Serious: Two of Seven - The Warlords' Task ((Open to Gorefish, Karasu; PM if you wish to join))

((OOC: Sorry guys, I'm on vacation, i had barely any time as it was but on Vacation I have rare to none, I'll try to post as much as I can))

Karasu listened to Shiv practically scold him, it seemed like the whole reason the two warlords were sent there was to work together, not that it was needed for them to. Karasu took the title of Warlord seriously, it meant he was closer to achieving his goal.. and that he had grown since the last time he left his island. This would have been the first time he would test himself to that title.

Shiv decided to ask the women her name.. oh yes, it would help Karasu look for information on her if she did decide to answer. The women had started to peek his curiosity, she almost seemed fearless.

The Marine decided to help them reach the destination they were needed, but she wouldn't help further then that. The reason behind that was not known to Karasu.. but his guess was the pirates were either too strong, or too hard to catch. Shiv started walking, while the marine walked ahead of him. Karasu was behind them, trying to blend without them noticing him too much.

"I guess that means I'm teaming up with 'Shiv The Devourer', I wont complain since my partner is strong"

As Mistwolf caught up to her, walking slowly and swiftly, Meredith had a hard time surpressing a shudder. It just wasn't right. Nothing about that man was right to her. The way he looked, behaved, moved, everything about him was alien. Not for the first time in her life, Meredith asked herself whether it would have been wiser to stop, whether the possible gain from this little charade could really match up to the risk she was taking. As usual, though, she was already in too deep to go back.

She tried to focus on the path ahead of her. Grove 27 wasn't that far away. If she was lucky, they'd run into one of the suspects soon and then hopefully, the warlords attention would be drawn away from her. If things went exceedingly well, which, honestly, they never did, then maybe they could just get this over with in silence. And by "get this over with", she of course meant "turn those shichibukai into ex-shichibukai".
Maybe there was some way to make sure the two of them lost? It didn't have to be humiliating, just bad enough.

She was disrupted in her thoughts by Mistwolf, who had once again spoken up, and she scolded herself inwardly for letting her guard down for even a moment. He had moved so quietly, so swiftly she had forgotten about his existance. It just wasn't right for such a hulking creature to move with such... such.... Even putting the word "grace" into connection with him seemed wrong, though it admittedly was the first thing that came to her mind. Speaking of which, hadn't there been two of them?
Meredith didn't turn to check whether Karasu was still behind them, that would have been like admitting she had let it slip her mind that he was supposed to be with them, which wouldn't have been bad if not for the fact that she was supposed to keep an eye on them. Not really, but even fake orders made up by her had to be treated like real orders, or their general fakeness would shine through.

There were bigger problems than Karasu at hand right now, anyway!
She didn't want to give them her name! She wouldn't have wanted to give them her name even if they hadn't been completely untustworthy scumbags. Just the motion of revealing this piece of information made her shudder inwardly, which she knew was childish, since she doubted either of them had the political knowledge to know about her family, especially Mistwolf, who she sincerely believed to have no remarkable knowledge whatsoever. Even if they did, so what? what would they do?
She was far from helpless, and attacking her, she reminded herself would not only be a highly illogical move, but also end in profit for her.... that was, if she survived.

But all those smaller points weren't really that important in the light of what Mistwolf had just done. She couldn't be completely sure, but she thought he might have.... chuckled? Why though?! What was he on about?!
Meredith glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, and was surprised to find him looking back. She resisted the urge to break eye contact right away, and instead frowned, doing her best to hide her confusion as she realised he was not only looking, not only chuckling or making small talk, he was also.... smiling... or.... showing his teeth, at least...
What was this mans game?!

One moment he didn't even react to her provocations, however subtle they might have been, the next he suddenly indulged in pointless smalltalk... Nothing wrong with that, right? Meredith had trouble believing he was just being nice. She had trouble believing he knew what the word even meant. She herself had a vague grasp of its meaning, but this man? No way. everythign about him was off. Alien. Weird. Even less likely that he was making any advances, friendly or otherwise towards her.
He was either a complete stranger to social interaction or a tactical genius messing with her head.
Either way, she decided to test carefully just how far she could go here.
Without breaking off eye contact, even though not blinking was hard, she coldly, but neutrally replied.
"You may call me Captain, shichibukai. I believe that should suffice, no?"
For a few more seconds, she returned his stare, making sure not to smile back. Then, she turned back to the way ahead of them.
"There we are. Grove 27. As promised."

