Serious: The Scum of the Sea (Open to anyone)

Setting: A backwater island in the West Blue that is mainly covered in a dense jungle. A small town is located on the northern side of the island. Since the island is out of the way, it has little protection from Marines. A small gang of pirates has currently set up shop in the jungle, but they have left the town alone so far. However, the villagers are afraid that this could change at any moment and have sent for the Marines in the hope that they will come soon.
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Kenji Sumishiba blocked the sun's rays with his arm as he pulled onto the beach. He scanned the shoreline briefly before noting the presence of a human town only about ten minutes walk from where he stood. The young man had been sailing on the ocean for several weeks, stopping for short periods to pick up more supplies at the islands he came across, which were few and far between. Unfortunately for him, he had recently run out of food, one of his oars had broken, and the rowboat he had been using to travel around was old and had sprung a leak. Now, it was worthless to him. He had no way of repairing it, even if he knew how. His only hope was to reach the nearest town and hope someone would be willing to share some food with him. Kenji snatched up the unbroken oar to use as a weapon if the need arose, and he set off into the jungle.

Kenji approached the town, trying to remain hidden as he did. Though he was not normally so cautious, Kenji had seen a new bounty poster with his name on it on the last island he had found. He reached the edge of the small town and ducked behind a tree just in time to avoid three men, who were oblivious to their surroundings as they headed out in the jungle. Kenji headed into the village, pulling himself up the side of a building and onto its roof to have a better look around. All in all, the village was only composed of about forty buildings. Kenji spotted a couple of women walking down a nearby street. Deciding he needed to ask some questions, Kenji crept after the women, dropping down the side of the building with ease.

"Hello, ladies," Kenji said, hanging by his feet, upside down, from a flagpole that was on the side of a building. Shocked by his sudden appearance, the women stumbled backwards. While they were recovering from their initial surprise, Kenji looked them over. The women appeared to be in their mid to late twenties. They were casually dressed, perhaps they were simply going for a walk. One of the women was several inches taller then the other. She looked tired, her eyes half closed. The other seemed much more lively, especially when she had leaped back three feet when Kenji appeared.

"Watch it!" the smaller woman scolded Kenji. "What do you think you're doing?"

"My apologies," Kenji said, doing a bizarre upside down bow. "I did not intend to scare you. I simply thought this would be the best way to get your attention."

The taller woman smiled and shrugged. "Well, you got our attention. What do you need?"

"Just some information," Kenji replied. "For instance, what is this island called? And...is there a Marine base nearby?"

"This island is called Calm," the taller woman informed him. "As for a Marine base, the nearest one is a couple islands over, which is unfortunate..."

"What do you mean?" Kenji asked, curiously.

"There are pirates on this island," the woman replied. "They have not made a move on our town, but their presence is unnerving. We have attempted to contact the Marines, but they have not sent anyone yet to help."

"Interesting..." Kenji muttered.

"So what's your name?" the shorter woman asked him suddenly.

"Who? Me?" Kenji considered not telling them, but he figured that they didn't collect bounty posters as much as some islands, since they were so far out of the way. Then again, there were pirates on the island, so maybe it wasn't so out of the way as he thought. After a moment, Kenji said, "I'm Kenji Sumishiba."

"You hesitated," the shorter woman said. "You're lying to us."

"Ah...no, actually I'm not," Kenji chuckled. "I'm just being cautious."

"You're the one who spoke to us," the taller woman pointed out.

Kenji grinned sheepishly. "True. Anyhow, thanks for helping me out!" He dropped down to the ground and headed off in the opposite direction of the women.

So he hadn't really gotten all that much information, but the little tidbits were better then nothing. Especially the part about the pirates. Kenji left the small village and headed out into the jungle. He climbed into the trees and soon was making good progress, swinging along on vines. The circus training was really paying off.

It wasn't hard to locate the pirate camp, which was situated in the center of the jungle, in a clearing where they had set fire to a small pile of logs. There were only six pirates in all. They were a scruffy bunch. Smelly too, Kenji observed, wrinkling his nose in disgust. If he had learned anything from his teacher at the circus, it was to take care of his personal hygiene. After all, if one went out and socialized with the people in the crowd then it was more likely that those people would return, or tell others about them. You couldn't do that if you were dirty.

Ignoring his senses, Kenji swung into a tree above the pirates before lowering himself down into their midst. He had done this quietly so that none of the pirates had even noticed his presence. Kenji leaned over behind a pirate who was roasting a rabbit on a stick over a fire. Kenji sniffed the air and then said, "I would turn it at least three more times. Slowly, make sure you get all the sides."

