-Dream sequence-

Reina was running through a town besieged by living shadow. Her eyes slowly blackened and became lifeless orbs and she thrashed throw silhouettes of familiar looking objects getting in her way. There she was sprinting at full speed after a man dressed in all black. Everytime she found hope in catching the figure, it sped up quicker and left her in the dust. Everytime the tip of he fingers were within centimeters of grabbing the figure by the shoulder it shook her off and in an inhuman fashion darted to the left or right to lose her. Everytime she would stumble about, bruised and bloodied. Her heart was thumping and visioned blurred until she was trapped in darkness, bound by shadow and swallowed in the endless abyss that was her helpessness.

-end of sequence-

Like always she awoke in a cold sweat. Her hands clenched, bloodied slightly due to her nails digging into her palms. Her breathing labored and mind blank, she rolled over and off the bed in a haze. She was unsure of where she was or where she was for that matter. She crawled across the room and wrapped her fingers around the sheath katana, pulling it out ever so carefully to admire it. Her blade's beauty with its blackened steeled which shimmered even in the dimmest of light, was the only proof she was awake and in reality once again. For it was the only item she was always missing in her dreams. As dawn brought the sun out of its slumber, so too did it bring Reina out of hers.

Like usual she was greeted by her buddy Lana who was always waiting in the lobby of hotel they both stayed at. She usually was there to greet her red headed friend with a smile,but today she walked up to Reina and grabbed her hand, " Hey what's the matter"? Reina laughed nervous and scratched her head, " I burnt myself tryin to cook noodles". Lana eyed her with intent,but she could not find an ounce of deceit in her expression. Or perhaps she was convinced her friend wasn't capable of safely preparing her own food without being a clutz. She playfully grinned at her commanding officer and began to move for door when reina stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder. " uhh listen, stay at the docks today with the guys. We got a ton of preparatory work to do for the upcoming festival and I don't like working with logistical issues...". Lana saluted Reina and walked off to fulfill the task given to her. Something Reina was somewhat grateful for,because trouble in town has started to get worse. At the very least she felt comfortable leaving her in the care of the dock workers she grew up with than having her stay by her side when she had business with the world government.

Within minutes she was before standing before the world government's office, which for all intensive purposes was akin to a ten story mini skyscraper. Upon entering the premises she was greeted by shifty eyes and dirty looks. The world government for all intensive purposes spent treated everyone not directly related to them with the same disdain. Anything under a billionaire making a donation or a Vice admiral was met with an air of prejudice. There reina stood in line, awaiting her appointment which was already placing her 40th in line. " S'cuse me mam, I'm here to see xing jao". Like always, she was obligated to present her identification information ranging from birth place to her marine badge and promotion reference number. With a stuffy attitude she granted the red head clearance and directed her to the shifty looking stairs. Its path was narrow and colors dark and striped, which only exasperated the sense of being closed in by their walls. Despite it cleanliness and pleasant music echoing from the speaker den dens, she couldn't shake her unease.

Upon reaching the tenth floor she was met by a man who looked as if he came from wano. His eyes were like slits,but they were laden with malicious intent. Reina coughed into her hand and approached him after he gave her a nod. " You wanted to see me sir"? He smiled at her, flashing his pristine pearly whites and he rose from his desk, " ahh yes mam. Got word from the boss man about some fishy business down in town. Wanna take care of it"? Reina involuntarily frowned at her and averted her gaze. " Whatever, anything else"? He shook his head and stuck his nose back into his paper work once more. Completely oblivious of her presence once more. She herself practically ran out of there and the building entirely. There was something about his demeanor which didn't quite sit with her, something about his gaze which left her uneasy. It was like he was burning a hole in the back of her head.

WC:837
Stamina:320/320
Haki:75/75

An hour or so later she found herself at one of the sea elevators stationed in a tri formation around Water 7. One station was only for upper classes to use,but they still occasionally used the commoner's elevators when they felt like it. T'was a privilege granted to island's elite by its governor due to the taxes they paid. Anyone over a certain threshold in taxes paid literally had benefits only afforded to them and their families, one of which was a private sea elevator. However this was blocked by two burly men and a short guy armed with a rifle, one of which he swayed back and forth to threaten the crowd. These guys were not world government or affiliated with them in any way,but rather were hired arms.

