The day was saved not only by Nazaki, but also my an ensign named Misha. By far Misha was a promising ensign, having more potential than even himself. Every time the commodore won a battle it always felt like fate had done the trick. Regardless, he needed a little break now. There was no secret that he was a bit lazy and now that the emerald district was protected and secured he could finally smoke his marijuana. Commodore Walter was hurt, but he wasn't dead so it was a good thing one of his men got to him. Now the group of five plus Naz were on their way through Greenie pass. There was nothing left to do, the common grounds were pretty boring and Emerald district was far too expensive so logically this was the best option. He was warned by some of the noble guards that Greenie was filled with Bandits and criminals but he didn't worry too much, after all, he was almost immortal. Of course he still had some learning to do before he could call himself immortal out loud, but once he gets there, there will be no holding this man back.

"Alrighty boys, we'll be stopping here for a drink or twenty!" The village the group approached seemed oddly dark and gloomy. Despite the fact that it was already night time, not seemed even darker in this village. The grunts all spoke to each other as they entered the gloomy village, barely noticing the weird vibes it had been giving off. Nazaki did though, and his eyes were peeled in case anything creepy happened. "Hey guys, it's halloween today aint it?" "Oh man it's halloween already!? I completely forgot about that holiday." Yeah it was halloween. The commodore sucked his teeth and pulled out a completely rolled spliff as him and his men walked deeper into the Village. Up ahead they could see a tavern called "Starlight Tavern". Honestly it was the only place lit up in this entire town. Nazaki looked to his left and to his right, noticing that even the homes were completely dark. "This is odd." He finally said just before he lit his spliff with his lighter. "What's odd, Sir?" The brown skinned man rubbed his head before a bead of sweat appeared on his forehead. "There's no women outside..." "Oh." One of the grunts responded, disappointed in their leaders response. "You guys telling me you didn't notice? Nobody's outside and it's halloween. All the lights are off, except this bar." He pointed as he pulled from his spliff. The marine grunts looked around surprised that they had missed those details. That was why he was a commodore. Nazaki was smart and paid attention to his surroundings, perhaps he wasn't the strongest but he had other skills that made him worthy of the position. "You guys need to pay more attention." He said coldly. The commodore then pushed the door of the bar open, entering with a smile.

"HELLO EVERY....one?" Damn. Even in the bar there was absolutely nobody besides the bartender. Nazaki didn't even bother to sit, neither did his men. He came to this village for a drink, but now he was more concerned about the people of this place. This quickly turned into a different situation and the commodore was set on finding out what it was. The bartender turned around. He was a bald man with glasses and he looked rather sad. "How may I help you gentlemen tonight?" Naz looked around then back at the man before pulling from his spliff again. "Oh sir, you can't smok-" "Hey there man, I'm Nazaki Jones, I work with the world government, Marine Commodore. Can you tell me what happened here?" The man's face lit up with what seemed to be relief as he leaned forward. "A commodore? Great I'll tell you everything. Every night at around ten, a bunch of people go missing. This...this thing roars through the sky before swooping down and snatching anybody it can get." "Hmm. That does sound pretty spooky huh? Especially on Halloween, this is like a movie or something ahahaha!" The bartender twisted his head in confusion. "d-don't mind him sir, he's just a little..." The grunts behind Nazaki circled their fingers next to their heads, calling their leader crazy. The Bartender nodded in understanding. "I see the villagers don't want to take any chances. It's not ten o'clock yet. Better safe then sorry..." Nazaki looked down at the table. "Hmmm... how long has this been happening?" "About a week now." "Damn an entire week?! Why didn't anyone get help?" "Well a few people did try, but none of them made it back so we assumed they were taken or dead. Maybe bandits, who knows. All I know is now people won't even leave their homes, even in broad daylight."

"okee dokee! I got a plan..." He began before taking a long drag from his spliff. It was almost done but not yet. "Okay. I'll stand outside and wait for this thing to come and when it does we'll fight it off until it retreats. We can't kill it because we need to know where it goes. It might just take the villagers somewhere and not actually kill them, or maybe it does but we gotta find out where it goes."

