Hoshikita and the rest of the men he had been assigned to investigate the town for any clues as to the disappearances on the island, and the Marine vessel that had been transporting them had just docked on Baterilla. Commander Burrell called out to the group of five men, including Hoshikita, Wade, and Axel, and told them all it was time to disembark and begin their assignment. Hoshikita gave a quick salute and started heading off the boat until he reached the entrance of town and the end of the dock. There he would stop and wait for the rest of the division to catch up. Aside from Wade, Hoshikita's stride was much longer than the other marines so he'd likely reach the end of the dock a bit quicker. Once there, he would look to the other men and speak up, thinking it only prudent that he take a bit of charge as the highest ranked among them. "Morning, fellas. How ya doing?" He would begin, remaining friendly but with a somewhat business like tone. After waiting for their replies, he would proceed with his thoughts on the assignment at hand. "In regards to the mission, I think it's best if we split up and go off in search of information separately. We'll be able to cover more ground that way, and the citizens might feel threatened if we approach them in a big group like this." Hoshikita stated, thinking that the best course of action for their current assignment.

The disappearances were certainly cause for concern in the case of Hoshikita, and he wanted to be able to help the poor people of Baterilla as best he could. There was no telling what sort of things were happening to the people who had disappeared, and the families of those victims must be quite distraught as well. He had never been subject to anything of that nature before in his life, but he still felt it necessary to prevent others from feeling it themselves. Hoshikita wasn't sure whether Axel or Wade had similar thoughts on the subject, but he could only hope so. After his suggestion, he would wait for a response from everyone else, and if they agreed, he would set off on his own personal investigation. The quicker they set out, the more time they would have to gather information, and the more information they'd be able to gather. With any luck, they'd be able to create a thorough and useful report for Captain Maria upon their return.

"So, we get to play detective today. How nice," Axel commented as he looked up from the book he was reading and saw the large island named Baterilla. He was sitting on the forecastle deck of the marine ship meaning that the marksman got a front row seat to see the beautiful scene. It was a tropical island if you had to put it in a category, since there were trees everywhere. Axel was content with just looking at it, not having to get off and be on the location to be in a trance. The fact that it was nice and sunny outside furthered his enjoyment of the view.

After a few more minutes, Axel was now able to get up close and personal regarding Baterilla. He has been on the island a numerous amount of times, but there was always something new to explore due to the sheer size of it. Since the marines would be investigating, it was the best excuse for him to discover the places new to him, many of them being on the southern end of Baterilla. The tall lieutenant Hoshikata Cross took charge of the ensigns, getting in front of everyone with his long strides. The marines stopped once he did, right at the entrance of the port town. Cross suggested that everyone should split up so that their investigation would go a lot faster and so the civilians won't feel threatened by so many men with guns and weapons near them.

"Sounds like a great plan Lieutenant Cross! I will get started with my investigation right away!" Axel shouted, followed by him running past the lieutenant, headed to the southernmost town of Baterilla. In fact, since he has never been there, for all he knew there was some kind of building that housed vile criminals. It was his duty to destroy evil, so he would righteously pursue this possibility, while trying to figure out what people did for fun out there as well...

WC: 331
TWC: 331

Wade snored loudly as he slept on throughout the voyage. He laid flat on the ground, close to Axel. His top-hat sat upon his face, hiding it and his cane rested in his right hand, held tightly by it. He had fallen asleep shortly after leaving their base to set sail for Baterilla, deciding he might as well get some rest while he can before focusing all his energy on this investigation. He took the whole kidnapping thing rather seriously, after all, and wanted to get to the bottom of this so that no one would have to suffer from it ever again. Sadly, his kiddy nap came to a end when the ship came to abrupt halt, shaking him away with a slight start. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned and, perhaps through sheer will-power, forced himself awake as he slowly stood on his legs, using his cane for balance, before stretching out. He then proceeded to come off the ship and walked by Hoshi's side casually with a dignified stride. Once he stopped and went on to talk with the Marines, Wade stayed by his side, listening at how Hoshi thought splitting up would cover more ground. In a way, he was right and given he did hold authority over them, Wade decided not to argue and nodded, noting Axel's response. "Let's go then, Dun wanna lose any clues.."

