Ritsu had to make a short detour before meeting up again with Anubis to deal with the killer. His theory of who it was seemed believable but at the same time she didn't want to take any chances that it could be someone else. He could even have an accomplice for all she knew. That's why in addition to locking down Marineford, her other main priority was gathering information. She was meeting up with one of her men to get an update on the progress on that. The meeting spot was next to an open training area. Thanks to Anubis' detailed prodding she had arrived a bit later than the agreed time. The ensign was already there waiting for her with his report.

"Sorry for being late. How are we doing?"

The man saluted before proceeding to speak.

"We have searched all records of people entering Marineford in the last few weeks, particularly Ensigns and below. There was no Ensign Nen among them ma'am. Not even any similar names."

It seemed she was tricked again. Of course the man would be using multiple names. He wasn't an amateur who was going to let himself get easily caught. In hindsight, she wondered if she should have asked Anubis what aliases the man tended to use. Perhaps it would have been helpful in their search. In any case the name "Ensign Nen" was useless to them now, though it was not something she would forget anytime soon.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the shouting of a young man in an orange jumpsuit some 50 meters away from them leaning against a tree near the other end of the training field. He wasn't a Marine that's for sure. By now orders on the lockdown would have reached most if not all the troops and so everyone should be busy with investigations, patrols and guard duty. Of course she knew there were also certain civilians permitted on the island who were relatives of Marines. Protocol would call for them to stay indoors until the lockdown was lifted but it was likely this boy didn't know that.

A couple of Marine Ensigns nearby would have enough of his attention seeking and would approach him with the intention of taking him back to the civilian residential areas, even if they had to drag him there. They were tall and rather muscular. As they stood next to the kid, he really looked like a little boy beside them.

"Excuse me sir but Marineford is currently on lockdown. We're going to have to ask you to accompany us back to the civilian area. The marine base and training grounds are currently off limits to outsiders until the situation is resolved."

The ensigns would of course not go into any details on the situation. But they would stand there arms crossed, fully expecting the boy to comply with their demands. It was for his safety after all. Ritsu would continue to watch from the distance without moving from where she stood.

The two men sighed as the kid decided he would rather give them a hard time about this. They were not in the mood for games but if they only needed to give him a reason in order to move then they had to think of something. Neither wanted to waste energy on using force.

"Fine. There's a madman on the loose somewhere on the island. They say he's killed people. It's not safe at all to be out. You'd better come with us for your protection."

While that was not quite the entire truth, that was the story most of the lower-ranked Marines knew. Only Rear Admirals and above were briefed about the exact details of the murder of the prince as well as those who were present at the scene itself. These two men were not. The main reason they did not share what they knew from the very beginning was because they did not want to cause any needless panic and worry. The kid seemed to not care about the danger and so they judged they might as well tell him what was up. They continued to stand there waiting for him to finally cooperate since they had given him what he wanted.

Meanwhile, 50 meters away from the scene Ritsu continued her conversation with her underling who had been showing her all the records they were able to pull up just in case she spotted anyone familiar from the pictures. He could have faked his name, but his face would have been far more difficult to fake. She had seen him both with and without his mask and she was fairly confident about her memory. True enough her scrutiny paid off. She found him, hidden among the files of the ensigns as expected. It would have been more difficult to impersonate someone of a higher rank. The name he used on the record was Ira. She would have to remember that.

Satisfied with the progress of the investigation, she sent her underling away to look up for information on the man. In the meantime, she glanced in the direction of the group near the tree on the other side of the training field. They were taking quite a while talking with the civilian. He was probably being uncooperative. It wasn't her problem though.

The two men scratched their heads, at a loss at what to do. They didn't know if they were authorized to use force in this situation. And they certainly didn't want to report to their superiors that they couldn't move a lone civilian to safety because he was being stubborn. They didn't know the kid but he seemed to be insisting he was someone important enough that he can ask for officers to talk to. It was really quite a pickle. But maybe he was related to another officer. That would help sort things out.

"Who are you a relative of kid? If it's someone higher up, I'm sure they can tell you what you want. We'll even call him for you."

One of them took out a Baby Den Den Mushi from his pocket to prove he was serious. They couldn't really think of anything else. If the boy really was related to someone higher up it would probably be easier to talk to them than some other unrelated commanding officer. They'd understand their kid was giving them a hard time. But if it turned out the kid was just related to another ensign like them, they could probably tell off the guy for all this trouble and make him buy them a drink.

Meanwhile in the distance, it was nearing the time when Ritsu was supposed to meet Anubis so she had to leave soon. They had to make sure they caught this Nen, or Tenzen or Ira, or whoever he was before he could kill anyone else or escape. The docks were her next destination and she would begin walking there assuming there was nothing to stop her.