Items:

30 minutes had already gone by since Nazaki announced the plan. He stood about 15 meters in front of the bar where his men and the bartender remained. He told them that he would deal with this battle on his own unless he absolutely needed their help. They'd know if he did though. The young commodore wanted to get stronger - no, he needed to become stronger. Especially now that he knew he had a strange ability. Per usual, a spliff sat between his lips, his arms crossed and his Scythe on his back. His gun sat patiently on his waist just waiting to be drawn and used. The commodore looked back at the bar to see everyone watching him.



Quickly his head snapped towards the sound and was nearly appalled to see what he saw. It was a skypiean-like creature. It had the wings and was the size of an average winged person but it was more beast like, having claws and horns. Even it's eyes were abnormal. The beast soared over Nazaki, circling the village before dipping down with it's hands open. Quickly, the commodore rolled to the left, dodging the beast as it swooped down. Quickly he drew his gun from his waist and aimed it at the back of the monster shooting twice at it. The first bullet seemed to pierce right through his shoulder causing it to screech again but the second missed by a centimeter. The creature circled the village again, putting some distance between his enemy and himself. "Alright you son of a bitch, I'm gonna make you feel this one." The monster faced Nazaki about 20 meters in the air. If he didn't know any better he'd say the monster was very very angry with him. The commodore's expression was serious. His intent wasn't to kill, but to instead find out what this skypiean-like creature actually was. The creature roared, readying itself for another attack. The monster flew towards Nazaki at a high speed, spinning and swerving about. Simple bullets wouldn't be enough to hit this thing at the way it was moving so he needed something a bit more...destructive. The Monster approached Nazaki before using it's claw to slash him across the face. The beast was pretty strong, so the attack was enough to send him flying a couple feet to his right.

"Commodore!" one of his men yelled from inside the bar. The beast turned it's attention to the rest of the marines and roared. "Relaaaaax, It's only a scratch." Nazaki snickered as he pushed himself up. The three slices across his face began to disappear. "Hey you! Is that all ya got?" From inside the bar the bartender watched the commodore alongside his men. Of course the grunts were used to seeing their leader fight, but the bartender was in awe. "D-did he just heal himself?" "Yep." "I've never seen a skill like that, is it a devil fruit?" "Nope." "W-what I-is he?" "We have no idea."

The beast snapped towards him before lunging, Nazaki drew his scythe immediately whilst his body spun around the creature swinging his weapon downward to slice it across it's back. *SCREEEECH*. The winged monster tuned around quickly, using one of it's wings, to send a short gust of wind towards Naz. "Mmm." he grunted as he crossed his arms to block the burst of wind. Little did he know that this only posed as a distraction. The creature dashed forward before kicking him into the wall of a house across the street. "Shit." Once again the beast dashed forward but Nazaki was quick enough to move out of the way. The beast punched the wall, cracking it and that was his moment to stop it. He fished out his water dial from behind him before aiming it at the creature. As the creature turned it's head, Nazaki moved the switch that activated the dial and released a pretty big stream of water at intense speeds, crashing into the monster and blowing him away. The force of the water was great so there was no doubt that this creature was down for the count.

Quickly the commodore turned to his men, signaling with his hand for them to come. Nazaki turned and darted towards the fallen creature, slowly approaching it. The thing twitched, the water had soaked it completely. "What are you?" He whispered to himself. Damn, I dropped my spliff. he thought. He'd never seen anything like this. It looked like it was a mutated Skypiean. What purpose could this creature hold? The young brown skinned man, took his scythe from behind him to poke to poke at it but all he did was wake it. Swiftly the creature looked around, letting out a screech before turning and zooming into the sky. "Good job Commodore, its getting away." "Aha! All good, we'll just follow the damn thing." It wasn't as fast as it initially was thanks to the damp wings so this was a perfect opportunity for the commodore to follow. As the marine grunts approached Nazaki gave them specific orders. "You two, come with me. The rest of you stay here. We don't know if this is the only creature, so I need you all to be here in case." Without saying another word the commodore places his scythe on his back and sprinted behind the creature with his men following behind him.