After hearing that his fellow marines were accepting of his plan, Hoshikita gave another quick salute before speaking. "Sounds good then. Let's meet back here in two hours and exchange information." Hoshikita would say before dropping his salute and turning around to head off on his own. He hoped that the others would take the assignment seriously, but knew that all he could do at this point was try his best to provide enough information himself. Not running, but walking briskly, Hoshikita kept an eye out for anyone on the streets that he could ask. He was heading towards the market district, but he planned to ask as many people as he could about what was happening with the disappearances. As he walked down the stone paved streets, he spotted an older man heading in the opposite direction. He bent down to eye level with the older man and spoke in a polite tone. "Excuse me sir, I'm with the marines. I was hoping you could answer a few questions for me." He asked, to which the older man quickly agreed. Hoshikita questioned the man over the recent disappearances, and while he hadn't had any of his relatives taken himself, he was able to provide a bit of information from things he had heard. Apparently, rooms from which people were taken generally showed plenty of signs of struggle, but other people in the house hadn't heard a thing coming from the rooms even when right next door. Hoshikita thought that strange, but thanked the old man for his help. He had plenty more ground to cover and plenty more people to ask.  

Eventually, after running into a few more passersby,  Hoshikita came across the marketplace. The area was abustle with activity, and dozens and dozens of people filled the square. Hoshikita dismayed for a moment, realizing the scope of the endeavor he was set upon. Despite the streak of disappearances, there was still a massive amount of people in the town and he still had a lot of ground to cover. Still, he knew that there wouldn't be much progress made from him just standing there, so he started with the local merchants to see if they knew anything. From his childhood in Loguetown, he had learned that shopkeeps and vendors were generally the most knowledgeable on matters such as rumors and gossip. So, Hoshikita, being a loyal and dutiful Marine, decided to hit up the bar first.

Getting to the southern end of Baterilla would have taken all of the time Axel had to investigate, but luckily he had enough beli on hand to purchase a ride from a large cheetah since a cheetah-taxi service was on the island that would take people from town to town. The animal went so fast through the grassfields and forests that separated the locations of Baterilla, with Axel barely being able to hold on to it's back, but he was successful in his grasp and was happy when the ride had finally stopped, dropping the marksman off at the entrance. This place, just like the port town was abuzz with civilians everywhere. It looked more modern than the other towns on the island, with large buildings everywhere made of brick and large intersections which were crowded with people. There were a lot of buildings that housed entertainment like casinos, taverns, and even brothels, the latter being one that Axel wasn't interested in whatsoever. He always imagined meeting a girl that he could actually vibe with before doing any of that stuff.

Axel avoided the attractions of the town since he was hoping for something new, especially with this new atmosphere. He sadly went straight to investigating asking people around the town if they saw anything weird that would imply kidnappings, but no one had any good info, and fro the sounds of it, it sounded like the culprits haven't even hit this place yet, so the gunner just wasted his time coming here. Disappointed, Ensign Axel looked for another cheetah-taxi service to go back to square one.

WC: 267
TWC: 598

Walking in a relaxed yet determined manner, Wade was making his way to the ghettos of the town. He knew that if there were any rumors about such heinous things, there would some valuable info in the ghettos. Thus, he managed to make his way down there, with many people avoiding him as he walked. As one would think, the ghettos were old and raggedy. There violent and disgruntled looking people here and there. Some were smoking, some were just hanging around loungingly, staring the giant oddball walking down the street. With his eyes scanning the area, Wade managed to find a small group of men playing cards. Each one of them looked old yet experienced, having grown up in these areas. Counting in the expensive looking jewelry each one was wearing, Wade some them as prime canidates for information. Thus, he approached them. There were four and were playing poker. With a certain smooth movement, Wade bent down to their level and spoke. "Say boys, you wouldn't happen to know anything about some disappearances, would ya?" The four men looked up at Wade then at each other. Eventually the most oldest one, who was bald, spoke. "Yeah. Pretty bad shit happenin'." "Well...mind tellin' a tired soul about it. I'd really love to." The four men studied Wade for a moment before slowly nodding, not seeing him as a threat.

"Word on the street is there be a man walkin' around after sundown with a sack. Don't know why though." Said a rather obese and hairy man. "Oh?" "Yeah. Don't know what he look like though. Can never see his face and always wearin' different clothes." "Ok....thanks boys." As Wade began to stand, one man grabbed him. "Ey....no payment for o-" "No. Last I checked, people have to comply with the law." Wade would interrupt, pointing at the Marine symbol on his hat with a smile, making the men's mouth drop. He then headed off back to the others to show what he had gathered.