The pirate was so shocked he fell off of the rock he had been sitting on. He upended the stick he had been holding, into the fire, the rabbit going up in flames. As two of the pirates rushed forward to amend the damage, the others drew various weapons and pointed them at Kenji.

"Who are you?" the boss pirate asked.

"Me?" Kenji shrugged. "I am irrelevant. But you, my good sir, are one I am most interested in meeting."

"Oh yeah?" the pirate narrowed his eyes. "How do I know that you're not just a bounty hunter?"

"A bounty hunter?" repeated Kenji, looking shocked. "Do you have a bounty?"

"2,300,000!" the pirate replied, smugly. "Not that it's your business."

Kenji looked amazed and inwardly, he was jumping for joy. This guy could really help him out! "Yes sir, that is a fine bounty," Kenji said approvingly. "I'm sure the local townspeople are quaking in fear of you."

The pirate deflated slightly and looked simply annoyed. "Actually I haven't spoken to the townspeople yet," he said. "I have only a few men with me. The others were lost in a storm. Don't even know if they are alive anymore."

"I see," Kenji put his hands together and smiled. "But you would like to get...'acquainted' with the townspeople, right? I can help you with that..."

Kenji sat on a branch in a tree near the island's village. He waited patiently for his first victim to arrive. It had been so easy to lure the pirates into his trap with the promise of treasure and power. Kenji needed money and weapons. Even more then that he needed to the townspeople's trust if he was ever to get off of this island. And what better way to do that then if he captured their greatest threat?

Kenji slid down on his branch so that he was sitting with his legs dangling over the edge. Below him he could see a pirate making his way towards the village. Back at the pirate camp, Kenji had convinced the pirate captain that he should split up his forces, sending each of his pirates separately into the village from different angles. That way people would not be as suspicious of them since there would only be one man instead of six. Once inside the village, the pirates would begin sneaking into houses and killing the adults. They would take the children outside and bunch them up together. The pirates could use them as slaves once they got their vessels back. Of course, Kenji had no intention of allowing this to happen. Splitting up the pirates just made it easier to deal with them. Kenji proved this to be the case when he jumped down and struck the first pirate across the head with his oar. The man dropped like a stone and Kenji dragged him into the bushes, disarmed him, and tied him up. Then he headed around the village perimeter to where the next pirate was set to appear and he waited. Once more, Kenji was successful. He repeated this process three more times until only the pirate captain was left. Kenji hid in the tree, hoping that it would go as smoothly as the other times. It did not. The pirate captain saw Kenji's shadow and he rolled to the side, coming up with his sword in hand.

"Well, that was disappointing," Kenji muttered.

"What do you think you're doing?" the pirate captain snapped. "Where are the others? Have they made it into town?"

"Huh?" Kenji looked surprised. It took him a moment to realize that the pirate captain didn't know that he had been trying to knock him out. Unfortunately, his expression was more then enough to put the pirate on his guard.

"So you don't know," he said. "And if you don't know then that means...you're not really following the plan, are you?"

Kenji sighed resignedly. This had just gone downhill. Big time.

"Right...enough with this act," Kenji said. "Yeah, I'm not following the plan. I had no intention of following the plan."

"And my men...?" the pirate captain asked without really completing his sentence.

"They're all tied up at the moment," Kenji replied. His grip tightened on the oar he was holding in one hand. "So...what are you going to do now?"

"Well, to start off," the pirate captain said, advancing on Kenji. "I'm going to cut your head off."

"Bad idea," Kenji replied.

The captain simply swung his sword at Kenji's throat, but Kenji ducked under it and jabbed upwards, knocking the weapon aside by striking it on the flat of the blade with his oar. He spun the oar upwards over his head and brought one end crashing down on the captain's head. The pirate captain stumbled back, clutching the top of his now bleeding head.

"So you can fight," the captain muttered.

"Is this the power of a two million bounty head?" Kenji snapped back. "Or is all that for show?"

"No, it's because I gathered so many others to my side and gave them a purpose," the captain replied evenly. "I will not lie to you. I am not especially powerful. However, I will not simply give up when my crew is counting on me."

The pirate captain leveled his sword, pointing the tip at Kenji. He rushed foward snapping out his weapon at high speed aiming rapid strikes at Kenji, who began flipping and twisting to avoid each attack. He used his oar occasionally to knock aside an attack, but he was not only keeping up with the captain's speed, but overcoming it.