Skills:

The creature flapped it's wings above the commodore and his partners as hard as it could, screeching a bit whenever it strained to remain in the air. It was unclear if this winged monster had any idea that it was being followed but at the moment Nazaki could care less. His eyes made sure they were attached to the flying beast. He patted his waist to make sure that his gun was holstered on one side, then patted the other side to make sure he felt all three of his dials in a row. So far he only had a water dial, a flash dial and a vision dial. Those were probably enough to help in what was to come anyway but he was excited to get more. The commodore's comrades struggled to keep up, falling behind as Nazaki continued to move at full speed. Soon they were out of the town and darting through Lulusia's mountains dodging rocks and whatever else could have slowed them down. Nazaki was excited. Chasing such an odd creature would surely lead him to something amazing- or at least interesting. His insides were bubbling to see if he could awaken Haoshoku Haki again. Not only that, but ever since fighting off Lyon and his pirate crew, his healing drastically improved. It was as if awakening Haoshoku cracked open a safe to power from within him. Although the commodore had yet to test out his improved healing abilities in a fight, he was ready to find out the extent of his gift.

Just what am I anyway? he thought to himself as he began to approach a castle. Perhaps after all of this was over he'd visit his parents for some answers. "Sir! Has this castle always been here?" Nazaki slowed his pace before stopping and gazing upon the castle in front of him. "I'm not sure.." he replied. Truth was, Naz didn't know what he was getting himself into anymore than his men did. As they moved closer they noticed that they began walking onto a ledge. Towards the edge of the ledge the castle stood tall. It would be hard to spot if you weren't in front of it considering it pretty much blended in with the clouds and the mountains. A dark aura vibrated from the structure as the dark clouds circled around the top, something evil was within the building. The commodore ducked behind a large rock as his eyes followed the beast. It lowered itself rather gently before it fell at the front gates of the castle. "Get down. We gotta make sure ain't no weirdos watching us." The commodore whispered. The men knelt behind their leader, watching the beast as well. There the winged creature fell, squealing as if it was in pain for a few moments while it's skin began to chip away. Finally it let out one last screech before bursting into black dust. "The hell?" Nazaki's eyes widened. For some strange reason, his body was telling him to go into the castle...and his mind...his mind was telling him to go alone. Cautiously the white haired man stood up, looking back at his men as they too stood. "I'm heading inside." He said lightly as he turned to walk. Footsteps trailed after him for only a second. "Alone." he snapped around. There was nothing more important than teamwork, but Naz hadn't a clue on what was going on here. Leading his comrades to their deaths was something he couldn't bring himself to do, he'd never forgive himself if they died on his terms. "Nazaki, I don't think that's the sm-" "I need you guys to stay out here...please. I'll handle this, don't worry about me." His tone once again revealing his seriousness. That seemed to do the trick.

Slowly he turned and began to quickly walk towards the castle, placing his right hand on the hilt of his scythe as it sat comfortably on his back. In a few moments he'd find himself in front of the door. With a big breath he turned to his comrades and nodded. Shit he thought a bit nervously. What the hell was he nervous for? Something ominous was lurking inside of this castle and he wasn't in a rush to find out what it was. "The shit I put myself through for the sake of others. Black men always die first in situations like these." He whispered. Deep down inside he knew that he wasn't doing this solely for the people of Lulusia. The commodore stepped forward when suddenly the doors opened on their own. Without another thought, he cautiously stepped through. The inside of the castle was indeed what he'd imagine; creepy but what was even creepier was that up ahead he saw a little boy sitting on a throne. He wasn't sure if the boy was smiling...but it looked like he was. "Hey kid...what are you doing in here?" He asked not really concerned.

