After landing on the island Chariot first had taken a break to eat and drink. She felt a little seasick after the long ride and happy to finally have ground under her paws again, while she slowly walked down the road into the core of the village.

After a while she took a small break, the city was impressive in all regards, large, with tall beautiful buildings, yet in between there were these wonderful small oasis of green. At such an oasis she sat down on the ground and stretched her legs out on the grass.

With interest she watched her surrounding, most people were wearing beautiful clothes, “kimono” was the name if she remembered right and most men carried a sword of some kind with them. As a blacksmith she was rather excited about the sword they called “katana”. Every country and island had their own kind of blacksmith an each specialized in their own area. For example the place were Chariot had learned before mostly did big and almost brutal weapons, like the one she had made for herself. It was not like she was not happy with Wolf Wing, it would probably crush most of these katana just with its weight, but she respected their elegance.

While looking around something up in the sky caught her attention. A young boy had been standing on the green space near to her for a while, but only then she noticed what he was doing. He had raised a big kite above all the buildings around them, on it a remarkable picture of a flying dragon. Following his tugs and pulls the dragon was spinning through the air, hunting imaginary knights and princesses. The Mink watched the dragon's dance for a while, till it suddenly jumped up even higher and higher. Her eyes were not on the boy, but he was struggling to keep the beast under his control. Then suddenly it broke free and dashed of into the air, followed by a loud scream of the dragon tamer.

Quickly Chariot glanced over to the crying boy and then back to the dragon it self, before even talking to him she jumped up and started chasing it.

Marcel has been on Shimotsuki Village, also known as, Little Wano for about three days. He had rented a place to stay for a little until he was ready to go elsewhere. During his short time here, Marcel has seen many things that reminded him of his home country. This village has indeed lived up to the name "Little Wano."

The samurai has pretty much explored about half of this island already during his stay and has even befriended some of the islanders as well as helping some of the doctors of this island patch up some of the injured. He was quickly getting well known in the village thanks to his Wano roots and medical skills.

Marcel strolled down the market district with his katana safely sheathed on his right hip. He was greeted by some islanders who recognized him as they walked past while even some of the market owners called to him, some thanking him for healing their friends and families, even offering him something from their shop for free which he kindly declined. Marcel then walked out of the district towards one of the village's many oasis where he noticed a little boy flying a dragon kite.

A small smile grew on Marcel's face as he recognized the boy as one of his patients as seen by the medical bandage wrapped around his lower left leg. The boy looked cheerful as he pulled his kite around as it danced in the wind. Marcel sat up against a wall away from the boy and pulled out his scrap book as well as a pencil. He took one more god look at the boy flying the kite and back down to his book as he proceeded to draw.

He then quickly looked back up, noticing that there was someone else by the boy from the corner of his eye. This person had a feminine figure and appeared to have fur all over her body. Marcel inspected her from a far, seeing as she also had ears and a tail that resembled a wolves which caused the red eyed samurai to raise an eyebrow as he has never seen such a person before. She appeared to have also been observing the boy with the kite and it looked like she didn't have any hostile intents so he went back to drawing the boy with his kite, now adding this woman into the picture.

Suddenly, a scream broke Marcel's concentration. He quickly looked up to see that the boy was crying and that his kite was flying away. Marcel then noticed that the wolf/human hybrid had ran off in pursuit of the kite.

Marcel put his scrapbook and pencil away and quickly got up, running towards the boy. "An aspiring warrior mustn't cry." he said to the boy, softly as he placed a hand on his shoulder with a reassuring smile on his face before running off towards the direction of the kite and the mystery woman.

Following the kite Charriot dashed along the road, carefully dodging other people left and right, even jumping over a really cute elderly couple walking in front of her, holding hands. She never had yelled out so many excuses in a row, however the kite was more important.

Soon the street did not cut it any more, so she jumped up a low roof and from that up to the top of the building. The Wolf felt a bit like a ninja, swinging, jumping and dashing from roof to roof, yet the dragon was still faster. Occasionally she thought that she could jump and grab it, but at these moments she already needed to focus on not falling from the roofs and breaking a leg, arm or her neck. People said that breaking the neck was deadly and she believed them.