Grove twenty seven... Rarely had he been to a more.... what to call it now... Dark eyes searched the scene, picking up any movement, any sign of life, which there was a lot of. whether this was normal or extraordinary, he couldn't say, but he had a feeling that some of those men weren't exactly here to enjoy a nice holiday. Jackknife had been followed. Oh yes, he had. Hadn't noticed, of course. Too caught up in his own delusion of grandeur to notice. And the marine had called in two shichibukai, newly appointed, on the job. This smelled of danger.
The eyes didn't stop, didn't linger on anything, kept on flitting between the many things there were to see. The man they belonged to stayed perfectly still, just standing in one of the many alleys, looking out into the main street.
Big things were going down. People could feel it. It was that feeling of nervosity, that anxiety, the everpresent need for action, like a school of fish waiting for a shark attack. They had no idea how big it'd be, of course. No idea even what made them so nervous. Most of them, anyway.
The two shichibukai would be here soon. The wolf and the bird. And they'd cause trouble, they would. Lots of blood would be flowing, though theirs or someone elses, he couldn't tell yet. Would be interesting. Would be risky.
The man slowly took a step back, retreated into the alleyway, seemingly becoming one with the shadow.
He had a meeting to attend to. Little missy didn't quite know what she was doing. Talent, resources and a name that told tales of old glory. Would that be enough though? Who knew. He didn't know. He could only believe. He believed that, if given the chance... this would be an interesting day.

It wasn't much, but there was a moment's hesitation before the marine girl replied that she should only be called "Captain". Most people wouldn't even notice it, but the space of a hundredth of a second was a long time to Shiv. It was a long time for a response that should come instantly. These tiny, near-imperceptible gaps were created by a thought process that obstructed instinct. They always preceded a lie, or else they came before more of the think-heavy nonsense that people in the civilized world used to obscure the truth or relevance or something else. In any case, they always meant that the person was saying something that was not the product of their immediate, instinctive reaction to whatever had provoked it. Though the barbarian did not know what had filled that minute pause, he knew that it meant that "Captain", while certainly not her real name, was also not a name that she instinctively identified herself with.

"Da, Kapitan," Shiv agreed easily. "Is 'suffice'." Though he wasn't really certain what sufficing meant, he was sure that she wanted him to suffice. That was sufficient for him.

A moment later they'd reached their first destination, and though it was obvious Captain had decided to state it in any case. Shiv's cold eyes took the entire place in, memorized the entire panorama of the grove down to it's finest detail. A hunter knew his footing, and a predator did not slip when it moved to strike. The only question remained was the nature of their hunt. Perfectly still, the grim northerner rolled through the possibilities of the coming fight in his mind.

There were two main types of prey; those that fled and those that fought. The former were often the more trying to hunt; they were a prey that required patience and cunning. You did not catch a hare by charging into it's clearing, nor a gazelle by rushing it's herd. You stalked and waited, surrounded and watched for the perfect moment. The land was important; if you wanted to catch it, you had to know everywhere it could run to, everywhere it could hide; you had to stay one step ahead of it. The archipelago itself was much too large for that to work. They had not been given the time to learn the island, to hunt and remain quiet until their prey revealed itself. Even if they had, Shiv was not much for small-game hunting.

The second type was much easier to hunt. Prey that fought required little more than invitation. Though in his homeland wolves had been the apex predator, he had travelled to many places where they had not been. In those places, his pack had met disaster at the hands of strange beasts. A predator does not know it is prey until it has been felled; it will stands when it is charged. It is not in the nature of these types of targets to flee; they believe themselves to be the victors until the very moment they fell. Against them, the hunt was little more than a test of strength and will; patience and planning were not much required.

Human foes, unfortunately, often fell into a third category. They were both wolf and hare, reacted with both flight and fight. While some favoured one over the other, these were hunts that required all preparation and time investment of the long hunt as well as the raw power and determination of the short hunt. The northerner was the furthest out of his element in these situations, where the human mind interfered with instincts. Prey behaving illogically and making poor decisions could act to their advantage in the face of a predator that acted only on instinct. Knowing every option a target has in this scenario is not possible, so you make it you task to know all of their best options. The downside to this is that you can always be taken off-guard when they take a poor option.

In these cases, the easiest answer was to fool your victims-to-be into becoming one type of prey or the other. A wild dog is weak, but it will attack a wolf when it is in a pack. They can be fooled into thinking themselves predator. A gorilla is strong, but it will yet flee if it faces a pack of lesser beasts. To this end, though he had no love for the task, Shiv had learned to present himself in such a way to make the weak prey feel safe. Though his reputation, in places where it was known, often hindered him in this task, the feral northsman had learned to compensate for this. He knew the ways of the hunted every bit as well as the ways of the hunter; though they were not his own, he could emulate them convincingly.

