It was hard to sleep after the previous night. Too fresh were the face if the people Blake had killed. Especially the desperation in the eyes of the last man, just thinking about it made her shiver with excitement. It was like lightning was running through her body. She felt as if it was making her crazy. In all her years she had only felt the same kind of satisfaction when she killed her rapist. It was an addicting ecstasy!
After just a few hours of sleep she got up from her sweat covered bed. As she got dressed just looking at it made her blush a little. The young maiden wondered if this kind of behaviour was actually healthy in any form. It almost left her unsatisfied to kill someone in a normal manner again, before throwing them into deep despair. She had to get the whole experience out of her system and since the little shed had no shower or bath she decided to visit one of the few local bath houses to clean her body and mind.
After borrowing a towel and getting undressed, she first stepped into the cold shower. She still felt a bit sensitive to touch, but she had to get the sweat of herself. Then she got into the big hot bath and quietly. It was still early, other than steam there was nothing and no one around. It was perfect to relax. The gentle touch of the water finally managed to calm her.
Fully relaxed and with a strawberry milk in hand Blake decided to take her time to look around the town, to see if her actions the previous night had caused any changes. First she dropped by the bar that employed her as waitress. She still felt bad about her Haki outburst. Luckyly the owner was in high spirit as always and after talking a bit about the events of the night she got on the way again. At the market she noticed the first change, the city guards had increased and everyone seemed a bit worried.
Curious she bought the local newspaper and gave it a quick read over, apparently her nightly adventures were the headline: “Marines murdered all across town!” It said, but mostly tried to calm the reader by stating that the nearby base had already sent reinforcements to search for the killer and that they would keep everything under control. It made Blake chuckle. If they thought that they had anything under control they were mistaken, but she could not let anyone believe that. She wanted to make a statement: Marines were not welcome! As soon as that went through her mind she already spotted the first group of the Marine police. After removing the bodies they had begun questioning the locals and no better place to do so than the filled up market place. Even the crazy murderer did not leap right at them and stab them in this space, even when she considered it for a moment. Instead she got herself some sweet pumpkin bread and an apple, sat down on a bench and just watched the situation.
Just watching a target was always a mix between pleasure and pain to her. Even more so when one of the Marines, a tall, rather beautiful, woman set next to her on the bench. She was just taking a small break, but after a while turned to Blake, which was trying her hardest to hide her killing intent. “Can I ask you a few questions?” The wanted murderer just shrugged and then pulled her hood back, to smile a little. The questions were fairly basic and obviously Blake had no lead to the criminal, but after answering so many questions she had to ask one too: “Do you think you will find the murderer?” With confident the woman answered: “Obviously, justice does always prevail!” Blake could not help but laugh out loud at that comment. Quietly she said just to herself: “Because the one that prevails is justice.” Then she got up and looked around.
After her breakfast she often felt the hungriest to kill and it was just unfair to present her with such a wide selection of possible targets. The pretty lady was especially tasty and even if it was harder to kill someone in the middle of the day on the market place, she felt like exactly that would satisfy her hunger. To do it she pulled her hood down deep and let herself get absorbed by the crowd.
It took not long for her to reach her victim, slithering through the mass of people, till she was within a few steps away from her, speeded up and bumped knife point first into her back, just to carry on running past her as if nothing was wrong. All the time grinning to herself, thinking of the word “justice”. Obviously as soon as the woman had hit the ground a panic started, everyone was running out of the market place, which made it even easier to get away from the area.
Just the panic alone and the look on the helpless Marine's as they watched their crew mate bleed to death from the stab into her back were the best! She had wanted to send a message, but one dead Marine was a bit too little to really make a point, especially when there were still so many around in the city.
Calmly she kept strolling through the city, dodging a few patrolling guards here and there and observed the chaos that she had created. What else was a good place to kill? It felt incredible hard to wait, but a kill was not just a kill, if it was just that simple her thirst would be satisfied with all the people around her. It made her wonder if her actions before had not been healthy. It felt like some form of perversion had taken hold of her innocent heart. Just thinking of it made her sigh. It had become normal for the girl to kill without anyone fighting back, like a butcher, twisting a cute rabbit's neck. If she kept doing that her skills would get rusty, the next few kills had to be done without Haki!