To add to her bad luck, a strong wind reached for the dragon and boosted it even more ahead far over the forest and hills. For a moment she considered just giving up, but Chariot was not one that liked to give up. The kite had already left her view, so she was able to calmly climb down the last house at the edge of the city before continuing on her way.

If the dragon wanted to fly into the forest and get stuck on a tree that made it a bit harder, but not impossible, if she had to she would look for it all night long, that was the level of her stubbornness.

Marcel dashed through the streets of the village with his eyes glued to the kite flying above. He had his upper body slightly bent forward with his arms stretched back so that he could gain more speed but was still capable of maneuvering his way around the islanders, leaving a gust of wind behind him as he ran past.

His focus on the kite was soon broken as he looked straight in front of him, noticing the wolf woman he has seen not too long ago running in the same direction. Marcel slowed down a little as he didn't want to be stopped by her thinking that he was tailing her. She may have looked humanoid but she also looked very much like a wolf and what he has heard and knows about wolves, it wouldn't be too wise to follow one.

Marcel looked up to the buildings as he began to think about jumping up to the roof instead to continue his pursuit of the kite and so that it wouldn't look like he was following her but before he could, the wolf woman jumped up to the roof of one of the buildings he was looking at. She began jumping from roof to roof as if she were a ninja which caused Marcel to raise an eyebrow. He has seen many ninjas in the Wano Country do the same. Could she also be a ninja? Most likely not as she doesn't look the part.

Soon, Marcel's focus would return back to the kite which appeared to be heading towards the forest and hills. "Shit..." Marcel mumbled to himself as he knew just where the kite was heading towards. As the wolf woman was climbing down the edge of the last building, Marcel ran past her, not giving her any mind as he was too focused on what he knew lied ahead in that forest but was determined to get that kite back no matter what.

Looks like Marcel is going to get himself into some trouble after all.

While Chariot was still guessing where the kite was most likely flying, she felt a wind pass her and then saw a young man run at incredible speed in the direction of the forest. For a moment she thought about why he was doing that, before she had figured it out the instinct of a wolf had already set in and she was chasing him. Why exactly was she chasing him? Instinct logic: Because he was running away! The Mink herself did not really think about it much, for her the only reason was that they were both heading in the same direction. The Mink was a tiny bit faster, especially since her naked paws were perfect for running on the soft ground and so she quickly caught up with the man.

“Hey there”, she greeted him and matched his speed, “are you heading for the kite too?” After a quick smile to him she looked forwards again, scanning the air for the kite, with no luck. Quickly both of them reached the forest's edge and had to slow down or risk falling victim to a low hanging branch or high growing root. Forests were fun like that and the Mink saw it almost as her play room, just jumping over, swinging around or sliding under most obstacles.

“The name is Chariot, what is yours?” As a well raised woman she tried to start a conversation, since both of them seemed to head for the same thing. Occasionally she shifted her gaze from the green ceiling above her and the obstacle course in front of her to the man. She tried to gauge him: He did not look much different from most men she had seen since her arrival. Since it was normal to carry a sword around, she was doing it too, she did not assess him as dangerous. If he was really putting so much work into finding the kite, then he was probably a rather nice guy!

Marcel continued to run towards the forest. He looked up to the sky to see the dragon kite flying into the same area he was running towards as he guessed. Marcel gritted his teeth a little as he knew that this forest wasn't at all a safe place, not because of the wildlife, but because this is where a notorious small clan of bandits resided in.

As he inched closer to the forest, Marcel's ears picked up a sound of footsteps coming up from behind him. He then glanced over to see that wolf woman running next to him before looking back in front of him. He wasn't all that surprised about her catching up to him, given that she appears to be some sort of wolf hybrid. It was the moment she spoke, that surprised him. He gasped a little and glanced back to her as he wasn't expecting her to speak, but didn't want to point that out because he didn't want to look prejudice. He nodded to her first question as he looked back in front, seeing that they have both made it to the forest.