Eyes going wide and nostrils flaring, Shiv tenses every muscle in his body and spun to the side. Drawing his sword, the behemoth of a man assumed a defensive stance. His heart began to race, the barest hints of trembling visible in his hands. A cold sweat formed at his brow, and his gaze darted about uncertainly.

"We are watched," he said, his tone much too harsh.

Of course they were being watched. They had been being watched for some time. Chances are, they would be watched until every set of eyes with a will to watch them had been shut forever by his blade. What he needed was for these watchful eyes to see something that would entice their owners. They could not see Shiv, devourer of men, fearless and cold and ready to kill. The bolder and glory hungry might test their luck, but at least half of his prey would flee. No, they could not see him as he was.

They must see a hare.

Though he had no graces for the wordy and eloquent deception of the civilized world, the feral berserker knew the simple guile of the animal kingdom very well. A starving wolf might pretend to be wounded when it is hungry for an easy meal. Shiv did not care to dine on those without strength, but his was "hungry" all the same; his time on this island must be short. Until his marks had made themselves known, he would be wounded, he would give them the scent of an easy meal. It was not a cunning ruse, but simple survivalism.

"Be ready, Kapitan," warned the northerner, growling just a bit and relaxing his muscles slightly.

"Is not safe place here."

Karasu tried his best to stay in the background of the group, mainly leaving them to converse and talk to each other, possibly increasing his chances of being ignored. He was not here for some reputation, he was here because the WG needed him to take care of trash unworthy of touching the ground civilians spat on. The longer Karasu walked with the group, the more he felt like he was moving with two people that would soon cut each others throats, he was just glad he wasn't in the middle.. yes being someone that blended into the background does have its advantages.

As he continued moving into the further darkening night he could've sworn he felt a sudden uneasy feeling about the air, more likely it was that his vision was average at best, and moving around in the darkness was not for those with normal eyesight.

Steel 'Karasus vulture' circled him 10m in the air, trying to spot his master and protecting him from possible harm. Its eyes focused on his surroundings like his life was depending on it. Karasu noticed Steels shadow and felt more at ease, since he now knew he had something to protect him if anything were to escape his vision, he didn't want to waste his time with total silence if he didn't need to use it. Shiv would probably immediately notice Karasu if he were to close his eyes and focus on the things around him.

Situations turned to the worse when Shiv took out his sword and in harsh tone said they were being watched, Karasu had no idea there were eyes looking at them.. NOW was the time where he could use his technique. Karasu closed his eyes and focused on the area around him, 50m suddenly became as clear as day, but he could not hear any heartbeats, or conversations.. not even a whisper. Karasu could not hear anything symbolizing a sign of life, but he doubted Shivs instincts were wrong. Is the prey dead then? is it a corpse? with the world these days Karasu wouldn't be surprised if it was a silent ninja zombie hidden behind the woods.

One thing worried Karasu though, shiv seemed much more tense then he should be. He was a fearless hunter known for killing men without even displaying a sign or hint of fear.. so why change so suddenly? Karasu didn't think all the rumors were false, so what was his purpose? It didn't appear in Karasus thoughts that shiv was acting out the part of a worried man, instead he tried to ignore it since it was probably his way of getting his prey, although Karasu didn't understand how.

With his eyes still closed and in total silence Karasu could hear the heartbeats of the two people in front of him, the 'Captain' and Shiv so he could keep a conversation with them like he was face to face talking to them, However he could never tell which area they were facing; he also could not tell where they were until he heard the heart beat that second.. which was a silent weakness. Still Karasu tried to make it seem like he wasn't in the middle of a meditation faze where he heard most things surrounding him, to others he would just be closing his eyes in a situation that was too much for him to see.

Karasu still felt uneasy that he could not feel a heartbeat within 50m other then Shivs, the Marines, and Steel above him.. the thought was slowly sinking in that Shiv maybe was paranoid; it was normal for some hunters to think they were being hunted. it was of course more likely that maybe the eyes he was feeling watching him.. might've been Karasus.

"Shiv.. I have my eyes closed, do you still feel like you're being watched? Steel, don't look at Shiv you might be giving him a weird feeling." Steel the vulture looked away from Shiv, having a disappointed look as he looked down at Karasu.. it seemed like even the vulture knew he wasn't the reason Shiv felt like he was being watched.