@Lady Sofia

Nazaki stepped further into the castle stopping a few feet in front of the door. The distance from him and the boy on the throne was approximately 30 meters, though he couldn't tell if there was more room behind him because it was nothing but pure darkness. The right wall was about 30 meters away. Nazaki looked around as the boy spoke, gathering information on his surroundings quickly but also very intrigued with the structure. The boy put two and two together, concluding that Nazaki was the one that- That was the creature I thought I killed, I swear it turned to dust.. he thought as his eyes landed back on the monster. The boy applauded him as he petted his monster. So he's the one responsible for all these monsters. I wonder if he had a connection with that Witch. Nazaki watched calmly as he knew who his enemy was, after all what could a kid possibly - *SNAP* And with a simple movement the monster Nazaki thought he killed was finally murdered but by the hands of his creator. This was obviously no regular kid... the ability to conjure living beings was an ability the commodore never heard of. Is it some sort of devil fruit? Quickly the commodore, fished out an emergency joint before placing it to his lips, and lighting it before the boy continued. "Definitely gonna need this." he whispered to himself as the boy snapped. Red eyes appeared from behind the throne, attached to Nazaki. The brown skinned commodore widened his eyes, placed his lighter away before gripping his gun and gripping his scythe. Things were gonna get serious.

"I wonder just how much you can take before you break."

With that, a total of 5 beings emerged from the darkness, two appeared to be some sort of fox-like beings with multiple tails, while one of them appeared to resemble the creature he had previously faced- though this one more fish-like than the last. With the boy's taunting words, the monsters rushed forward. Nazaki immediately drew his gun shooting at the winged creature first since that was the one that moved the fastest. The other creatures didn't seem as fast and it would be much easier for him to deal with them considering they couldn't fly.

The flying creature swooped down towards Nazaki, spinning to dodge the bullet entirely. As he closed in the Commodore continued to shoot, standing confidently as the bullets quickly traveled towards him but as they connected with the flying beasts wings, they simply fell to the floor.  "The hell?" He murmured to himself as the spliff sat on the left side of his mouth. The flying creature within a second expanded it's wings and revealed that it planned to crash headfirst into Nazaki. Quickly the commodore lifted his arms, crossing them in order to protect his core from the impact. The creature wasn't too strong, but it was strong enough to force him back a few meters. Suddenly, from each side of him the fox beasts leapt. Unlike the flying creature however, these beasts were slower so it wasn't hard for Nazaki to quickly extend his hand towards one, while using his other hand to swing his scythe from behind him. On one hand - no pun intended- he shot the fox beast, while with the other his scythe swung across, chopping the other fox beasts body in half. The fight wasn't too hard, he just needed to remain on his toes and he could get out of this thing alive. The flying creature had no plans of just watching though. As Naz killed his peers, he screeched, dashing forward and driving his hand directly into his stomach. The creature had long claws, and was already pretty strong so it was easy for him to puncture his stomach. Following the attack the creature use it's wings to blow the commodore back towards the door.

"Fffffuck." He complained as he fell to one knee. He breathed heavily. The pain was intense, but it was nothing that couldn't be healed on it's own. Nothing could have been more sinister than the look on the kid's face. When Nazaki finally looked at him he could only see his teeth. "You little son of a bitch..." He murmured as blood no longer fell from the wound at his stomach. Quickly his skin grew back together and before he knew it, the wound was closed. If he wanted to end this quick, he had to up his game. Nazaki snatched a heat dial from his waist. The idea was to heat it up for more powerful attacks. From here on out Nazaki would show what he could do. He would prove it to everyone eventually no matter what it took. Not wasting any time, he began to heat up his scythe.  Having a healing factor is one thing, but a healing factor as strong as Nazaki's is something extremely unique. By the time his wound was sealed and back to normal he stood. Confidently, he twirled his scythe with a smirk. I can tell that this'll be even more intense than my fight with Lyon, but I'm stronger now. The commodore thought. His eyes focused as he inhaled the smoke from his spliff before putting the heat dial pack onto his waist. Only a minute would pass since he was pushed to the door, so he had no time to waste. The creature spread it's wings before flapping, raising itself in the air as Nazaki closed the distance between them. The creature readied itself for an attack, looking down on the marine officer. In no time the gap of 10 meters vanished and the creature began to fly down towards it's prey. With a leap and a swing of his scythe after closing the gap, the creature's wing left wing folded, blocking the scythe but steaming as the heat came in contact with it. As he noticed the wing beginning to burn, the creature reached out and grabbed Nazaki by his throat before tossing him about 3 meters into the air.

