look strong, you must've beat those kids up. "

Hol grinned and flexed her muscle.

"My mom used to call me a badass. She's the one who taught me to fight."

"Oh? Is she the blonde lady that came in with you?"

Hol seemed like she was going to yell for a moment, and then stopped herself.

"Absolutely not. That's just some beast lady my dad married 'cause he couldn't handle my real mom. My real mom is a badass pirate who goes over the seven seas, and she's gonna come here and take me away from this crappy little island. "

"Oh- well, if that happens- can you take me with me?"

Mina grinned from ear to ear.

"Of course! You're the only friend I've met here. All my friends get to join me when I bust outta this popsicle stand."

Hol Mina was a part of Mal's past that didn't need to exist anymore- rather, it just wasn't relevant anymore. Some much had happened to him since he had known her as a kid- but even so, the childhood feelings that lingered brought him to the conclusion that he needed to get her away from this place. Mal needed to free her.

Now, came the planning...

MechaCake · 3 Re: [V] Out of Your League Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:49 pm

MechaCake

Vagabond

Posts : 19
Join date : 2018-10-14

The city was just as rainy as it was the previous day, as Mal felt absolute Deja Vu as he walked through the area. The same people sold the same things and shouted the same rallies to come check out their wares. The place was just as crowded toward the center, with some areas lacking the same density of pedestrians. Hell, Mal was still wearing the same disguise, but at least now he had a mission. Plenty of his peers had spoken a little about an infamous info dealer named Barclay, who was the best info dealer with the lowest cost. Typically went under the name of Crybaal, and used his real name as a kind of password.

Of course, Mal didn't know what this guy looked like so he looked so his plan was to look for any stall with the word "Crybaal" on it. Finally, he found an ornate tent called "Crybaal's Fortune Telling" that was hosted by the vague shape of a person who had most of their body covered in loose colorful cloth.

"Hey, Barclay?" asked Mal in a quiet tone. "I'm Mal. I'm here to seek your help."

The being in the cloth took a look down the alley their tent was in, and then motioned Mal to follow him. When the two were properly in the ornate tent, Barclay closed the cloth door of the tent and then, in Mal's surprise, opened up the back wall of the tent to open a new room: a tatami-style area with various unique objects around it, and in the middle an old-fashioned Shogi board with a full set of pieces, with two seat cushions opposite another.

Mal sat down on the nearest cushion while the being in cloth removed their garb to reveal a lithe Fishman with burnt orange skin and natural suction cups all over their body, like a squid. He had a set of four arms and wore a loose-fitting and somewhat revealing garish pink and gold hakata. He had a large octopus-like mouth that he sucked down cigars with, more than a few scars on his face, and brown thick spiral dreadlocks that went down to his shoulders. Barclay sat opposite Mal on the south-facing side of the shogi board.

"So you're interested in my information?"

The fishman, despite the effeminate appearance, had a surprisingly deep voice that was clearly defined by his years of smoking.

"Yeah, I hear you're good, and pretty cheap, so I figured you'd be the best choice."

Barclay smirked as he tossed some Shogi pieces in his hand.

"Unfortunately, my price is pretty expensive, but I don't accept Beli as payment. Tell me-"

The artist formally known as Crybaal pointed at the gun at Mal's hip.

"You any good with that thing?"

Mal paused and thought the question over for a moment. He didn't want to over-sell himself, but he also really needed this help. Info brokers didn't come cheap and if he could save his Beli, then this would be all worth it.

"I'm... not bad."

Barclay shrugged.

"Good enough for me. So, what do you need?"

MechaCake · 4 Re: [V] Out of Your League Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:51 pm

MechaCake

Vagabond

Posts : 19
Join date : 2018-10-14

Mal came prepared, as he spread a map he had acquired of the Marketplace and circled in red pen the lot that the slave tent was, and the exit laying on a gigantic middle road cutting through the market.

"I'm trying to free a slave from this tent, but I can't do that without exiting through the main road. I need to know if there's any shortcuts, or anything I can do to avoid the guards-"

"Ooh, why're you trying to free that slave? Want a wife or husband with no cash down?"

Mal scowled at the weird info broker he had to deal with.

"Why the hell do you care?"

"Well, as an information seller I have to be inquisitive: you never know if that information is worth much. Plus I record a lot of things in case people get on my wrong side. So why don't you tell me who this is to you?"

Barclay smirked as he took out a quill and a notebook: Mal groaned.

"It's a childhood friend, I used to have a crush on her."

"Oh, well you came all this way to come find her and save her! You don't see that kind of naive romance these days."

Barclay's tone of voice was seemingly genuine, but his face had a sour expression.

"That's not exactly it. I just came across her incidentally: haven't seen her since I was sixteen."

Barclay smirked as he wrote the information down, and then paused for a moment in a thinking pose.

"I can help you, just one moment."

Barclay reached into the back of the tent again and came out a minute later with some large rectangular metal object that had clearly been broken: wires and gears were broken and rusted, and the large light displays on the box had dimmed.

"Simply, there are some unmarked transport tunnels here, here, here, and here-"

Barclay put several red circles on the edges of a few buildings in the area, as well as a special black circle around one of the red circles.

"This one should bring you to the Nilth district, which is where you should hide out. Unfortunately, you'll need to find that help yourself as access to those connections would require ACTUAL money, which you don't have. Shouldn't be too hard to find a place to hide out, however, but you'll need to figure out transportation. Those tunnels have been locked out by some new-fashioned electronic gizmo, but someone found an unlocking mechanism in the early morning one day and sold it to me. It's in bad shape, so you'll have to bring it somewhere to get it fixed, but it should get you through those tunnels."

The fishman handed the device to Mal and he analyzed the object.

"I should be able to fix this myself, but thank you. So, what do I pay you with?"

The broker smirked as he handed three "Pawn" shogi pieces over to the bounty hunter. Each had a distinct red wood they were made of, and a cloth tie on the top of the piece. On the back was the name "Barclay" cut in the back of the pieces.

"Wear these on your belt. Someone will approach you about a job within the month. You will do the job without pay, as a favor to me."

Mal raised an eyebrow.

"And if I don't?"

"OH, you don't want that. I have a wide, wide network of friends and peers. If I don't hear of you completing a job within the next couple months, you'll be killed on the spot, I promise you. Anyway, that's enough of the rough talk: GOODBYE!"

Mal was swiftly kicked out of the tent as he immediately felt as if he made a deal with the devil. At the very least, Hol would be out of that horrible slave tent by tonight.

Sponsored content

1 [V] Out of Your League Sat Oct 20, 2018 3:35 pm

MechaCake

2 Re: [V] Out of Your League Thu Oct 25, 2018 5:16 pm

MechaCake

3 Re: [V] Out of Your League Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:49 pm

MechaCake

4 Re: [V] Out of Your League Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:51 pm

MechaCake

5 Re: [V] Out of Your League

Sponsored content