"If this doesn't help your feeling Shiv, then we have a problem." What seemed like a brief moment of stupidity was actually a moment of his own form of sarcasm. Now Karasu had one of two choices, he could either wait for the captain or Shiv to make a move, or he could leave and move around the island more freely.. fully taking advantage of the fact that his two 'companions' were probably busy looking at the area that had no life in it. He was more lenient towards the second option.

What was this mans game?!
Meredith looked at Mistwolf, who had drawn his blade, the condescension showing openly on her face for once, though mixed with a bit of confusion and the inquiring mistrust of someone who sees, but doesn't quite believe and now seeks for signs to unlitmately decide what exactly it really was they were presented with here. She had been disappointed before, when he had shown no notable reaction to her provocations, even though she was sure he understood them as such, and right when she had been getting used to it, he pulled this stunt? Admittedly, she had been surprised by the sudden movement. Shocked, even, certain, for a moment, that she had gone a little too far and he had decided he didn't really need a guide all that much. Reflexively, she had reached for the gun at her side, though this seemed stupid now, since she was sure that if a gun was all it took to fell either of thsoe two, then they wouldn't have come this far.

Now though? Now she harbored the slight suspicion that he might have just scrambled his own brain, maybe one of his thought processes had been too complicated for his own good? Either way, looking around, she couldn't make out any immeadiate threat, and thus determined that this brute was not only stupid, but must be paranoid as well. Wonderful.
That meant she wasn't stuck with merely two warlords, but one warlord who, she realised as she was reminded, once again, of his existance, far too quiet for her liking and one paranoid, highly dangerous stupid brute. Truth be told, it wasn't the worst company she'd ever been in, but it was damn close.

At least aforementioned way too quiet warlord seemed to share her suspicions to a level, at least that's what she hoped when he closed his eyes and told Mistwolf he wasn't watching him anymore. Please, god, please let this be mockery. Let this be some kind of bad joke. Something told her it wasn't. Something told her that both of them were serious. What was becoming of this world? She looked from one of them to the other and sighed, obviously not very impressed.
"Yes, thank you, I am well aware of the unsafe nature of this place, as well as very able to defend myself should there be any need to. As for the problems.... and, by the way, also the unsafety or, dare I say, danger of this place.... Well, that is what you're here for, aren't you?"
She made sure to speak clearly and slowly, as if to a child, wagering every word before actually saying it. To tell the truth, this was all a bit spooky to her. She should have seen this sort of behaviour coming from a warlord, she shouldn't have expected anything even resembling normality from either of them, but.... well, she didn't expect them to just suddenly decide to go haywire at the same time.
She wouldn't turn her back to them at any cost, but Meredith stepped aside, clearing the way for them.
"You can get started anytime now, by the way. I mean, only if it isn't too stressful for you..."



The young woman was decidedly frail, and decidedly small, and would anyone have looked at her face directly, they'd have found it the colour of untarnished, clean white porcellain, surrounded by thick curls of the darkest red, two almond shaped eyes the colour of melting gold glaring back at anyone who dared meet their stare. No one dared, though. No one dared even look at her face. It was said that doing so was enough of a provocation for her to remove theirs. That might have seemed laughable to anyone not in her presence, it might have seemed unrealistic to people who saw those she commanded, men twice her size, quivering in fear of her. Once actual look at her, one minute in her presence would have proven them otherwise. There was something otherworldly about her, something no one was quite able to grasp. There was a certain kind of madness behind those perfect features, something that tensed the atmosphere, made the air harder to breathe and lowered the voices to a whisper whenever she entered a room. People need not have heard of her to realise that. The presence of this little girl, what might she have been, sixteen, seventeen? was enough to turn a bar filled with the worst scum into what felt like a prison in a manner of seconds, no marines or guns needed. As of now, one of the aforementioned men following her was on the ground, on his hands and knees, serving as a chair to the lady as her mad amber eyes were fixed on the only person in the room who seemed entirely unfazed by her: A young man, all his face covered except his dark eyes, which returned the stare nonchalantly, not a hint of nervousness.
After a while of this, the woman spoke, her voice barely louder than a murmur, but shaking with supressed anger.
"Care to run that by me again?!"
The man gave a curt nod.
"Message repeated. Those shabby officer bastards decided to send two of their fuckass warlords after us. We'd better bail, or we'll be minced meat in no time. Originator: Jackie Crawford."
His voice sounded strange, a little too high for a man his size. After he was done, he returned to staring back at her, still no hint of nervousness. the woman snarled.
"Is that so?"
She jumped down from the man she had used as a chair, who didn't dare move, maybe she wanted to sit back down, and started to pace in front of the table.
"Jackknife wants to get out, hm?! Well, we ought to.... help him with that."
With that, she turned to the young man who had deliverd the message to her, her tone snappier, her vocie louder all of a sudden.
"Desta! Make sure Jackknife gets a one way ticket out of here! And jsut to make it clear what ah actually mean by that: Traitorous bitch should be the first to meet the two newcomers, eh?"
The man, now identified as Desta didn't move, just gave another curt nod, then turned and made his way out of the bar, his footsteps echoing in the silence.