He slowed down a little so he wouldn't get hit by a dangling vine or tree which there was a lot of out here. The woman then spoke again, telling Marcel her name. He then glanced over to Chariot once more and back forward, maneuvering over a tree, smirking a little. "Marcel." he responded softly before his smirk went away and was replaced by a serious expression as he saw that the kite was now flying towards a familiar cave.

"Take cover." Marcel said to the Mink, softly but loud enough so she could hear as he ducked behind a tree. Some laughter could be heard coming from the direction of the cave as a large man with an afro was seen lingering around the cave entrance with another person. They were laughing and drinking from a wooden mug. Marcel peeked from behind the tree, observing the two bandits. He recognized the one with the afro as the head of the clan and judging by the look of the one he was chatting with, it was possibly his second in command.

Marcel looked up towards the sky and saw that the kite appeared that it was going to fly past the cave. The medical samurai gritted his teeth once more as he knew that it would be a problem having to try and get past the two to get to the kite, knowing how territorial they can be. Suddenly, a burst of wind caused the kite to change directions and instead of flying past the cave, it landed and stuck to the head bandit's afro.

One of Marcel's eyebrows twitched as he saw this happen. The two bandits decided to walk back into the cave which was their base with neither of them noticing the leaders new "hat." He couldn't put what had just happened into words and just simply looked towards Chariot with an annoyed look on his face.

While in cover Chariot observed the situation, including the strange path the kite had taken and its landing. She almost laughed out loud, yet instead just shook her head. Yet they were lucky to have found the dragon so easily and she did not plan to just wait for another lucky breeze to pick it up again and fly it from the man's afro into her hands.

Quickly the Mink got up and made her way towards the cave without a care in the world. Obviously she had no clue who these people were, but people in caves never were just normal guys. Chariot suspected them to be pirates or bandits. Yet she approached the man openly and raised a hand to greet him followed by a quick “Hello there.”

At first the man greeted her back and let her approach with equally little care, but when the Mink tried to reach for the kite he knocked her hand back. “Paws of my afro bitch.” Something that Chariot just answered with a light sigh. “I am not a female dog, actually I am more akin to a wolf.” Something the drunk man obviously did not really follow.

Meanwhile some of his friends had been lured out by the noise and lined up at the entrance to curiously examine the animal-woman. Chariot quickly gazed over them and counted five additional people. She also noticed the weapons they brought with them, apparently in an effort to protect their little secret cave. Again the woman sighed and tried to explain the situation: “I really just want to get the kite stuck in the afro, nothing more.” With that she pointed at said kite, in said afro, but it resulted in the man trying to insult her again: “I said stay away from my afro female wolf... uhm... bitch!”

It seemed pointless to talk with these men. Seemingly annoyed she looked over her shoulder to Marcel, asking loudly: “Any suggestion or should I just kill these people up to get the kite back?” Maybe it was because she had used the word “kill” or maybe they wanted to anyway, but as she turned her head back towards the group two men pulled their swords and began to approach her.

Marcel watched as Chariot was about to laugh before shaking her head a bit. The medical samurai simply shook his head and looked back towards the cave, not thinking that this was a funny moment at all. The infamous things, that Marcel had heard, these bandits had done in the past were the only things going through his mind. He believed that this should be taken seriously. "Okay, this is what I believe we should do. First, we..." before finishing his plan on how to handle this situation to Chariot, he turned over to where she was, only to see that she had disappeared.





Marcel raised an eyebrow and looked behind him to see where she went, only to hear a "Hello there." from a familiar voice to his front. He quickly turned around to see that Chariot was talking to the head bandit himself. Marcel stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face as one of his eyes twitched. "What the hell is she doing?" he said, quietly as he observed them. She must have been new to the island. Not one person had attempted to walk up to these bandits casually until then.





Suddenly, more bandits came out from behind the two with their own weapons. This was getting bad. Marcel's plan was to stealthily reclaim the dragon kite, but it appeared that plan had been thrown out of the window.





