Task Name: Time to get some answers!
Tier: 2
NPC or PC: PC
Location: Karate Island
Crew, Team, or Personal: Personal
Description: Remembering the tattoos seen from the guys who stole your treasure, you go back to the thief who attacked the Master's dojo since they have the same mark. He will tell you he works for a retired pirate who now makes a living as a collector of rare artifacts and pays handsomely for them. After the interrogation, he will be attacked by more Collector's minions looking to silence him permanently
Enemy Details: 3 T2 Assassins wielding daggers.
Boss: None

Her treasure... That treasure over which she'd spent all that time studying the map, and the journal, eventually discovering where that Island was located. If that weren't enough, she had prowled through the temple not just once but two times already, and both of those times had to wipe through entire crews of pirates in order to proceed. Even for an explorer with a natural love for adventuring, it was troublesome and for all the gold she scrounged up throughtout that whole time, nothing struck her as more important than seeing that treasure for herself. Even if for some reason she still failed to acquire it, she wanted to know what was in there. At this moment her desire for that treasure was more curiosity than simple greed, and even more so a painful loathing at having been outsmarted like that. She knew now that the only reason those powerful men (one of whom she managed to take down) had been sent there was due to hoping the holder of the artifact would eventually come back there. That strategy was a clear as the gleaming daylight shining on her face, yet Linnea hadn't been able to see throught it until it was far too late to do anything... It made her feel stupid...

But thankfully, not all was lost, not yet. From the corpses of the enemies she'd taken down, she had realized something interesting. They worked for the same person as the thief she'd stopped back in Master Jeong's Dojo a few days back. That man who beat her with two hits... If he wasn't the boss of that organization he had to be ranked pretty high, judging by how powerful he was without even being in the Grand Line. If she could get that thief to spill some beans, she might get just enough information to lead her to that guy. But before she could face him, she would need allies, and training too. The former was perfectly doable, she could ask Melissa or Alice, maybe even the long legged man if she could find him by any chance. But that was simply the next step...

Sengoku was scouting the area for the ship and wasn't perched on her shoulder at the time being. Hopefully she would come back with some manner of news for her, that was Linnea's only other poorly lit candle of hope. Both her and the Southbird were working their butts off to get their hands on that treasure, both doing it their own way, and Linnea wasn't about to let herself be outdone by her feathery partner. She arrived from her journey to the temple late in the afternoon as the sun was setting. She knew where she had to go and the moment she docked her ship at the pier, she headed there immediately: Master Jeong's dojo. If she knew her master even a little bit, he wouldn't have let the thief go until she knew where his boss was hiding. But if a veteran marine hadn't been able to crack this guy, what could she do?

Men were interesting creatures, she had learned that much so far... They were really proud, often to the point of stupidity, so much they could start fights over the tiniest matters (Linnea speculated this came to a point where they could even start wars over pride). They also did incredibly silly things when that pride was bruised. They could be really blunt and vulgar, but also incredibly decisive and determined, more than most girls she'd met. An interesting trait many men had that Linnea also had even if she was a rarity among women, was their ability to enjoy themselves from very simple, seemingly boring activities (though Linnea had learned to do so to train her patience). They also had an odd trait of yearning for romantic connections simply by looking at a girl's body, an idea which was completely alien to Linnea even if in a way she had done something quite similar earlier. On top of it all, they also seemed to be incredibly protective of the weak spot between their legs, so much they hardly even exploited that weak spot when fighting other men. Hmmm... Would Master Jeong be like that too? He was a man, even if older and much wiser than most, a man nonetheless.

An idea formed in her head as she stepped inside the Dojo, and requested permission from the master to speak to that man. She was led downstairs, where a weak looking cell held the beaten up, roughed up thief she'd met the other day.

"Uh...? You again...", he uttered, surprised to see her there but not displeased, not that she could notice anyway; he was weaked, but he could he clearly had been fed humanly, "So, what the hell do you want?"

"Who sent you?", staring right into his eyes with her cold steel blue gaze, Linnea cut right to the point

The man scoffed, amused to find himself back in the same place they were over a week ago after he broke into the Dojo. He had been soundly defeated, but in a way, he had won... A week after being defeated, he was still alive, being fed, and the same person who beat him now came crawling back for the information she failed to get. His scoff turned into laughter, but unfortunately for him, Linnea was angry. It was rare for her to get angry, but the past events had that effect on her. That man had made short work of her even more vehemently than she did to this one, and she wouldn't have it. Her master failed to learn who this guy worked for, she wouldnt. In a flash, she had drawn her body and let loose an arrow a mere inch in front of the man's crotch. An little bit further and he'd no longer be able to call himself a man:

"I'll ask again; who sent you?", she stated again, drawing abother arrow as the man now looked visibly silent, "What do they want from the temple offshore Karate Island. You either help me do this to that masked boss of yours, or I'll do it on you to vent my anger. Make your choice."

With the bow still primed on him, the guy broke down and Linnea could swear she saw tears. She had won:

"RAZIEL!!", he screamed the name out, "His name is Raziel, he's a just pirate turned collector!!"