So heat has an effect He thought as the creature appeared in front of him, swinging his fist only for Nazaki to block it with his right arm. Quickly with his left, he jabbed forward, punching the creature in the face as he swung his scythe towards the creature. Still they were in mid-air, unlike Nazaki the creature was able to fly. From this distance, landing would fucking break him. The Creature's wings folded blocking the scythe from actually connecting with his body but completely slicing through both wings. *SCREEECH* The creature cried out. Nazaki dove towards the creature, landing on it mid-air and kicking off as they neared the ground to land smoothly. The Creature crashed into the floor. A cloud of dust covering the creature. This only felt like the beginning of a really big fight. He knew the creature couldn't have been done in my something so simple. The winged beast emerged from the cloud and took fighting stance. With another pull off his spliff, he smirked. Now he was feeling the effects of his weed. His mind calmed and suddenly the creature looked...well...retarded. "BWAHAHA! You're so fucking ugly -" The creature darted forward, swiping and swinging at Nazaki as he approached. "Whoah whoah, I'm just kidding bro." He said as he began to dodge the attacks coming his way. The creature's speed began to pick up, attacking with more fury. "Oh fuck." he murmured as he realized what was happening. The creature screeched, letting out a wave of sound energy in Nazaki's face, distorting his hearing for about a second as it appeared behind him. The creature swung it's leg, delivering a roundhouse directly towards his left rib. The commodore, in the nick of time used his scythe and slammed the head of it on the ground beside his left side, blocking the kick before delivering a back kick the creatures chest.

Nothing I can't handle. The creature took the impact of the kick, but in turn gripped Nazaki's leg before swinging him over his head and slamming him onto the ground. The commodore coughed, closing his eyes as the dust created a small cloud but opening in time to see the Creature in the air. It was going to land right on him if he didn't move. Quickly he held his scythe and rolled to the left Will his arm was extended, swinging over as he rolled, and slicing the creatures face clean off as it fell into blade. Nazaki looked to the side to see the creature faceless, lifeless, on the floor. "You're next kid!" He shouted.

stuff:

Nazaki breathed heavily, pushing himself off of the ground but still holding his scythe tightly within his hand. As he got up, the kid did so stood up obviously amused with the events unfolding. Nazaki perched his lips, sighing as he took his stance while the boy took. His scythe was pointed behind him, his hand holding it over his right shoulder, ready to use it whenever he could. "Me? Oh, Nazaki Jones. The name of nobody important." He'd say nonchalantly. At this point he just wanted to get this over with. Suddenly the boy became much more enthusiastic. These ideas that Nazaki would become his most prized possession came about and the commodore could do as the space around the two became black. Red eyes opened, glowing vibrantly enough for the young marine to see his opponent, but staring at him. Nazaki looked around him quickly as he held his holstered gun in response to seeing the eyes open. Was he supposed to shoot these things or something? Suddenly, He could see a shadow like spear moving his way. Nazaki focused his eyes and just as the spear came within five meters, it opened up to becoming some weird like grabbing mechanic. Seeing this the Commodore dashed about 5 meters to his left , "Whoah." drawing his gun at the same moment with his left hand and shooting exactly three times towards Ozious once he landed 5 meters from where he was standing. He was aiming to hit him along his torso hopefully ending this quick. During his second trigger pull, he began to run forward towards Ozious, watching his surroundings in case any random attacks came his way but moving as fast as he could to close the distance.

Immediately the cage of shadows disappeared and now Nazaki was faced with three more monsters. These monsters were kind of like the ones he previously battled instead these were more fishlike than the ones from before. Naz could see the injured kid hurry from the area they were in while holding his torso area. The commodore gathered himself, his gun still in his hand while his scythe remained in the other. "Hey! Get back here kid!" he snarled. With the winged creatures guarding him he had no way of approaching him, so instead "You've earned yourself a long timeout, kid!" he ended as the boy moved away. "Shit" The beasts growled. It was obvious that these monsters also had more killing intent. Nazaki had no other option. Quickly he threw his scythe around his shoulder and fished for his flash dial. What he was about to do next would no doubt put his life at greater risk than it already was but his main priority was to get to the boy. Perhaps knocking the boy out would make these monsters disappear but if he failed...if he failed he'd have a harder time getting to the bottom of this thing. The three monsters stood side by side, each one about a meter apart from the next as Nazaki stood only 5 meters away. "Well, what are you guys waiting for?" He asked as the first beasts all zoomed towards him. Without wasting another moment, he threw he aimed his flash dial, clicking on whilst covering his eyes with his opposite arm. The area boomed with an intense light for a second and when it was over the beasts all screeched, swinging their arms wildly and crashing into walls as they struggled to regain their vision. Swiftly, the commodore moved through them before turning to face them, using his gun to shoot each of them in the back of their heads. After that was done he turned to move towards the direction in which he saw the kid moving, reloading as he began to approach a room with two opened doors.