Marcel then noticed that Chariot had turned her head towards his direction. The next words to come out of her mouth left Marcel with another dumbfounded look on his face with his mouth opened wide. The bandits then turned to where she was looking and prepared their weapons as two of the grunts began to approach the Mink. Marcel fixed his face and sighed before placing a hand on his sheathe. "I guess we're really doing this." Marcel said to himself with an annoyed and tired tone as he dashed towards the direction of the others.




He quickly got behind the Mink before the two bandits behind her could strike her down with their poor excuse for katana. Marcel blocked the strike with his sheathed katana and pushed it up, causing the two grunts to stagger back before charging again. As they attempted to charge Marcel with their weapons, the samurai quickly side stepped and bashed one of the bandits in the back of the head with his sheathed weapon, causing him to fall to the ground instantly. The other grunt turned around and attempted to attack Marcel with his katana only for it to impact with Marcel's still sheathed weapon. They then exchanged a few attacks, their weapons constantly bashing into each other. The grunt attempted to slice at Marcel's neck but was quickly avoided as Marcel ducked under the blade and tackled him to the ground before finally unsheathing his weapon and impaling him in the chest, causing the bandit to cough up some blood that landed on Marcel's face.





"Disgusting." Marcel complained as he rolled off of his victim back on to his feet only to see one of the other grunts as well as the second in command of the bandits approaching him. The second in command's weapon which appeared to be a sledgehammer made of iron collided with Marcel's now unsheathed katana as they started a little struggle, pushing each other back and fourth with their strength, the bandit, gritting his teeth, grunting a little. Marcel kept a calm but serious expression.

A lot of things happened insanely fast, while Chariot was still debating the best course of action, the samurai boy protected her from an attack from behind and quickly distracted the attackers. The Mink calmly pulled her own sword from her back and avoided two more attacks, kicked one of them in the back and sent him flying down into the forest, while smashing her heavy curved blade against the other's rusty katana and shattered it, before burrowing the blade in the man's shoulder.

Turning towards the only remaining man, the afro boss, she could not help but lament the bad quality of these swords and equally low quality of the people wielding it. The boss on the other hand gave up a bit more strength. Especially as he lifted up a giant axe and got ready to swing it towards the Mink, but before  he did something else distracted Chariot.

Her new met friend Marcel was faced with two more opponents, one being the bandit that Chariot had just kicked into the forest a few moments before. With a light sigh she turned towards her opponent and said: “Excuse me for a moment afro boss.” Then she kicked up a cloud of dirt up with her tail, straight into the afro's face and dashed towards Marcel. Since she had not finished of that one bandit she felt slightly at fault for his situation. Jumping up high, she spun around her own axis and smashed her blade downwards, just in time to flatten the man dashing towards Marcel. It was not nice to interrupt while her friend was busy overpowering the man with the sledgehammer... “You are overpowering him right?” She felt a need to ask while watching just to be sure.

Even if he was not, Chariot no longer was in a position where she could help as she just barely dodged a wide horizontal axe swing, passing shockingly close by her ears. She should have known that a bit of dust hardly was enough to keep the man distracted. The next ground splitting attack followed, but the Mink now was focused on her opponent and the advantage he had in strength she had in speed, which she displayed by leaping over the man with ease. She followed it with a wide jump backwards. With some distance between herself and her opponent she took a deep breath taking in every sound and smell emitted from the giant bandit. She trusted Marcel to win his own battle and focused solely on her opponent. Fully focused she was confident to easily land enough attacks to take the man down.

At the same moment as afro boss turned and started to rush towards her, Chariot did the same and rushed him at max speed, spun around him to dodge his first attack and countered it with a slice at his leg. It was not deep enough to make him fall, but the next attack followed right away: jumping high over him she sliced at his shoulder. Again it was not deep enough to really finish him, but she was not finished either. Like a wild black wind she kept dancing around the slow moving man, dodging every attack and countering it with a fast slice. After multiple attacks it finally showed effect and brought the man to his knees, where Chariot paused. Looking at her blood covered blade and her blood covered opponent. She had to say something and that was: “Impressive I cut to the bone each time and you stood that long.” While she said it she leaned in to pull the kite out of the man's hair. “Lucky it is still clean”, she yelled over to Marcel, held the kite behind her back and at the same time rammed her sword Wolf Wing with all strength into the big bandit's chest, “but I would appreciate if we could find a stream to clean myself, before we bring it back to the kid.” The Mink seemed to show little care for the life she had taken, as one would expect from a wolf.