The crowd was loud and slightly dangerous, seething with rage. It was like a sea of hatred and resentment with men of all ages raising their fists at the mercenaries stationed at the elevator's door. It was empty as a family of 3 were making their way to its mouth. It was a pensive women with curious eyes, who glanced over the crowd with a hint of disgust. A man dressed in finely tailored clothing and a monocle. Their little girl had pig tails and a frilly dress which looked more expensive than the crowd's sweaty and worn clothing combined even when they were new. They entered the elevator with an escort of 10. Each man had their rifles resting on their shoulders and were marching with long deliberate strides which were synchronized with eachother. Again they were not government affiliated,but certainly were as regimented as her fellow marines were back on Alabasta.


One of the crowd's bystanders shouted at his fellow guys, " Hey screw this! If we want to go on elevator, then those stuffy dipshits will just have to bear our presence as well"! The man put one leg over the railing, which instantly caught the short guy's attention, his rifle trained upon him. Shorty grinned only to find another was joining the first. The people in the crowd were about to start pouring over the barricades meant to serve as a boundary for them when Reina used a few of them as a stepping stone and appeared before the two groups with her sword drawn. The man's rifle was cut in two as she stumbled back behind to two bigger guys who were now poised to strike. The air around her blade started to swirl until she swung it, causing the black blade to erupt into a fan of flames. Instantly both stopped momentarily, after witnessing her conjure flames. " Listen up, you all don't have to get along with eachother,but you certainly have to get along. You three may ride on the elevator as you always have,but you must allot space for these people to ride with you as well".

WC:497
Stamina:292/320
Lion's mane
Haki:75/75

The man who was most likely the father of the family in the elevator approached Reina without much regard for the situation. In fact he approached her as if he was the one calling the shots there. " You listen here girl. We are the masters and these cretin are dogs, lowlife and nobodies". He said, getting up in her face and nearly poking her eye with her index finger. " You go--", he stammered as Reina grabbed his wrist and turned the man around to form a bar around his neck. He shuttered and winced, trying not to choke as she pulled harder on him when he struggled. His guards all moved toward her with impressive speed, most moving to surround her within the blink of her eye. She grinned and shimmied the blade right under his chin, making the big shot sweat and stammer.  His arms flailing back at them to make the men stand down. Reina knee'd him in the back to move forward, tickling his neck along the way. "Stand down or your employer gets it", she said with a hint of glee.

His wife and daughter stood there in horror with tears streaming down their cheeks, begging for them to stand down. They tugged at two of the mercenaries' legs and pleaded with them to quit it. " Please stop that's my husband for god's sake"! The soldiers however, were more inclined to stand their ground because it was a marine who was doing the threatening. Their guns ready to let loose a hail of lead until her blackened blade started to drip blood. It was minuscule,but her blade was slowly carving into the man's chin and letting blood run down its body. The father now not wailing or flailing, just walked to her pace with a blank look in his face. The mercenaries stood shocked by Reina's actions, lowered their guns. Reina nodded, gesturing the rest to follow suit and completely dropped their weapons at her captives feet. Reluctantly each did as they were told, their eyes still full of anger. Each one trying to feel for the woman and see if there was a opening to disarm her. " Now lie down on the ground with your hands behind your backs". Each one growled at her, thirteen in all planted their faces into the dirt. 

Once a few people from the crowd came to hold the mercenaries down, the crowd began to move toward the elevator. The two girls in the family were nowhere to be seen. Once another another marine came to help the father, she went back to the elevator only to find one of the ten remaining guns missing. She gasped and activated her kami haki. She held her sword at her hip and sprinted toward the crowded elevator, scanning and trying to get a feel for the threat in the crowd. It was subtle,but there was malicious intent oozing within. Faintly she could make out the finger on the trigger, barely could she feel the direction of the person who was closing in on the mother and daughter. As she did before, she used her light build to jump from person to person. Using her practiced senses, she managed to use only strong men's shoulders to jump from one person to the next as she raced to toward the impending danger.

