Yuurei was waiting to hear how Elias had met Mashyuu, which brought him to move his feet around to give weight to the other one that was resting the whole time. His hands would be crossed one on top of the other as he had them around his chest. He was a man who listened to other people’s stories because he found them interesting. He noticed that Elias had lost his balance with the hammock, which brought his eyes to widen a smirk on his face, and soon a laughter that escaped him from the event that unfold. The poor guy had been spinning around because of the hammock, and would soon end up falling. Yuurei’s head could be seen moving up and down as he was laughing for a bit. He couldn’t help it, and the fact that he didn’t say anything made this possible.

Still, once he spoke, or at least the first word was heard from Yuurei the pirate would stop laughing and would look at Elias to hear what he had to say. He was intrigued the most when he spoke about a man with long-arms around the island. He hadn’t seen one of his kind in a long time, and it would have been nice to see someone. This man thought didn’t sound like someone he wanted to meet or speak to. He had spoken about a doctor, and at one point he thought it was Harley, but then he mentioned indirectly that it was a guy. It wouldn’t take long for Mashyuu’s invitation to be told in the story, but what made him chuckle was hearing what Elias answer was to Mashyuu. He could only brush his hair back as his hands were unfolded from his chest and one of them would return to his side.

The swordsman of course knew better to ask questions and not expect any of them being returned to him. ”You really left Mashyuu hanging, but at least you are planning on joining us, you are just waiting for us to set sail, so you can hop on the ship and that is understandable.” He said this Elias. ”How did I wind up with Mashyuu as my captain?” He said out loud as this didn’t happen too long ago, but it felt like a life time. ”I was actually doing a job for a client in Mock Town. You see, I’m not just a swordsman, but I’m a thief. Anyways I was to steal a gold pocket watch that was very valuable, and it caught the eyes of my client. I had robbed the man who had it, and at the same time Mashyuu was planning on taking that man out.” He paused for a second.

”I robbed the man and walked off, and Mashyuu ran after me when a waitress told him and our friend, Harley, that I was spying on them. I just used them as an excuse to why I was there, and I said Harley was my sister I think.” He chuckled because he didn’t think using them in his lie would bring him to a family. ”So he stopped me from running away and we talked it out and once things were settled I decided to help him take out the mafia boss I stole from. He actually wanted my skills as a thief to sneak around, scout the areas, and report the layouts of areas we would have to fight, or infiltrate in. I don’t mind that, but I am a thief for hire and I always will be. Let’s just say after we helped each other out, I decided to join the crew when he asked me to.” He said this as he told Elias his story.

Yuurei was well aware of his surroundings, and he had to. He didn’t know who would be after the two, and after he allowed Fusebeard to leave, he figured that man would come back sooner or later. He just hoped that they would stop coming after Elias, or they would have to feel his wrath. If he was planning on joining them, then it meant he was a part of their crew, their family, and nobody touched his family.

"Must be pretty easy to steal with arms like that. Makes being a thief a natural huh?" he asked in response to Yuurei's revelation about being one who makes a living from the taking of other people's property. "So, you are a freelance thief then. And you just decided to join a pirate crew?" There was a pause before Elias put his hands in his jacket pockets and bent at the waist, taking a side wise view at Yuurei, looking at the man with an eyebrow quirked up, "You seem pretty interesting yourself. You might be worth writing about, mind telling me why you have so many swords now? I'll tell you about my plants. You know, you show me yours, I'll show you mine."

Though, their little conversation would have to subside for later, as Fusebeard's little gathering had, well, gathered! Everyone was carrying some form of chopping weaponry, or slashing. ANd Fusebeard was walk on ahead of everyone else, that cutlass lifted up above his head, the flames already cascading over it. At this point of the day, the sun was starting to set. The sky was turning in to a fine orange, orange as the flames of the twenty-one strong posse approaching the forest.

