"Ash." I looked up to see Sophie. I stood up. She started walking towards kitchen and I followed. Everyone was sitting on the table, including Cassie. I looked outside from the window and saw that it was still day.

I sat on a chair and looked at the others. They seemed to be waiting for me to start. I turned to Merideth. "Merideth, is there any news?"

She shook her head. "The people I followed didn't know what their boss was up to. I think he doesn't trust them. Though they met someone wearing marines uniform, they didn't talk about anything important. They talked mostly of their men's health.” I nodded and turned to Mary who shook her head.

“Then lets talk about our plan for tonight. Do any of you have any idea of what we should do?”

Mary raised her hand. “I think we should let them take the weapons, then we follow them to their place.”

“There is a hostage.” Said Emerald.

“And there is the possibility that where they go, their numbers would be too high for us to do anything to them.” Merideth added.

I nodded. “We will first take down the guards,”I turned to Reena and nodded.” free Reena's daughter and wait for Abbot. Then we will knock him and his man out. After that,” I turned to Mary. ”Mary will interrogate this Abbot and if necessary others too. Then Reena's men will take the weapons while we were on our way to where Abbot and his men stays.” I took a deep breath. “Is there anything you want to add?” No one talked, so I nodded again and stood up. Others stood up with me too and we headed towards the warehouse, leaving Sophie and Cassie at home.

When we are closer to the warehouse, we hid behind the trees and made our way stealthily. Me and Sora went in from window while the others circled the guards. When we were inside I ran to the door. Sora stood behind the door while I knocked it once. After a short while door opened and someone extended their head. He was a man with dark hair and dark eyes. He saw me and got closer, not seeing Sora.

“Well, kid. Tell me, what are you doing here?”

“I lost my ball. I am looking for it.”

He got closer, a dangerous light in his eyes. “Where did you miss it?” I pointed somewhere random at my back. He nodded then got even closer and reached towards me with his hand. “Lets look at it together.” He said but he said it in such a way that my blood froze. Just when I was about to answer, a scream is heard. Man looked that way and saw Sora but, it was too late. Sora took him down in a single move and proceeded to tie him up. After a few seconds, others came with the other guard. We found Reena's daughter and freed her. Then we hid between crates and started waiting. I, of course, started meditating instead.

“Ash.” I opened my eyes and saw the door open. A man I didn't see before came inside looked at the crates and started talking.

“Boxes are here. Where did those idiots go.” He turned back to outside. “Everyone, we are going to take what we can. Move quickly.” This order made him the priority target. Then people started to get inside. But whenever they got outside of Abbot's line of sight they knocked down by us. Merideth already walked outside to check if there is someone else and we were just waiting everyone to show themselves.

After a few seconds Abbot started to get suspicious. He barked an order inside a few times but no one answered. Just then we saw Merideth. She was making an all right gesture. Then we showed ourselves. Seeing we are holding the number advantage, Abbot tried to run but Merideth took care of him in one move. Then we bound him too and I send Aiko and Reena's daughter to get Reena. We put Abbot on a chair and started waiting.

Reena as she said, came with a large number of man and carriages. They quickly started to carry boxes and Reena approached me while looking around in wonder. “Even Kingdom doesn't have this much flintlock weapons. How did they get these?”

“There must be a third party.” Was my theory. She nodded thoughtfully but didn't say anything. Just then Abbot started to move and fell from the chair we put him on. He then woke up. He looked around and made a very peculiar face.

I called Mary. She got closer to Abbot and starting talking. “Hello Abbot.”

“Hello. What? Who are you people?! You are making a big mistake to steal from us!”

Mary just smiled serenely. Not seeming to heard what Abbot said. “Tell me Abbot. It must be hard to do this work. You are under constant threat of death right?”

“Yes.”He sighed. “How did you know?”

“I can see what's in your heart Abbot. Tell me, didn't you do this enough?”

“I.. Maybe. I-I don't know. I felt, you know powerful doing this job. But now..”

“You don't want to do this anymore. I can see that.” He nodded reluctantly. “Tell us then.”

“What should I say?”

“Tell us where you are living” She pointed to the man we were bound before. “and where did you find these men.”

“I-I was living with these men.. there. If I tell you the place you will let me go right?” She nodded.

“There was another abandoned warehouse. We made there in to barracks. We were staying there.”

“Where is it Abbot? Tell me and you will get what you want.” He then told us where is the barracks and how to find it. At the end of the talk, Abbot told us everything he knew of his boss but there was nothing knew, other then the fact that he was a noble of the Kingdom. Which was all that we needed to find his real identity.

We managed to confirm the existence of a third party too but not their identity, sadly. But stil,l that was another good improvement.

In an hour Reena's man managed to carry all crates to carriages and they started to move towards the city. We were, instead of going our next target, stayed with them to protect carriages, just in case. There Mary took Abbot to Marine Outpost.

Once everything was stored in Kingdom's guarded warehouses, and after Mary came back from Marine Outpost with another bag. We headed towards the so called barracks.