Back to her habit of playing with the tanto in her sleeves, she kept an eye out for Marines in the biggest public places. One of them was the square before the city's library. It seemed like the marines had figured out that it was a girl in a hood that had stabbed their colleague in the back and were stopping people fitting the description, including Blake.
“Sorry I do not know what you mean Sir.” With an innocent smile she pulled back her hood and looked at the single officer. “I am just a waitress and travelling magician, do you want to see a trick?” Without waiting for an answer she pulled a coin from her pocket, threw it into the air and made it walk over her fingers. Clapping her hands together she showed the man that her hands were empty, before reaching out behind his ear and pulling it back out. The trick honestly impressed the man for a second, before he suddenly felt the pain in his chest. “The trick to magic is to not get distracted by what the magician wants you to see.” Twisting her arm around she pulled the dagger from the man's chest.
She had not only timed her magic trick in a way that the man would not see the stab coming, she had also positioned herself so that the others searching the square could only see her back. Only when Blake jumped over her victim were they able to realize that another Marine had fallen victim to the killer they were looking for, but by the time they had reached him Blake had already disappeared in the maze of narrow alleys between the buildings.
The whole progress made her feel like a beginner again. Often she had set out in the past, with the goal to kill a set amount of people out in the open, repeating that for weeks, till they figured out who the murderer was and then left town. The longer she could play that game, the better she felt about herself. Killing the Marines in the same manner was somewhat more challenging than just killing normal civilian, but she also was not a beginner any more. On top of that, she was not scared to be found out any longer. For that reason the last kill had to be a bigger show, for which she headed to the biggest square in the city, located in front of the city hall.
In the middle of the square stood a giant statue, raising a sword up into the air, according to the plate at its feet, it portrait one of the islands kings. Just like in the other square, Marines were on the lookout and apparently had got even better information to who the killer was, because as soon as she entered she was approached by a group, led by a short man, with a moustache and a captain's hat. Blake did not even bother to hide her grinning face as he stopped a few steps before her and met her cold eyes. “I take it, you are the mad woman killing my friends?” The men raised their rifles, but Blake just shrugged. “Are you here to capture me?” The square around them quickly emptied, while both justice and government dogs stared at each other. “I would rather kill you, but my dead men would not be happy to let you get away that easy.” Blake just laughed about that, indeed death was easy, in the past she had often wished for her own death. “Fine...”
Blake raised her hands and slowly approached the group. She noticed the surprise in the short man's face. He understood that the girl was up to something, but the girl was still taking her time to find the best way to kill him, without getting shoot in the progress. It was a difficult question, especially since multiple rifles were already pointed at her. Honestly she was a bit clueless. Even after finally standing before him she had not found a solution to the problem. While lowering her hands to get put in chains her brain was still working hard to find it. Just as the chains were about to close around her wrists she sighed and watched the group of men fall around her, leaving only the captain behind. A bit disappointed she admitted her weakness: “I need to improve, maybe next time I find a solution.” Caught the chains before they were able to fall and threw them around the captain's neck, before dodging his punch to the side and then rammed her tanto into his waist.
It was not enough to kill the man, but enough to make him stumble enough for Blake to grab the chains around his neck and pull him of his feet. Walking past the passed out Marines she approached the statue. While the citizen of Briss were staring at her in fear she slowly began to climb it. As the man struggled his hardest to break free she reached the shoulders of the big stone man. Grinning she asked: “Do you feel happy that I let you away so easy?” Then jumped over the shoulder, sliding down the statues back, while the man hung down it's chest, both connected by the chain around his neck, till it snapped and the murderer fell back on her feet behind the statue. With so many onlookers she almost felt like giving a speech, but speeches, weren't her thing. So she just looked around once, laughed a little and pulled the hood back over her head, before running as fast as she could!
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