WC: 566
Stamina: 274/320
Crane strike
Haki:60/75
Turned off this turn

37/50 T0 grunts left
30 T1
20 T2
10 T3

There the mother and daughter were, stiff as a board as a man held the barrel of the rifle against her gut. He had a wicked look in his eye, blood shot with a dilated pupil. He breathed in anticipating as he licked his lips and shoved the gun into the mother's gut, further and further until she teared up. No one in the crowd was paying attention and if they were, no one cared as the woman sobbed. " Please...please don't do this". The man chuckled under his breath, breaking eye contact for a second. " Who do you think made me like this? HUH!" he roared, damn near ready to pull the trigger.  That's when Reina swooped in, arm wrapped around his neck as she pulled up to instantly knock him out. Around the duo people were falling all over themselves, some stares were frightened. Others were full of resentment, vindictive smirks across their faces as they shook their head at the failed attempt to make the rich lady suffer. With that the crowd scooched out of the way reluctantly, glaring at Reina as if she was a traitor when she escorted the two out of the elevator, with the assailant in tow with them. " Get this one tied up as well lieutenant",she said. Tossing the tweaked out man to lieutenant.

As things died down and operation of the elevator came back into play, Reina escorted the family back to their abode. Or at least as far as they would let her. The father in a stretcher did not make eye contact with her,but the mother and daughter tried at least." Want to tell me what's going on? I may not approve of your use of force like this,but neither could I condone what that crowd did either. Tell me, what's going on", Riena said frankly. In exchange for that much, she would let the family go depending on the reason.

Upon reaching the upper districts of Water 7, she noticed a shift in how things looked. From canals with bustling streets of merchants and shoppers, you had a calm and collected atmosphere. The architecture was elaborately made, with small minute waves making up the grooves of the archway she and the family passed through to their abode. Here she would wait on one side of the room while the family sauntered in on the other. " What do you want already marine? We already know what your kind do". Reina paused for a moment and tilted her head, " what, like marines"?

They nodded, pulling back in fear. "Excuse me, but would you mind starting over? Right now I'm more interested in the sudden change on this island. Something's fishy when there are dozens of guards posted at the third level of water 7 and more are coming every day". The mother winced at the red head who had a cold look on her face, unwavering as she stared into her eyes. " We've heard hooded men burning down homes in our neighborhoods, with people stuffed in bags where you can still see them kicking". She sat back and pondered the woman's statement for a moment before bringing herself back to the topic at hand. " Is that why you've hired so many shady men to do what was the marines' job a year ago"?

She nodded and her daughter came up to reina before the mother could grab her, " And those mean people have been bullying my friends. They harass my friends and make us need to take our own elevators. They all scary they be like I HATE YOU. and it makes tabitha sad". Reina didn't know what to say, for in her experience the well off usually abused their status and differences in money for the worst. After seeing that angry vindictive crowd, she wasn't so sure it was that easy of a situation anymore. "Listen I'll get to the bottom of this and try to find out what's wrong okay, so just sit tight and don't make any sudden movements. I can understand an escort,but not an obstruction of the town's infrastructure".  With that the daughter tabitha was sent to bed and the mother walked Reina out of the house.She leaned in closely and whispered in her ear, "There's one other thing at play here...robed men who travel in packs at night. I heard they started popping up as the marines disappeared from our escort duty".

 Reina nodded and bid her farewell, heading back to the lower levels of water 7. She started to think back at the figures she met a few weeks ago when she met the bubbly Mavis. " Was this the work of marines? Or was there something else at play here"? she said to herself as she approached an open space headed toward the sea elevator.