Just as Ritsu was walking away, she heard a scream as the two ensigns from earlier were sent flying over her head and crashing into a building. This immediately caused her to turn her attention in the direction of the boy who shouted something about beating people unless a ranking Marine spoke to him. Kid or not, attacking Marines to the point of sending them to the hospital was inexcusable. As far as she saw, the two ensigns were just talking to him. In any case, a boy who can send two big men soaring over 50 meters away was no ordinary guy. A recent memory nudged her thoughts about how she also thought little of an ensign but the same ensign got the best of her. Of course he wasn't really an ensign. But putting that experience to use, she wasn't planning on underestimating the kid considering what just happened.

First thing that crossed her mind was that if he really was a civilian. Someone who can send people flying 50 meters who wasn't a Marine would definitely be closely watched, even if they didn't have this lockdown situation on their hands. Where did this kid come from and why didn't anyone tell her about him? Was he keeping his true abilities secret? If so, why pick this timing to reveal them? It was all hard to make sense of as her thoughts were still mostly on the killer. Someone had to bring this kid in though for questioning and she was the only one around who probably could as the only other Marines in the area were ensigns. A few of them went over to the two that crashed into the building to give them first aid and carry them out. Meanwhile, they looked to the Rear Admiral to resolve the issue.

On a normal day, Ritsu would be pretty excited to face someone potentially strong. But today she was a little tense with all the happenings and so she was more focused and serious than usual. The kid was taking up a martial arts stance which would tell her his preference for hand to hand. It was strangely familiar but she wasn't too concerned about his fighting style. What mattered more was settling this quickly and without too much fuss.

She started walking in the kid's direction, entering the training field. It was huge indeed, or at least much longer than the indoors one she went to previously. It as about 10 meters from one side to the other and 50 meters deep. There was a tree on the opposite end of the field and the boy was standing next to it. Other than a few odd logs, the field was just mostly grass. As they were located in Marineford though, past the edges of the field were buildings surrounding it on 3 sides. Ritsu would enter from the only open side, coming from the main pathway. Unless she was attacked while she was on her way, she would keep walking until she was within 20 meters of the boy, the entire time alert and prepared in case he tried anything before she stopped. She was wearing the Rear Admiral cloak and her position should have been easy enough to identify to anyone who looked at her if they knew anything about Marine ranks. Though she was obviously there to do something about him, she would maintain an expression on her face as though her only intention was coming over to have a word with him. She wasn't assuming any fighting stance and only appeared to be walking at a casual pace.

Whether the boy tried moving closer to her or not, as soon as she crossed the 20 meter mark from him, an unusual phenomenon would occur in the wind around the field as she stopped walking. It would thin out until there was nothing at all but a vacuum with no air to breathe. It was almost impossible to notice this happening and the next time the boy would take a breath while within this area, he would be surprised there was nothing to breathe in at all and begin suffocating unless he had some way of getting air in that condition. Should Ritsu be successful in executing this, she would maintain the vacuum field until the boy passed out from lack of air. The area of effect was 30 meters long and 10 meters wide, just barely encompassing the width of the field. She figured this was the fastest and most peaceful way to settle this. If she had to use her fists, things would get a little too messy.

She would have spoken that he was under arrest and she was taking him in for assaulting two Marines, but without any air, he wouldn't have heard anything while in the vacuum anyway. He would have to hear the charges after he woke up. Thanks to her abilities, Ritsu was still able to breathe normally in this situation.

Spoiler:

Stamina: 355/400

The boy would try to retaliate at her once he started suffocating from the lack of air, but at this point it was already far too late. He attempted to swing his arm without moving from his position. Likely this was meant to be the catalyst of a wind projectile attack transferring the force behind his swing over a range but the timing he chose to execute this was not the best. The wind and air in the area surrounding him was already gone and so there was nothing to use for his attack. He literally took a swing at nothing.

All these thoughts came to Ritsu after he had already tried to perform his attack. The swing was too fast for her to clearly see and she only realized it when the position of his arms and posture changed. This would instinctively cause her to anticipate letting an attack pass through her body even though none actually came. All it took was a thought after all and there was a good 20 meters between them even if she couldn't actually see it.

In any case, as she had avoided any possible harm, Ritsu would continue to maintain the effects of the vacuum. At this point the kid would have passed out from using up the oxygen in his blood as he chose not to take the chance to escape from the field. In fact trying to attack while in that state only hastened his oxygen consumption and he would logically be out like a light after attempting that swing. Being an expert at her use of this ability, the Rear Admiral would know exactly how long it took to make a person pass out without killing him and she would not approach or end her technique until she was absolutely certain.

