Serious; Salty and Johnny's travels; Chapter 4: Blue Stripe (Open to Max and myself.)

"So soft... That pillow is the best I've ever slept on... So touching... Touching... Touching..." said Salty while slowly opening his eyes and raising his hand, grabbing Zosha's bust unintentionally. However, by the moment he realized what just happened, he could not avoid having a nosebleed. Blood came outside his nose and his hearts turned into hearts when he noticed the female woman. "You care for me, aren't you!?" he asked with a stupid voice before listening to Maractus' scream as he stabs himself on the chest.

"Maractus!!!" he completed snapped out of his weird state of happiness and moved his head away from the woman's bust, rushing at the former pirate who would attempt to end his life by stabbing himself with that sword he found.

"Ah .. that was .. what I should do in the first place ..." Maractus laments, before falling down, blood gushing from the wound, as well as his mouth.

Meanwhile, down at the 3rd Floor, Johnny fires off yet another kick, surprising Bobby even more. "Hero-sama, stop, this isn't what we should do!!" he yells, weeping. "But, indeed, that is exactly what we should do." Johnny remarks, and the dwarf stops crying. "I remembered something I read about this fruit ... severing the user's consciousness without his concept negates his abilities all together. Taking him out is in fact the best way to prevent the more dangerous person's abilities from taking effect."

[OOC: I dunno what to post xD]

((OOC: Yeah .. considerin how we were both rather inactive for some period of time, and that I kinda overstretched this .. I think we should call it a day and just move on or somethin. Let's talk in message or fb about the possible result, post it, then plant our next thread.))

Two days later...

Salty was lying on his bed. It had been around a day after that incident with the escaping prisoners already and he was still recovering. Of course, it was not very easy to recover from the wounds that were caused by Zack and the other enemies Salty faced. He received terrible damage during his battles against Zack and anybody who was affected by the mysterious devil fruit ability the man happened to possess. But, the truth was that he did not really give a damn about all those things. For a moment, back then when he opposed Zack, Salty thought he actually felt he could understand Zack and the reasons he was doing all those things. Zack had a tragic past and he wanted his revenge at the marines, before finally redeeming himself. That did not really mean that Salty actually agreed with Zack's failed plan, but he had his sympathy. The meeting with the former pirate captain definitely helped at shaping Salty's personality...

"Zack... Why did you do this? Didn't my words reach you, after all?" he wondered while thinking of Zack's suicide when he stabbed himself with the sword the demon left right next to him. Now, that was a mystery. Who was that demon, after all? Salty could not figure that out... He was thinking about that all day. There was a demon stalking the Photography Department. Ever since the Mirage Island incident, there were reports of that demon. Salty could not forget that many of Romano's men were violently burned down by a mysterious demonic creature they reported. And now, at Blue Stripe, that demon followed the marines and saved Salty from a sure death before actually trying to finish off Zack...

"Who is he anyway? And what kind of creature is he?" he thought before the door opened and Fino entered the room. The man was dressed with a dark robe, unlike most of the times.

"Salty-sama..." he spoke with his pitched voice. "Are you not ready yet?" he asked.

"Oh yes... It's Orior's funeral already..." thought Salty. "I totally forgot how fast the days passed..." he explained.

Oh, yes. Out of all those things the most tragic incident was the death of Orior. The powerful Marine Commander was now dead and not only that, but also "The Gouger", the man behind Orior's death was actually free. In the massive break out at the prison, he was the only one who actually managed to escape.

"I am coming in a second." said Salty and he got up to dress himself for the funeral.

"Marine .. Salty, wasn't it? ... Do you think that I .. I can meet them again now? I want to see their smiles again. Will this be enough for a horrible man like me to get to at least reach to the Gates of Heaven and see em for just a moment? .."

Johnny woke up, from that nap he was taking. Oddly, what he saw in his dream was actually the final scene he witnessed, when he and the little chain-dwarf reached the roof of the Prison. What they found was a man stabbed with a long sword, holding onto Salty's arm, whispering those final moments before he left his last breath. "Now, how come I was seeing such depressive things?" he speaks to himself, and gets up, remembering that there was some sort of funeral going on. In the last 2 days, everything was pretty much put in order. The mysterious clawed man was actually a Marine Captain, that was tricked into the powers of those 2 men, Danny and Zack. After realizing the truth, and with everyone coming back to senses, he decided he'd go off, and search for "the lost years", as he claimed.

"Please ... can I join you?" He had muttered, the day before, while humbly lowering his posture, and basically bowing to Salty, much to Bobby's awe, as he thought that Johnny had to be really cool for someone else of his rank to bow down to him.