The loud sounds of iron clashing with iron filled the area as Marcel and the second in command bandit continued their little skirmish. Both fighter's faces were drenched with sweat while in Marcel's case it was blood and sweat. Their eyes were focused on each others as if they were attempting to look into each other's very souls.

Marcel managed to pull his katana upward, causing his foe's hammer to be pushed up as well before quickly slashing downward at the bandit's chest, creating a slash wound. The bandit grunted, wincing a little before trying to bring his hammer down on the samurai's head. Marcel simply twirled around him, causing the bandit to slam the hammer into the ground, making a small crater on the stone like ground. Before his foe could pick his hammer back up, Marcel smirked and kicked the bandit in the rear, causing him to stagger to the front a little, but didn't fall over.

The underboss managed to pick himself back up, turning around with a clearly pissed off grin on his face. The bandit slowly walked towards Marcel, picking up his downed hammer in the process as the samurai stood there in a ko gasumi position, his knees bent a little as he held his katana with both hands and the blade pointing sideways on the same level as his forehead.

The bandit slowly went from walking to speed walking then to running as he charged Marcel once more with the pirate quickly responding by clashing his katana with the bandit's weapon once more. During the struggle, another grunt can be seen approaching the two from the corner of Marcel's eye. "Should've known that you bandits wouldn't fight honorable." he said, preparing to be attacked from the side only to be saved by his new friend.

Marcel looked to her with a small smile, but was interrupted by the opponent in front of him. The bandit slammed his hammer against the katana and was too distracted by the battle to respond to Chariot's question. This battle has been going on for quite a bit and Marcel was getting about tired of this fight. There was also the possibility of his katana breaking from the force of the sledgehammer if they kept going, so he had to finish this fast. When he had the opportunity, Marcel slashed at one of the bandit's hands, causing him to lose the grip of his hammer which resulted in him dropping it on his left foot, breaking some bones.

The bandit shouted as he fell to his side, holding his injured hand. "Your style of battling is really lacking. It's a shame that I didn't even need to use my sword art." he said as he walked over to the downed bandit, crouching down to him as he held his katana towards the bandit, the tip of the blade poking the side of his neck. "You'll have enough time to clean up that style of yours, in the afterlife." he said as he slowly penetrated his blade through the bandit's neck followed with more screams of agony which soon stopped.

Marcel stood back up and slid the blade out of his victim's neck, inspecting the blood that was stained on it until he was interrupted by Chariot who was able to acquire the kite and finish off her opponent. Marcel nodded to her request with a little smirk on his face. "I should clean my face up as well." he said as he sheathed his katana, walking over to Chariot to follow her lead.

Chariot nodded, but then looked at Marcel lightly shocked. “Hold this”, she yelled and threw the kite towards him, using the moment he caught it to quickly pull the man's katana out of it's sheet again. It was still covered in blood, this was fine, but it was bad for the blade and its sheet if it remained like this. “Do you want your sword to end up like those bandit's?” She pulled a piece of cloth from her pocket and slid it along the blade. “You might even want to clean out the sheet or get a new one, in case you did this more often.” To finish she glanced over the blade one more time, admiring the shape and lightness. She turned it towards the sun and watched the light travel along the edge. It felt like the blade was more than just a simple katana, like the ones she had just fought against, or especially the one she shattered with Wolf Wing. “Could be made of better material and the balance seems a bit off”, she gave it a test swing, much faster than when she swung the heavy Wolf Wing, “but other than that I like it.” That said she carefully slid it into the sheet again and picked her own sword up and held it downwards towards Marcel.

