Linedwell still wasn't sure what happened to him the night prior, but it was obvious to both himself and everyone else that now saw his new stature that something was completely wrong. Linedwell tried to recount each and every action he'd made while out the previous night. He thought back to his time in the tavern as he watched Nicolette scam a few of the patrons before introducing herself. He even thought back to what he'd drank in the tavern during that encounter - attempting to see if he could remember anyone handling his drink in a way that would have denoted it being drugged, but no memories of this would come. Nothing about that night in particular seemed to be connected to what happened to him now, if it were, it seems that he would have changed into his current state while working on those multiple swords.

The more and more that Linedwell thought about it, the more annoyed he grew. He couldn't understand what happened to him at all, and the only thing happening now is that he was being held back when it came to his training. Right now, he needed to move on and stop worrying about the "hows" or "whys". He needed to move on from this the best way that he could. He'd already bought new clothing on the island that fit his new stature of 5'2. This was going to be an extreme adjustment; having to move around in a body that  gave him the appearance of a ten year old, but he needed to make do with it. Just because of his predicament, Mr. Miyagi wasn't exactly going to go easy on him when it came to his training.


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As a result of their Dojo defense about two days before, Mr. Miyagi had been able to recognize Linedwell's potential. Though he noted that Linedwell had been a bit too bloodthirsty in his handling of the defense, he did note that Linedwell held great potential to move forward - but that his training would need to be one that was tailored specifically for him and his skill set. Linedwell figured this would be the case, as he wasn't exactly like Mr. Miyagi's previous students who were actually skilled in hand to hand more so than weaponry. It seemed that Mr. Miyagi paid more attention to Linedwell's abilities than Linedwell had ever given him credit for.

Mr. Miyagi instructed him that he had a specific task for him to follow out. He'd need to recover a necklace from the corpse of an infamous Bandit Leader in the area of Karate Island. The bandit group in which this leader lead had been responsible for many attacks on the community, and though the island was populated by many capable fighters the leader seemed to hold an ability given to him through the process of eating a "Devil Fruit". Linedwell had never heard much of Devil Fruits outside of what his father told him about them, but he knew they were said to give the user of the Devil Fruit almost magical abilities. This would be Linedwell's first time facing a foe with "powers" but, Linedwell knew that if his goal was to make it into the Grand Line he'd likely face many of these Devil Fruit users. He needed to gain first-hand experience now compared to later.

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Total Wordcount: 574

He'd accepted the task to down this leader about an hour or so ago, and right now Linedwell had already made it to the compound of the Mountain bandits. As of this moment, he was currently hanging by one hand as he attempting to scale the side of the fortress they occupied. There were about five mountain bandits patrolling the outside of the building towards the bottom, and if Linedwell's mission was centered around stealth it would have been idiotic to attempt to rush in through the front door. The ruin in which the mountain bandits occupied held many physical holes where the rock had crumbled away through the years. If he could sneak past the guards, he'd be able to attempt to scale the side of the building and make his way through one of these holes. He wasn't sure what the layout of the building was like inside, or how many guards were present inside, but he knew that getting further into this place without alerting any guards would be far more difficult.

With Linedwell now scaling the side, he'd finally climbed up about twenty meters without being seen and managed to slip inside of the building. Once inside, he managed to slip behind a few barrels and hide himself in the shadows while he gave himself a breather. Out of all the reasons in the world to be caught, he didn't want being winded and alerting the guards due to breathing hard to be one of them. After his short break ended, Linedwell made his way from behind the barrels and began to move along the walls of a short corridor to his right. He wasn't sure where the Bandit Leader would be located, but he figured his quarters would be in the deepest part of the compound.

Once Linedwell reached the end of the corridor he could hear multiple voices coming down one of the halls nearby. If Linedwell was seen now he knew his task would be a failure. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to take down multiple opponents in time before they gave off some signal. Looking around quickly, he noticed a door that appeared to lead into another room. Moving as fast as he could, Linedwell dipped into the room and softly closed the door behind himself.

Yet, before Linedwell could even breathe a sigh of relief he began to hear movement behind himself. In the same instant that Linedwell turned to see what this movement belong to, he was now face to face with what appeared to be a greenish transparent glass wall barreling towards him. Linedwell quickly unsheathed his blade halfway out of his sheathe and held it up in the direction of the wall before it made impact. With an immense force, the "wall" slammed into Linedwell's defense. It pushed the Marine back a bit, but ultimately Linedwell had been able to defend against the attack.

Linedwell's arms began to shake as he continue to hold off the wall, making sure that it didn't push him back any further. If this wall managed to continue pushing him, it would begin to press against the stone walls and ultimately break through them - this would alert almost every bandit of Linedwell's infiltration. Looking ahead, Linedwell was able to see through the "window" and identify his attacker - the bandit leader.

Linedwell could only surmise that this wall that he was currently struggling against had to be created through the use of the Devil Fruit that Mr. Miyagi warned him about. Even though Linedwell prepared himself to deal with an enemy of the "magical" sort, he still hadn't expected what he was seeing now. Could fruits really give such abilities? Linedwell shook his head - as if he were attempting to shake out his thoughts of amazement - and pressed harder against the wall before being able to dispel it. The Bandit Leader appeared to be a bit impressed by this, yet, before the leader could utter a single word Linedwell was already closing the 12 meters of distance between the both of them, his blade drawn and ready to draw the blood of his foe.

Sadly, yet another wall was erected, causing Linedwell blade to slam against it and recoil hard. The force of the recoil caused Linedwell to be pushed back; and his shoulder being dislocated. Trying as hard as he could, Linedwell attempted to ignore the pain of his injury, and with the Bandit Leader following up Linedwell's failed attempt on his life by sending yet another wall barreling towards him he didn't exactly have the luxury of sitting around and crying about it. After switching his blade to his left hand, Linedwell quickly began to run about the room.

His opponent didn't seem to be able to create more than one wall at a time as he sent them in Linedwell's direction. They were easy enough to dodge, but when it came to getting close enough to this male to injure him it seemed almost impossible. The only viable strategy now was to attack before this man could erect a barrier around himself, and the only way he'd be able to do so is if he made use of his Satori technique. Satori had always been a technique that put an immense strain on Linedwell, and given his injury he was even more sure that the strain on his body would be immense - and this wasn't even considering the fact that Linedwell now resided in the body of a ten year old. There were many factors being stacked against him, but at this point he had no choice.

After sheathing his blade, Linedwell went into a deep meditative state. Going into this state took but a few seconds, but once out of it, Linedwell's personality now took on its true form. He knew he'd only have but mere moments to take advantage of his speed before it began to wear too much on his body, and thus he unsheathed his blade. Before his opponent could cross his fingers to erect a barrier, Linedwell had already moved at the speed of a bullet and closed the distance between them - his blade penetrating the abdomen of his opponent before ripping it out through the side. Linedwell then placed a hand over the mouth of the bandit, holding it hard as he helped the dying opponent to the ground. He needed to make sure that nothing in this room was heard by patrolling bandits within the fortress.

With the leader finally dispatched, Linedwell claimed the necklace that Mr. Miyagi had sent him to retrieve and began to make his way out of the fortress the same way he'd snuck in. He needed to put as much distance between himself and these bandits as possible, as he knew fighting them in his current state would be suicide. He could only imagine what other training Mr. Miyagi would have in store for him once he returned with the necklace in hand.

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