Far, but not too far away from this scene:
"An old lady with a dog, her hand on a cane, and a middleaged man with dark skin and a coat, sit on a bench together. They've met before, but it's been a long time...."
"Sounds like the beginning of a joke."
The man raised an eyebrow at this interruption, looking at the old lady, who didn't shy away, but returned his look.
"I'm just saying. It sounds like one of those bad jokes that you hear in some of those bars.... Ah, god, I swear, a lot of things changed from when I was in my prime.... but what people will laugh at when the are drunk? Half of those things have been told exactly the same way twenty years ago. They weren't funny back then either, of course."
A short silence build up between them, with the man staring and the woman staring back, neither of them faltering. Finally, the man gave a small chuckle.
"You haven't changed, Elisabeth."
The woman, Elisabeth huffed at this and finally broke eye contact, now looking at the street instead.
"Neither have you. I know you know why you're really here. Why don't you just cut the crap and get to the point already? Yes or no?"
Another short silence, this time the man, as well was looking at the street, thoughtful.
"Well.... what you're asking of me is rather.... extreme, don't you think?"
The woman snorted. As if he had ever had a problem with extreme measures. Of course, she did realise she was asking a lot. But she knew him well, this man. He wouldn't turn her down, in the end. He never could say no to her when she came to him asking for help. To anyone, in fact. Why, the man was practically a saint. He would say yes, in time. And even though time was running dreadfully short, she was sure there was enough of it left.
"You'll think about it. in other news.... I heard you had a little falling out with jackknife?"
Now the man seemed surprised. Of course he was, even though messages like that spread faster than woodfire on this island that still would not have been quite fast enough to justify her knowledge of their small quarrel.
Elisabeths eyes were glistening as she pointed at her ears.
"Good hearing. Invested in a new help."

(( Creative block, guys. Bad, bad, bad. I'll fill this in later, but I have to make it so you two can do another round before I kill this thread.))

- Shiv stands down, pretends to be insulted by them not believing him.
- Shiv tries to get a feel for the position of his enemies.
- Shiv mock-reluctantly asks Meredith to keep on leading.

"If I say it is too stressful for me, would you hold my hand?" Karasu said mockingly, hetook out his hand, with a cold smile he wore on his face; his eyes closed. It seemed like Karasus second tactic was already in order, his mind moved throughout the things that had happened, while at the same time he had hoped he had angered her enough to make her leave. She had announced they were in grove 27 seconds ago, so it wasn't surprising Shiv would react the way he did.. but was he really just paranoid? Shiv seemed like he was insulted by Karasu and the Marines decision to not take him seriously. Shivs reputation was where it was for a reason.. so Karasu had to take his words seriously, even if the evidence was against him. Karasu made sure to scan the area for life once again, since his eyes were closed his total silence stayed active, but nothing came up. There was only one alternative which he had to attempt, it was a way to make the people he had to kill.. come to him.

Karasu immediately put six explosive rounds on his left normal pistol, and six smoke bullets on his right normal pistol. He aimed at the sky and shot four bullets from his left gun, once they hit the air they immediately curved in four seemingly random directions, and hit four random edges of the town. The explosions would be loud enough to at least alarm the people in the grove.

Once the bullets were fired Karasu continued closing his eyes, Karasu did not know they were expecting Shichibukai, so to him they would be confused as to what the explosions were and who caused them, making them leave the grove to investigate.. at least those brave enough or strong enough to check would leave, and odds are those would be the strong ones. Karasu tried to hone in on the area, then looked back at the marine after the shots were fired, again with his eyes closed.

"If you would be so kind as to leave I would appreciate it, I don't like audiences.. one more thing, if you don't mind; If I successfully complete this mission I would rather the public think it was someone else.. give it to Youri, the other shichibukai, or Shiv here... I only need the WG knowing about this."

Karasu maintained his cold smile, as to avoid having any real confrontation with the women. While doing this he waited for the Pirates to come, and readied his pistols in case he heard any heartbeats go near the shots he fired nearly 40m away.