The squad of four unlikely friends find themselves sailing across the sea, calling themselves a pirate crew. It's been 2 days since the events of Ocenae town, and there isn't an island to be seen on the horizon. All four of them sit in a circle around a table in the back room of the boat.
"Hey, why do they call you shambles, anyways?" Sneeze asked, breaking the silence.
"Eh? My name? Well, dad used to say it was in honor of my uncle. He was a pretty wild type of guy, but he's long gone now."
"Oh. Follow-up question, how do you know where we're going? Or, where we... are?" Sneeze responded, questionably.
"Ugh... men. See, I'm a navigator, I've been tracking and drawing maps since I was a kid. I can get us anywhere in the North blue, and most places outside of it."
Kev and Sneeze looked puzzled. "The... North blue?"
Litz and Shambles stared back in surprise. "Yeah, this region of the world, it's the North blue. How little do you know about our world anyways!?"
Kev laughed. "Not too much I guess!"
"Ugh... typical man. Let me paint the picture for you. There are 4 main sections of the world. The North, South, East, and West blue, all containing their own islands and counties, and they all have one main Navy base, and about 2-3 smaller outposts each for the Inferno Corps. They're sometimes named something in tandem with each other. For example, the North blue has the Lodestar mountain base, and two outposts, called Albaque village and Rivers crossing. They're known as the land and water of the North. And, Rivers Crossing is where we're headed to right now.
"Albaque village is where I'm from." Sneeze added.
"Wait, if Rivers Crossing is an outpost for the Inferno Corps, why are we going there? Kev Added.
"Good question." Shambles replied. "Rivers Crossing has been going through ongoing "rebellions" from the locals basically protesting against corrupt laws. The island is a huge market city, so it's a great chance for us to sneak in and grab supplies amidst the chaos. We'll be in and out, and a lot better set off afterwards."
Kev nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Also, I have just one more question. For you."
Litz's head perked up. "Me?"
"Yes. How do you coat your sword with that black stuff? I saw you do that during your fight with that beast man, and wanted to ask you. You mentioned your sword being of legendary origin, is it something to do with that?"
Litz pulled out his sword. Oh, you can see that? I guess that's something understandable to wonder about. Anyways, it's called haki. There's 3 types of haki, this one is called armament hardening. It pretty much just makes my sword harder and in turn more effective. If you can see my haki, you should be able to use it yourself. Also, you might learn the other 2 types later on." Kev and Sneeze showed visible interest at this discovery. "Do I need to teach you about devil fruits as well?" Litz added.
"No need, we're pretty caught up in that department." Kev responded. "I ate the Energy fruit, Sneeze ate a devil fruit more recently, but we don't know what it does."
"Fair enough, I guess we can skip that lesson then." Litz said jokingly.
"So how close are we to Rivers Crossing? We've been sailing for over a day now." Sneeze asked.
"Well, take a look for yourself." Shambles said. The 4 of them looked over the rail on the front of the ship, to see a strip of land on the horizon, with jungle trees and small buildings scattered on the shore. "Ooooh, it's a jungle island!" Kev announced. Shambles rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and remember, lay low. We can't be spotted or noticed as outsiders or we'll be questioned. Me and Litz will grab food, you two try to snag anything valuable. But BLEND IN."
"Yeah yeah, we got it."
The boat parked quietly on the side of the island, away from any docks. "It's a short walk to the town from here, just stay close." Shambles advised.
The 4 of them hopped off the boat and started to hike through the jungle forest, watching the wildlife. Kevs monkey, Jojo admired the scenery while jumping from tree to tree. Soon enough, they spotted the main town just up ahead, looking to be a busy marketplace easy to sneak into. Shambles reminded them all of the plan. "Okay, let's sneak in, grab food, and s-"
Her sentence was cut off shortly, as Jojo started screeching as he started swinging through the trees away from the group. "Ah crap! What's gotten into him!?" Kev shouted. "You guys go on ahead, I'm gonna go after him!" The three others agreed, splitting up just ahead of the marketplace.
"Where did that monkey run off to?" Kev said to himself, following only the direction that Jojo darted off to. After a minute of traveling, Kev heard the sound of his monkeys' screeches nearby. Instantly rushing through the brush, he quickly found his pet, but he also found himself faced a horrific sight. A massive Jaguar, at least 6 feet (2m) tall, staring its aggressive yellow eyes directly into Kevs.
"Woahhh... easy now! Pspspsps! None of that big guy." Kev backed up, trying to deter the beast as Jojo hopped onto his shoulders, trying to look intimidating. The Jaguar advanced forward, bearing its teeth at Kev, ready to pounce at any moment. "If I die, you need to take over as captain." Kev whispered. Jojo rolled his monkey eyes.
Out of nowhere, a shadowy flash flew across the treetops, bolting across the branches. When Kev looked back at the Jaguar, it had 3 knifes stuck in its back, and collapsed to the ground. "Woahhh..." Kev muttered.
"Been tracking that one for a while, finally got to him."
Kev turned around quickly after hearing the new voice from behind him. About 30 feet in the air, on a thick jungle tree branch stood a short and thin figure dressed in tight black clothes, with a mask and long beautiful chestnut hair blowing in the wind. "Woah, are you a ninja?!" Kev shouted in awe.
"What the hell is a ninja? I'm just hunting." The majestic figure scoffed. "You aren't from around here, are you? Of course you aren't. If you were, then you wouldn't have gone this deep into the jungle alone. Why are you at Rivers Crossing?"
Kev scratched his head. "I'll tell you about that later. I'm Kev Blevin. What's your name, beautiful huntress assassin lady?"
The mysterious figure suddenly turned red as a tomato in the face. "I'M A GUY, YOU MONKEY!!" Tearing the mask off his face. "Actually, he's the monkey:D" Kev giggled, pointing at Jojo. The Shadowy man sighed.
"I'm the nightmare savior of Rivers Crossing. But you get to call me Rain."