The prisoner with the Bubble-like power was turned to be a prisoner with a bounty of 60 million, also tricked. Danny, upon realizing it all, decided that he deserved to be imprisoned, despite the fact that many marines claimed that he was basically a victim, too. As for Douche, he was found sleeping on the far reaches of the roof, much to Johnny's annoyance. The Troll pirates, captain included, as he was defeated by Johnny, were captured and imprisoned, too.

The two Vice Admirals had disappeared, which was indeed odd. Searches were conducted all over the area, and, while others that went missing, like Zanmato, were found and recovered alive, those two had disappeared completely, as if they vanished. It was indeed a very strange thing. Not to mention that a sole prisoner had also disappeared, the one that was also charged with the murder of Orior. But there was something off for Johnny, something didn't fit. "I could swear that I saw ... ah, nevermind .. Zosha, where is Salty?" Johnny, prepared for the funeral, asks the female, friend of his who, despite it being a funeral, and although she did wore a black dress, it was still revealing an awful lot of bust. Although, a crazy feral woman like her, a wild beast, probably had no idea that this was not exactly appropriate, or triggering men to stare or ogle, to begin with.

"The feeble one? I think he went that way." Zosha says, pointing towards the left, which was leading to the place people were gathering. "Wait, I'll come along." she adds.

((OOC: Sorry that this way it gets dragged into havin to post a bit more, but the way we posted, I think it deserves a detailed and fitting finale, eh?))

Salty was looking at Orior's coffin while the burial ceremony was taking place. He wasn't crying at all. Obviously, he was sad because the marines lost a powerful man in the whole incident. He had one more reason to be sad except from Zack's tragic end. However, even if he was sad, tears could not fall off from his eyes. After all, he just knew Orior for a day. The two were not friends or anything similar. In fact, Orior was a person he disliked because of his rude behavior, unlike Zack whom he got the chance to talk to and understand better.

"Orior... I knew that guy for a long time... It's a shame he got to die like that." commented Fino while looking at the coffin. "He didn't deserve such a brutal death, not to mention about his Devil Fruit... Who knows what might have happened to his fruit. Who knows..." he said with a slow voice, as he could not think clearly because of what was happening around him.

"That's life sadly..." pointed out the Marine Commodore who turned his head around, looking for Johnny. "And where is Johnny? I haven't seen him at all..." he whispered.

"Well, everyone seems way too gloomy~" Johnny's voice is suddenly heard and, as several heads turn to look at the source of the sound, they would come across a man slightly tripping, while holding a bottle. And dragging what seemed to be a box filled with similar bottles. It seemed that Johnny was slightly intoxicated, but only to the point where a light dizziness would occur.

"W-what do you think you are doing?! Sure, he was a bit of a jerk but .. this isn't the place to act like this! You might feel sad because he was your friend but-" Zamato begins to explain, but Johnny moves his index finger around. "Orior and I were friends. Not co-workers. Don't think you know how to act better than I do. Orior was a total asshole but, if he was present, he'd too drink a bit and be less of a frowned fool about his own death. If you wanna honor him properly, here." he tosses a bottle at the marine, who catches it. "His favorite drink. All of you drink from that, if you really wanna honor him." he says. Then he spots Salty. "Ah, Salty-san .. come, let's honor the man's memory the way he wouldn't give a shit about it!"

In his own, crazy, irrational way, perhaps Johnny was right about this, after all!

"I guess you are right. That guy was a scumbag but he did not really deserve to die the way he did... All we can do now is just honor him. Otherwise, what was the reason he fought for? That man died on his duty and I guess that's the only thing we can do now..." said Salty who picked up a smile on his face, as if there was no funeral around. "That guy was a bastard and I admit it! He always wanted to get on people's nerves. And I liked him for that! For the hated marine to have ever existed, let's make a toast!" he spoke with a loud voice and everybody around started drinking while the sun shined bright. Whether that was a coincidence or not was not really something anybody cared about. All of them were busy, drinking in the name of Orior. And it was good that nobody paid attention to the shining sun. Because if they did, some of them could have interpreted it as if Orior's soul was watching them from above. Whether he really did or not would never be known...

"Well said, Salty-san!" Johnny remarks, and raises a bottle, then begins to gulp it down, much to several of the marines nearby's awkwardness.

"Gyah, Salty-hero-sama agreed too! Then it means that he's right! Let's do this!" Bobby squeals, and grabs a bottle, which was larger than himself, and begins to drink, this time the marines nearby's reaction was to be surprised by the little creature's act.

"Heh, guess you got some bravado in you, after all!" Zosha smiles broadly and, grabbing the man and bringing him in her clutch, she also gulps down a bottle.

"Heh, guess it can't be helped ... let's leave the finding of the missing ones and the rest aside, and honor the man the way you put it, you bastard..!" Zamato ends up giving in, and grabs a bottle, too.

[Shall we call this the finale?]

OOC: Ah, certainly.