"Come here kiddy, I juuuuuuuuust wanna talk." He lied as he slowly entered the room, scouting his left and his right and seeing nothing beside him. "You've caused enough trouble already, just give it up." He sighed. "I'm already angry with you for making me drop my spliff, don't make this any harder for me, I don't like killing kids ya know..."

Nazaki looked around, seeing nothing but an open space in front of him yet he could still feel an ominous vibe. Something much darker and scarier than before. With his gun clutched, he placed his other hand on the hilt of his scythe. "Something's not right...at all." he whispered to himself before lifting his head. Before his very eyes a black cocoon like structure rested above him. "What the..." There was no way whatever was inside that thing was weak. Although his previous fights were intense, this could potentially be the one that kills him- or maim's him in the very least since he was nearly immortal at this point. Seeing the cocoon nearly staggered the commodore but quickly he leapt back forward so that he wasn't underneath the cocoon anymore. Suddenly an arm tore through the cocoon like paper. This arm wasn't any ordinary arm though, it was demonic, monstrous, and just seeing the arm alone forced Naz to gulp. "Oh man..." he whimpered. "I don't get paid enough for this, I swear." To be fair, Nazaki had nobody to blame. If he didn't bring his ass to the Greenie pass then he wouldn't have found out there were monsters taking villagers. At the same time, if he didn't go to the greenie pass than so many lives were at stake and this situation would be more problematic in the future, after all he was the commodore in charge of Lulusia's marine base until the execution of Yuurei was over. Taking his hand from his hilt, he grabbed his flash dial. People slept on how useful a flash dial was, but a dial specialist knew that every dial was important.

It didn't take long for the newborn beast to land directly in front of Nazaki before roaring. His presence was daunting, his height made him tower at nearly 8 feet and his breath smelled like horse shit, literally. As he roared though, Nazaki leapt back even further but was interrupted mid retreat as a black blade was instantaneously created. The blade moved so fast that Nazaki couldn't react properly, resulting in it slicing across his stomach causing blood to fall from it and splatter onto the floor. However, it was a good thing he moved when he did or the damage could have been much worse. The commodore landed about 15 meters away from the monster, ignoring the wound across his stomach as it began to heal before shooting towards the beast three more times. If it moved, he'd follow it with his gun attempting to at least hit it once. He knew he had to end this quick.

Spoiler:

@Winged Menace

The commodore focused his gun shooting at the creature as it moved on the wall. It was interesting site, and in a way the young Commodore was having fun. Perhaps it was because he was so hard to kill that he his fear dwindled, however sleeping on this boy turned demon wasn't an option especially considering his wide range of abilities. Nazaki readied himself as the creature got closer, shifting his body so that he could still dump his bullets until there were no more. Instead of reloading, he instead dropped the gun and placed his hand on the hilt of his scythe. When the shooting stopped, the creature leaped towards him and at that moment the commodore knew what the creature aimed for. Almost instantly he shifted his heart to his stomach while also moving both his lungs to the center of his chest allowing the creatures horns to impale both of his breasts. The commodore spit blood onto the beasts head. The pain was bearable but it still hurt like hell. Once the demons horns impale him, he moved his hand to where the demons eyes would be before closing his eyes tight, turning his head and turning on the flash dial that he was holding this entire time, to blind his enemy. If this succeeded, he'd draw his scythe and swing down all in the same motion into the middle of the monsters back. "I'm... gonna finish this... right now."

skills:

@Winged Menace