"How can you move so fast?" the captain asked him.

Without missing a beat, Kenji cartwheeled out of the way of an attack that would have hit his left lung. "I was part of a circus," Kenji replied. "I was one of the top acrobats. Not only that, but I have trained with some of the circus's swordsmen and some of them used to be pirates. I learned a few tricks. Like this one."

Suddenly Kenji shot forward into the captain's guard. He seized the captain's swordhand and twisted it to the side before jabbing his knee into the pirate captain's chest. The captain was doubled over, but Kenji wasn't done. Raising his oar in his free hand he brought the back end of the oar crashing down on the back of the captain's head, knocking him down and out.

"That's game," Kenji said...right before he fell down into a sitting position and sat there, panting.

"This great hero has saved us from those villainous pirates!" The village elder was giving a speech at a feast that was being held in Kenji's honor.

"Ah, twern't nothin'!" Kenji said, looking embarrassed by all the attention. "Those pirates were half-baked. You guys could have beat 'em."

"I think you're selling yourself short," the elder said, smiling kindly at Kenji.

"Not really," Kenji replied, waving his comment aside. "You guys just got to learn how to stand up for yourselves. I have to leave here, you see."

"You're leaving? Already?" Several of the village's children had gathered around Kenji and were staring up at him sadly.

"Yeah," Kenji nodded. "I have some things I need to do."

"Alright," the elder nodded. "But before you go, you should meet with our village's other hero. The great Rabbit Sage."

"The great...what?" Kenji smiled nervously. "Sure...why not?" Inwardly he was thinking, "A sage? This could be interesting..."
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"The Rabbit Sage is a great man who learned the Red Dragon technique," the elder explained, crouching next to Kenji in some bushes.

One of Kenji's eyebrows twitched comically, before he pointed out at the small, brown rabbit which was sitting ten feet away from the two men, apparently not having noticed them. "THAT IS A RABBIT!" Kenji shouted. The frightened animal jumped a few feet in the air before speeding away from them.

"Be quiet!" the elder snapped. "He's very shy of other humans. Besides, that is a disguise he is wearing."

"If he's such a great fighter, then why didn't he detect us when we approached earlier?" Kenji asked, snidely.

"Well...um..." the elder scratched his head. "I have no clue."

"Fine," Kenji sighed. "But you have piqued my interest. I think I would like to learn more about this creature. In fact, I think I'll catch me a Rabbit Sage."

((You know, I mainly create this thread to give Kenji a starting point, but since I'm getting bored with it I'll just speed things up a bit.))

"Got ya!" Kenji wrapped his arms around the rabbit and brought the struggling creature to the ground. "That wasn't so hard," Kenji muttered. Then the rabbit kicked him in the face. Repeatedly. "OUCH!" Kenji rolled back, putting his hands over his face. He pulled his hands away to glare at the rabbit, which had not moved, but had been staring at him triumphantly. "For that," Kenji said quietly. "You die."

The next few hours were a blur for Kenji as he fought the rabbit off and on. Neither seemed to be able to overcome the other. Kenji was much bigger then the rabbit and much more resilient. The rabbit was faster and proved that it was a good fighter by forcing Kenji down many times. At long last, the two of them lay side by side, both breathing heavily.

"I never thought...I would be...brought down...by a rabbit!" Kenji gasped out. He turned his head around to grin at the small animal. "You're really...good."

The rabbit smiled back at him and jumped to its feet. It waved a paw at Kenji and beckoned him to follow it. He pulled himself back to his feet, his exhaustion forgotten and the two of them set off together.

The rabbit led Kenji to a house. The house was overgrown with vines, the door was off of its hinges and lying in the front lawn, and several of the windows were broken. It was obvious no one had lived here in a long time. Kenji followed the rabbit inside. The first room was an entryway that had two doors leading off into other rooms, and a staircase. In one corner of the entryway was a nest of moss and branches. Apparently that nest was where the rabbit slept because he bounded over to it first. The rabbit rifled around in the nest for a minute and then he pulled out a small piece of paper. The rabbit beckoned Kenji to follow him again, and he led him through a door which was on the opposite side of the entryway. On the other side of the door was a bedroom and leaning against the bed was a wooden object, which sort of looked like an oar.* The rabbit pointed at the wooden object and then at Kenji.

"Is it for me?" Kenji asked the rabbit. The rabbit nodded, so Kenji crossed the room and picked up the wooden...thing. "Um...thanks," Kenji said after a moment.

*Here is what the wooden object looks like. It's called an Eku.

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