 WC:824
Stamina:274/320
Haki:60
2 turns cooldown

37/50 T0 grunts left
30 T1
20 T2
10 T3

As Reina made her way through the now dark streets of water 7, she had her hands on her head as she roared at the night sky, " WHY IS THIS SO DAMN HARD"?! She rustled her own hair in the process as she grit her teeth and thought about what was going on. At any rate, she felt the only thing she could do was go back to base and interrogate the captured assailant. She found herself leaning up against the railing as she tried to gain her bearings once more. Something didn't quite sit well with her,but she wasn't too sure what was going on as all the possibilities swirled in her head. " Could the marines still be on the island an...causing havoc? or mayhaps it was the lack of marine...presence which ...caused this"? Just then a bullet rang in the distance, landing a few feet from her feet. Whoever it was, they weren't a good shot.

Emerging from the shadows came a band of men coming from all corners of the street. There in theory was not a place she could go, with rifles trained on her from the distance. In front of them was a battalion of fighters wielding chains, nailed bats, swords, and hammers. " now now girly, we'll teach you dogs of the military what 'appens when you tread on water 7"! Reina took a survey of the surroundings. A building she could get onto fairly quickly if needed to her right. It would be a literally hop and skip from the railing to the roof. To her left was a deep ravine leading into the sea. She feigned fear, taking a few steps back and nervously motioning her hand to her sword. The men,fifteen of them encroaching upon her and five holding position in the back just in case she tried to run.  " r'member boyz, don't kill er. we can sell 'er aft'r".

 Just when reina was going to spring into action a pack of hooded figures sprung from the shadows. Reina closed her eyes and immediately activated her kenbushoku haki. There were several moving around em, screams were heard in the distance. The men fell into chaos, completely forgetting about her. She could feel it all happening, as black blurs sprung from the shadows to engage the thugs after her from before. Molotovs were hurled on the field to separate the gang of men, whose struggling could be heard from every direction. One black figure shot like a dart toward her,but she managed to lunge forward and roll out of the way. The figure expertly regained its balance and began to take swipes at reina. She dodged the first two and then drew her own blade to parry the thrust for her heart. The figure didn't have too much strength, so it was easy for her to throw him off, cock her right arm, and send a diagonal slash up his left side(T2 down).

She sprung forth weaving through the flames(flame splitter). Each swipe she was able to get closer to leaving the area as the fires split apart. Looking outward she saw many robed figures running off in each direction. Each second they were moving further away, so she just chose the right and sprinted into the alleyways. Funnily enough there were no deaths in that attack, but rather the robed figures came and captured those guys when they were grouped and focused on Reina. She darted off into the darkness using her own acrobatic skills to leap from rooftop to rooftop to track their whereabouts. The longer she followed, the deeper she'd end up in the slums.

The area was becoming more unruly as she went on, reminding of her Alabasta's own. She kept going until she reached a giant abandoned factory near the shore, surrounded by abandoned houses. She lied low, feeling the movements of the assailants all around her. The closer she crept to the shore, the stronger their presence was. This seemed to be where they operated out of as a black ship pulled up to shore. She settled near the edge of housing leading up the sandy shore, to see row boats come ashore with more unscrupulous figures. From the factory were tons of people coming out in shackles. Some were even people she recognized from the world government office. Although she failed to really pay them any mind, there was a father who was screaming as she entered the stairway to see her superior officer, Xing Jao. 

Under the cover of night she sprung forth charging down the shore. The robed figures' leaders did not pay much mind to her as a gangle(30 T0) of of them rushed her with their own sword's wielded. It was like a wall of them were suicidally charging her. She placed her right hand over she blade, stepped forward to slide her foot forward before unleashing a powerful swipe across the body of the pack. Those who were in the immediate vacinity were torn apart, blades and all. The rest were engulfed in the resulting fire which burst from her blade(Lion's roar and lion's mane). The beach erupted in flame as charred bodies littered the ground. Still the hooded ones herded their victims aboard their lifeboats. 