In its full length Wolf Wing was only a bit shorter than the man himself. “This is mine, its name is Wolf Wing, because well it looks like a feather and I am somewhat a wolf.” She smiled and swung it downwards with one hand, throwing of most of the dirt and blood that had collected on it, before wiping it clean too. Obviously the wolf seemed to value the sword's cleanness far above her own at the moment. “If you don't keep a sword clean you just end up having to sharpen it over and over, please save a blacksmith that work. It does not even pay well.” She fixed the blade on her back and then started walking in the search for a place to wash some blood from her clothes and fur.

Soon they stumbled upon a small stream running through the middle of the forest, barely deep enough to reach to Chariot's tights. She knew that so accurately because at the moment the Mink had spotted it, she had already jumped into it and started throwing water over herself.

As Marcel continued walking towards the Mink, he stopped immediately as Chariot yelled, "Hold this!" while throwing the kite towards him. The samurai quickly caught the kite with a bit of a puzzled expression on his face. Suddenly, the animal woman had pulled his katana from the sheathe.

"What are you d-" Marcel said in a somewhat loud and annoyed tone before he was interrupted by the Mink's first question. Marcel's angry expression soon shifted back to a puzzled one as he watched Chariot clean the blade of his katana. He then looked down to his sheathe as a response to Chariot's next comment.

What the hell just happened? What the hell is she talking about? were the only things going through this samurai's head as he watched her inspect his katana. Marcel crossed his arms with the kite still in his right hand as he looked away with an annoyed look on his face from the Mink's comments about his blade. "This katana has been passed down from mentor to student for generations and has a long history with my home country. I would very much prefer that you don't belittle it like that." he said as Chariot placed the katana back into the sheathe.

Marcel looked down to it and held onto the handle of the blade. The katana was more than just a weapon to him, it was a prize treasure from his country, given to him by his mentor who also became his step-father. He watched as Chariot showed the man her blade. He didn't get to inspect it before due to the battle but now that he had seen it, it does look quite impressive and was amazed at it's height.

Chariot's last comment is what got the samurai thinking. He called the blade his prized treasure but he has been neglecting to clean it. It was a surprise that it was able to last this long. Marcel looked down to the ground, taking a deep breathe before following Chariot to a small stream.

Marcel placed the kite to the side along with his kimono folded up, his sheathed katana and chest plate, revealing his black saber tooth tiger like tattoo on his left shoulder. He then walked over to the water and got on his knees, scooping up some into his hand before splashing it on his face. He then took a good look around before looking back to his katana, thinking about what Chariot had said for a little. How could he call himself a samurai if he doesn't even take care of his own blade? Could it have been because of his primary focus on medicine? These questions buzzed around in Marcel's head as he stared at his blade.

He then quickly shook his head and turned to Chariot. "Thank you. I really appreciate it." he said in a soft voice before looking down at his reflection in the water, deep in thought.

Chariot leaned up and answered Marcel's words with a smile and a quick: “Any other blacksmith would have done the same.”, before returning to clean the last bits of blood out of her fur and shaking the water of, like a wolf did it, by twisting and spinning her body. For being raised by humans the woman had a wide collection of animal-like behaviours, some came from instinct, others were based on practicality, one such behaviour was the way she dried herself.

Shaking her head a bit longer to get it as dry as possible she left the stream and stretched her limbs, before picking up the kite again. “We better get this back to the boy or it will become a hassle finding him.” That said she carefully tied the kite to her waist and grinned to Marcel as if she was challenging him to a race, because next without any word said she jumped over the stream and started making her way through the forest towards the city again.

While she was running she thought about her actions for a moment. She still did not feel any remorse for killing the men that attacked her, when all she wanted was to get a child's toy back, but the idea that she maybe should worry about it made her concerned. Yet in the end when she looked at the little boy's happy face her worries were blown away. After all she had no reason to feel any remorse, just how there was no reason for a butcher to feel sad for the pig he killed. If there was any instinct she trusted the most it was that in the world it was either kill or be killed and she liked herself alive rather well.