When we reached there how it could be hidden became obvious. This warehouse wasn't standing, it was demolished. There was a few people around but they didn't seem interested at the demolished building. We knew better though. We split the party three different groups. Each went for one of the people outside. Upon seeing us they looked at each other and tried to regroup, but we prevented them. After binding the last person Mary did her job and we found the entrance. We left Aiko to stand guard the captives and quietly went inside.

There was a long tunnel and at the end of it, a big cave. There was bunks and sitting and lying on them was people. There were at least a hundred of them. Luckily there wasn't any Haki user, so it was very easy. Sora opened her face and got closer to them and when they froze Merideth bound them. We just stayed at the back and watched the happenings. After Merideth was done we went in and took a look at what they have.

There was nothing much. Some books, some weapons, though none of them were flintlock. I was pretty sure whoever was their boss will cough blood after learning this. When we were done with looking things we started to quickly take people out of the cave, where we can split them into money and non-money groups.

After about an hour we managed to take them out and put them beside their comrades. Emerald went back to home but Sophie came in her stead. When she came, Sophie took out her trusty stapler and started to work on finding bounties and marking them. While she was going about it Mary, Marideth and Aiko were working on taking them to Marine Outpost. It was looking like it will take long so I sat on a corner and started meditating on my Observing Skill, just because I didn't have anything important to work on.

Meditating this skill was odd. It was like I was observing something even though I observed nothing. After a while I found myself in a dark space. When I say dark, I don't mean a place where there is no light. There was light but there was still dark, just like space. I looked at my body, I was naked. I shrugged. Just when I was about to check if I can move I felt a pressure on my right shoulder. I opened my eyes, it was Sophie.

I looked around and saw marines. They were taking the criminals on carriages. I looked at Sophie questioningly, she just chuckled and pointed somewhere. When I turned to look, I saw girls loading some criminals on a different carriage. I stood up and together with Sophie, made my way there. I looked in carriage, there was at least twenty criminals laying on top of each other. Seeing this I couldn't help but smile. I know, we were treating people like fish but knowing they were intending to do a bloody take over, I didn't feel generous enough to think them as human.

After loading was done, we loosely circled the carriage and started moving towards the city. While we were walking I looked around, like really. I saw only trees. No animals, there wasn't even the sounds of birds. That made me thinking. 'Did I hear any bird sound since I came here? No. That means either there are not any birds in this island, which is unlikely. Or they are keeping them caged. Come to think of it, since I came here I didn't eat meat, that isn't fish. I must do something about it.'

We reached the Marine Outpost in an hour. I stayed outside while girls carried the bounties inside. After a while there was quite a few onlookers. One of them got close to me and asked about the bounties. When I told them what they tried, onlookers started booing. Some even tried to harm the bounties but I intervened and persuaded them using the words 'Impel Down'. Hearing that they just looked and watched the criminals getting inside.

Work was done in a few minutes. Girls loaded the bags to carriage and got on. They looked at me but I waved my hand. “You go on ahead. I need to talk to Officer.” They nodded and carriage started to move. I made my way inside to look for officer but couldn't find her, so I asked a someone where she is. It seems she was inside trying to find a way to accommodate all criminals we brought. So I sat on a corner then looked at the screen that came after the meditation before.

Skill Observation Leveled Up By 1

“Good.” Then I started meditating again. It was the same space. This time as soon as I got there, I tried to move but I couldn't, so that's that.

“Ash. Wake up.” I opened my eyes and looked up. It was the Officer. “Why are you sleeping here?”

“I wasn't sleeping.” She looked at me questioningly. 'There isn't enough time to teach her what is meditation.' I shook my head. “Don't mind it. In fact, I was waiting for you.”

“Hmm. Don't tell me you are choosing me, because I wouldn't believe.” 'What?'

“No. I here to warn you.” She gestured for me to go on. “This criminals we brought in, they are too healthy.”

She looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“Their employer will certainly try to free them. I am here to warn you, so you don't get caught unprepared.”

“They have an employer. Right.. Obviously. Since when do you know this?”

“Since the attack on the forge of course. It was obvious wasn't it?” She rolled her eyes. “Don't ask me who is their leader. I don't know.”

“Do you know anything at all?”

“Nope. I will be sure to show him to you when we catch him, so you can sate your curiosity. Since after all, catching criminals seems to be our job here.” I said, turned around and quickly made my way out.” 'This should make her follow, hehe.'

I turned my head to look, sure enough, she was following. I stopped when I found a quiet, empty space and waited for Officer. She came after a short while, red. She looked at me and opened her mouth to say something then stopped. She came closer but not close enough to kiss. 'Fail.' “You managed to catch them, because they weren't ready for you and your women. So don't get clever with me.”

“Did you ever think though ” I purposefully paused here and took a deep breath. “that, what would happen, if you were my woman too?”

She got even redder and opened her mouth but just turned around and started walking away. I watched her back, smiled and whispered. “Its near. You will come to me too, bhahahahaha!”