After another hour or so of investigating without much else fruitful coming up, Hoshikita started to head back to the prearranged meeting place. It was just his luck that the first man he asked would have all the information he was able to obtain, yet he was still stuck out there for an hour asking people the same questions and hearing mostly the same answers. What he'd found wasn't incredibly helpful either, at least not in his opinion, but hopefully Captain Maria would be able to piece things together better than himself. With that hope somewhat renewing his motivation, Hoshikita picked up the pace as he headed out of the market district and back towards the docks where he assumed the other marines would be heading to or already there.

It was only another fifteen minutes of walking or so before Hoshikita reached the docks, and it appeared that he was the first one to return. He wasn't sure exactly how long it had been, but he assumed that perhaps he had returned a bit before the two hours was up. He thought it wouldn't matter much, as he didn't think there was any more information in the market district to be found, and he hoped that his fellow marines had found less overlapping information than he. If not though, that wasn't much of a problem. After all, there was only so much information that could be gathered from townspeople, and Hoshikita was sure that the investigation by Commander Burrell and Captain Maria would certainly bear fruit.

Hoshikita would wait at the docks until the other four men had returned, and once they had he'd speak up. "Hoping everybody found some good stuff out there. How about we share information here, and I'll write up a report for Captain Maria?" Hoshikita asked, offering to do the final bit of work himself. Provided everyone was in agreement, he would relate to them how he had heard from the elderly man about the mysterious struggles that never woke anyone up, and that he hadn't been able to gather much more than that. The two ensigns other than Axel and Wade revealed that they'd heard much of the same unfortunately, and that there was little other that they could find. After hearing Axel and Wade's information, Hoshikita would give a quick salute. "Sounds good guys, guess I'll start writing this up, and we'll be waiting for further orders till then." He said, dismissing himself and heading back towards the vessel where he could begin his report for the captain.

The Cheetah Axel was riding on broke down in the middle of the trip back to the dock for some odd reason, so the marksman had to walk the rest of the way back, and by the time he got there it was about ten minutes after everyone was told to report back.

"So sorry for the wait guys! I guess I lost track of the time while investigating, heh," Axel said smiling as he arrived in the group circle. Cross suggested everyone to share the information they gathered.

"Well, unfortunately I wasn't able to find out much since it doesn't see like the culprits went to the south coast to do any grabbing. Sorry about that," Axel said with his expression turning from a smile to a serious yet one. He was really disappointed in himself for not being able to help out his fellow marines, but luckily for him, Cross and two other marines figured out that there was some man traveling around at night with a bag in his hands. there would be signs of struggle, but none of their family members would wake up, oddly. "Hmmm, that sounds odd. Well, it will all unfold itself eventually, since I doubt these guys are done kidnapping people. It is just a feeling I have. We will catch them," Axel tried to reassure his allies. After everyone talked about their finding, they went back to the ship and woul report their findings to Captain Maria. The marksman hoped that they wouldn't get in trouble for only having little information.

WC: 260
TWC: 858

EXIT

Wade spent the next few minutes in silence, walking back to his fellow Marines to let them know of what he discovered. Upon finally making it there, he made his way and struggled into the close-nit group of ensigns as Hoshi began to speak, noting that Axel had just arrived too. After hearing what he had to say, the other ensigns disperesed, with Wade and Axel then coming to Hoshi. Hearing what Axel had to say, Wade would knowingly, taking in this new information before telling Hoshi his piece. "From what I got, there be a man at sundown and at night sometimes carryin' a sack, big enough to hold someone. Don't know how he looks, though, people 'round here never see his face and he alway wearin' somethin' different everytime." He would finished, crossing his arms. He didn't like the looks of this one bit. People disappearing with hardly any evidence to show where they gone while there is some lone man out there, carrying a sack at sundown. These two things were obviously connected. But how? Though kidnapping was a given, to what end? Murder? Rape? Hostages? Just what was going on. With a sigh, Wade would make his way back to the ship to report what he found before turning in for the day. The tension had tired him out and he needed a good nap.

-Exit-