"Where do I find him?", she pressed further

"He has mansions and ships all over the four blues, that's all i know, I swear!!"

The guy was positively crying now, Linnea was surprised at how effective this method was. She was never too fond of torture, and if she were able to extract information from her enemies without doing it then she'd most certainly remember it... But before she could turn around to leave, her sharp hearing picked up a faint stepping sound coming from the stairs. Why would the master or the students be sneaky?

That made no sense... Not to mention how the Master assured her he'd let her question the thief in peace. Her paranoia tingling, Linnea activated her Kenbunshoku Haki, and that moment, she found an unfamiliar man wielding a dagger, slowly heading down. She thought about asking the thief, but if this masked man was indeed determined on staying anonymous, it didn't take a genious to find out why was a shady looking guy looking either her or this thief. Gesturing with her hand, she told her victim to speak. This thief knew first hand that Linnea could see people in a way that most people couldn't, almost like his own boss could. He knew what kind of man his boss was and he was pretty sure he would be killed if he was ever deemed expendable... Such as if he was ever discovered to have been captured. Thus he began blabbing his mouth as if he was still being interrogated, distracting the potential attacker.

Grabbing another arrow, Linnea took aim at the door, and when she finally saw it open very slowly, she let loose an arrow. The man's voice completely defeaned out the already low sound of an arrow being fired, and the moment the door opened enough, there was an eerie squishy sound as the projectiled pierced someone's head. A hooded figure completely in black fell into the room, and Linnea recovered the arrow she had shot. The guy had a dagger in hand, and he wasn't the only one. There was two more of them up there, all the way up the stairs, and suddenly one of them started heading down as well. The thief kept on babbling even if it wasn't really necessary anymore, but then Linnea figured she could still use the distraction. The door was now completely open, and the archer positioned herself in a way that she'd be able to hit the attacker's chest before his head was low enough to look into the room... Her haki allowed her to see with perfect clarity, and the moment the Assassin's chest appeared, she shot yet another arrow with deadly accuracy, this time not killing the man but injuring him critically with an arrow to the chest... But there was still one more. Linnea quickly retireved a not yet broken arrow from the slain enemy and prepared a strategy to take him down before he could flee.


OOC:

Used C-rank Kenbu (30/40 HS remaining)

Shot 3 arrows, recovered one (spent 2 total)

These guys weren't half bad; to be able to infiltrate a Dojo filled with martial arts student. But they didn't count on an angry, paranoid huntress there to stop them. Still, she wasn't going to let any of them escape. Linnea would rather leave as many of them alive as possible, preferrably two in order to interrogate them separately and see what else she could gleam. Attacking the Dojo most likely to kill a defenseless prisioner was unacceptable, not to mention insulting to this dojo. First off, Linnea loaded the arrow she'd just picked up and scanned the sole enemy's emotions. He was getting impatient, but he was still calm enough to stay still and wait for his comrades to finish the dirty deed. Good.

First off, Linnea coated her arrow with charcoal black Haki Hardening, and tugged on the string. She climbed up the stairs from the opposite side to the enemy, and locked onto him. Soon she was close enough for her plan to work: Shooting the arrow, she watched as it sailed effortlessly through the air, ripping through the wooden wall and striking the enemy's chest from a completely unexpected angle. Caught thoroughly off guard, he fell down from the critical damage and blood loss; he wouldn't be running away anytime soon, but he was still alive. Of course, this last destructive shot alerted her master who quickly came over followed by the two strongest students:

"Linnea! What happened?!", He asked in a worried tone, looking at the defeated, but still breathing enemy. The dagger and black clothing that matched the twilight made their intentions obvious enough, "An assassin, huh... Trying to silence that guy down there no doubt"

The archer wasted no time in informing the master of the attack, surprising him by stating there were two more down there, one of them dead. But above all, nothing surprised as much as hearing Linnea claim to have broken the thief and learning who had sent him. He seemed to recognize the name Raziel however. She already knew her master was a Marine Veteran, what she didn't know was that this Raziel fellow was a super rookie (often known as a Supernova) late in Master Jeong's career as a Marine, when he was a Commodore. He did warn her against seeking out Raziel, often known as "The Collector": He was a man of insatiable greed who would stop at nothing to achieve endless wealth. Though he appeared to have mellowed out in his later years, and preferring unique, priceless artifacts over simple gold. Finally, Master Jeong asked her how she'd managed to learn all of that from the thief when he failed, and his curiosity was blatantly obvious for once:

"Most men seem really scared of being shot between the legs. Turns out he was one of them.", she explained with a calm smile, for the most part completely unaware of the emasculating significance such an act had on men. Different cultures after all...

Master Jeong looked visibly unnerved by this, confirming Lin's initial suspicion, but ultimately proud at her student's resourcefulness. She had extracted the information without even laying a finger on the prisioner:

"You're pretty scary when you want to be, Linnea... Good to know, you'll need it."


- TO BE CONTINUED -

OOC: Used D-rank busoshoku, used emotional scan on final assassin

Spent 3 arrows total

3 T2 assassins defeated.