Reina emerged from the flames to be met with a figure(T3) who darted from the shadows to meet her own blade, while another tried to flank her(T3). She kneed the guy in the balls to throw him off, ducked the swing of the axe from the other and swung in a wide arc to starting from the ground to lop the first figure's head off and meet the axe of the second. As the big guy struggled with her, she closed her eyes to let out all the stress from the world in one split second. She imagined the axe shattering. In that instant her blade started to push on him with just one arm, the sword eating(executioner's calling) into his own.She shoved her blade down to cleanly slice through his steel blade before quickly cutting through his abdomen once more.

WC:1044
Stamina:181
-15 stamina
-50 stamina
-28
haki 35
ken still on

7/50 T0 grunts left
30 T1
20 T2
8 T3

All the while Reina could tell people were leaving the island as she struggled. She could feel the little boy's distress as he drowned in the water due to his shackles. She cried with each parry she performed. The sandy beach was blooded with the corpses of her enemies. The closer she got, the more powerful figures they sent to intercept her. Her focus broke for a moment, her muscles ached with each swing. She parried one, directed his wieght to the side and stuck her blade into his stomach(T1). As three more darted forth to attack her from all sides, she ducked their horizontal swings and spun while swinging her blade in starting from the first one's leg and ending up going diagonally through one guy's chest and up another's neck(T1's). She did not falter but with each step forward, she felt herself being pushed back.

As 4 more came whirling out(T3) of the woodwork she didn't have time to clear her mind completely,but she still managed to sheath her sword once more. Instead of trying to rush them, she waited for the first to swing lunging to the left, and brought her sword up to his chest with a quick swipe. As the next came, she kicked him off and (Executioner's calling) swung with incredible force to break his sword in one swing, tearing through his chest cleanly. She grabbed his torso and stepped back, pivoting to slam the severed torso into its buddy. As sand flew up she stabbed through the two guys and brought her sword up and in a high arc to strike down the last goon in the area

By this time she found herself propped against her blade into the sand on one knee. In the distance she could see the last of the slaves being loaded up on the ship. Suddenly all the people who were throwing themselves at her dispersed as quickly into the night. She wanted to swim out to the ship, but her limbs felt heavy as sandbags at this point. She wanted to chase the others in a rage, but was unable to do so. Reluctantly she sheathed her sword and took a look around the area which was abandoned by the hooded ones. She shambled into the factory to find a discarded needles lying on the ground. The machines were in disrepair and standing amongst them was a single table with a den den mushi sitting on it. It biddy biddy'd, as if it was expecting her.

She picked it up and saw a grey beard lining its cheeks and an uncomfortably focused gaze at her. " I wonder how your friend is doing. wee hahahahahaha--". Reina threw her snail down and burst from the factory as fast as her body would take her. She ignored the searing pain exploding from her legs and her furiously beating heart telling her to cease and desist. Her feet slammed against the rocky pathway as she sprinted toward her hotel where she stayed. Bystanders would watch in awe as the woman drenched in blood and sweat pounded the earth beneath her, making it sound like a jackhammer was striking the ground. 

Upon reaching her hotel, she single mindedly sprinted up the stairs toward Lana's room. Only to trick at the last moment, slamming her head against the concrete pathway.  Her face pointed toward the door, she expected to find it it open, with a room that was thrashed with a flickering light on the floor. But what she found was her friend, leaning over her. She placed her hand on Reina's cheeks and whimpered for a second as the battered and bloodied red head lied on the floor. " we--we got to go lana...they're coming". Lana nodded, " Who's coming? Is this why you left me behind again"? Reina struggled to her feet again, using the railing to regain her bearings. As her breathing stablized and the ringing in her head ceased she said, " You'll stay with your ship wright buddies for now on..."

There they were, two am on the doorstep of Lana's master. Still unsure of what was going on either end, the man nodded and let both of them enter for the night. There a group of hardy shipwrights stayed. T'was normally a rowdy boarding house with two new guests for the time being. As Lana bandaged what her friend would let her, reina turned to her and said, "I thought my nightmare was going to come true tonight. We need more help if we're going to survive on water 7 now".



Stamina:153- the running lol
-28
haki 25

7/50 T0 grunts left
?? T1
?? T2
?? T3