OOC:

Skills Used:

Stamina: 340/400

Ritsu was expecting that the kid would crumble to the suffocation but some way somehow he managed to find the strength to fall back. He was pretty fast and ran into the base behind him, punching through the door in the process. Basically her idea of settling things quickly was probably not going to happen. His exact strength was unknown as in the short time since she attempted to subdue him, he wasn't able to launch a successful counterattack. It made her wonder what his end goal was in the first place for attacking the ensigns from earlier. That building though should be housing quite a number of Marines and would not exactly be the best place to escape to. Since he didn't really impress much, she judged that she didn't have to deal with him personally.

She ended her technique and walked over to the building, taking this time to rest up while she figured out her next move. There were no windows on that side of the building hence why the Marines inside didn't know about the commotion in the training ground. The door that the kid busted open was standard one for one person and it was easy to just walk from the side so that anyone looking outside through door wouldn't know her exact position while they remained inside.

Instead of proceeding to the building where the boy ran to for refuge, Ritsu went inside the building to the right, unknown to him. She then went to the nearest Den Den Mushi and called the building to the south where the kid was hiding and informed the officer there about the intruder. He was blonde and wore an orange jumpsuit. It wasn't too hard to identify him. The officer on the other line did confirm they heard some noises downstairs and thanked the Rear Admiral for the tip. The entire thing took only a couple of minutes at most. And then within the next minute after, a dozen or so Marines armed with pistols and rifles enter the room where the boy was and pointed their guns at him. They were about 6 meters away from the kid, entering the room from his left. The five Marines who were already in the room with him got their courage back after seeing the cavalry arrive. They ran to the door leading back out to the training ground from earlier attempting to block it and prevent the kid from escaping that way. One of the Marines pointing their gun at the kid spoke.

"You are under arrest for the assault of Marines! Put your hands up and surrender or we will be forced to shoot!"

Ritsu warned them that the kid was dangerous and they would not hesitate to open fire the moment he tried anything suspicious.

While all this was happening, Ritsu would make another call to headquarters to put a bounty notice on the kid in the event that he escaped this encounter. She didn't know his name yet, but if he entered Marineford through legitimate means, then there would be a record with his picture and other details. Finding out who he was wouldn't be too hard since his looks stood out so much. This would take another couple of minutes. After this, she would head back out to the training field and await the officers from the south building to escort the kid outside. She had instructed them to take the boy out to field once they had successfully restrained him. She was again not in the direct line of sight of anyone looking outside from within the south building. Her exact position was about 15 meters from the wall of the south building and 2 meters from the wall of the building to the right. Of course she also had no way of seeing what exactly was going on inside the building. But she would listen carefully for anything suspicious like gunfire or other unnatural noises to alert her something was up.

OOC:

Stamina: 340/400

It seemed he had no intention of giving up peacefully. Ritsu heard a loud crash from inside the building where the kid was and it was not the sound of gunfire. It was something bigger and more destructive. The reason she could say this was because the entire building shook from the impact of whatever that was. Back inside, the boy apparently underestimated the extent of his own abilities. The 5 diameter sphere not only destroyed the wall surrounding the door from where the Marines entered but also a supporting pillar attached to the wall and part of the ceiling since the first floor was at most 3 meters high. The base was only made of stone and wooden frames and so the parts of it that got caught in the area of effect of his attacked were easily destroyed, causing large stone and wood parts of the second floor several meters in length to cave in on the people below, including the kid unless he got out of there fast.

Back outside, as soon as Ritsu saw and felt the building shake, she would ready herself to act, moving within 10 meters of the doorway while still staying out of sight of those inside. As she did so, the 5 unarmed Marines escaping from within would pass her, screaming for help. The kid would undoubtedly try to get out the same way if he didn't want to get caught in the cave in, unless he had some other escape route planned. In any case, she had her finger pointed at the entrance and would fire an Air Bullet at the first sight of orange jumpsuit or blonde hair that would attempt to get out that way. She was still out of view and would not be spotted unless he stood right outside the doorway and had a good look around. The parts of the building collapsing would also mask any way of hearing her footsteps or approach. It was an almost flawless ambush unless he could somehow see through walls.

She had seen a bit of the kid's speed the first time he ran from her so there was no guarantee she could accurately hit the exact spot she wanted if he runs outside. So rather than take chances on a limb, she would aim dead center of his body so that even if he was a moving target, she'd still pierce him somewhere in the torso region. This would hopefully slow him down. As she waited, she would make a mental note of adding destruction of Marine property to the boy's growing list of offenses.

Skill to be Used:

Stamina: 400/400 (Will deduct next post if the conditions are met and the skill is used)