"Alright lads! We're burning this forest! We're gonna make it nice and smoky. We're gonna find that little punk, and we're gonna drag him out. Once we do that, we take turns drawing blood. Every man takes a turn, every man gets the blame, every man gets the glory! After this, you're good in Fusebeard's book!" He shouted and thrust his arm up higher in to the air. Everyone followed suit by shouting all at the same time. It was a chorus of voices that were all happy to do exactly what they came out to do.

At this point, maybe Yuurei could feel the presence of those people, they were pretty far though. But the fires were already being started this time. Fires would be burning, and they wouldn't stop, not until the smoke eventually rose up in to the sky, causing mother nature to realize something was wrong, and water would start to pour down, but that would be hours from now as Fusebeard selfishly set the first embers in to the forest.

Back at the hut, Elias was still waiting for an answer, about two seconds had passed from what he asked of the man, wanting to know why he wielded so many swords, or how someone could wield so many swords without hindering their body. Those long arms must add to his style in some way, and Elias was interested in knowing more about him!

Yuurei heard his comment about being able to steal pretty easily with arms like his. He could only smile showing his teeth at Elias as he started to chuckled from those words. It was true though his arms made it easier for him to steal, and moving around things as well. He waited for him to finish speaking as he heard him asking about his swords. He snickered from that comment and figured he would tell him.

”Well about my swords. My father is obsess with swords, and taught me about them growing up. I kind of got my love for swords from him, so I collect swords. My mother on the other hand uses a weird fighting style that requires ten swords to be used. I learned that from her, but I haven’t mastered it, so I can only use up to four swords at a time. A goal of mine is to collect the known swords in the world, and show them off to my father. I think he would be excited to see them.” He said this with a smile on his face as he was use to telling people this story.

”I hold my swords like this, if you were wondering how they would be wielded.” He said this as he unsheathed four blades as two were in each hand with the handled being held between his fingers.

Yuurei would show him for a few seconds as he was moving his hands around, so Elias could examine it before putting it away. When he put them away though, he remembered a little question that Elias asked even though he didn’t think he wanted it answered, but Yuurei figured he would answer him.

”Yeah it’s weird that a freelance thief like me would join a crew. Still, Mashyuu allows me to do what I want as long as it doesn’t mean stealing from the crew. That I don’t mind because I wouldn’t want to steal from family anyways.” He said this as he remembered the weird plants of Elias.

The man had told him he would tell him about his plants if he told him about his swords.

”So, tell me about your plants, Elias?” He asked him actually curious about them.

Yuurei did know about his goal, but he never asked him about his arsenal. Now he did and he was waiting for Elias to talk about it. The thief would stretch his arms into the air as he would soon yawn a bit after explaining things and asking Elias about his tale. He didn’t know what came over him, but it felt like one of those things that occurred out of the blue. He placed his hands back down to his side as he could smell something different around the area than before. It would take him a while, but he could soon tell that it was smoke. His eyes looked around the area as he had used Observation to see if he could feel anything. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but soon enough he could feel the presence of a bunch of people in the forest again.

”Do you smell that Elias? Smells like smoke or something, and there are people gathering around the forest again.” He warned the young man as his face looked worried as if he felt like something bad was about to happen.

1/20 Haki

Ten swords? Really? Ten whole swords? How the hell does someone wield ten swords at once without looking like a fool? Especially, if, judging by the fact that Yuurei was someone with two arms, came from a family lineage of people with two arms. Scratching his nose with the inside of one of his jacket pockets, having brought his jacket fabric up to his face as he wasn't fond of taking his hands out of his pockets. "You know, the people I meet from Mashyuu's crew just get more and more interesting. First there's captain bird wings who hasn't heard of most of the government from his boondocks up on cloud eight. Then there's the doctor that makes his own private room he can rearrange anything in. Now I'm meeting someone that's got a fetish for fingering swords." He started to cackle a little at that, clutching his right hand over the right side of his face, covering up his eye while his fingers laced through his hair, pushing his hood off the back of his head.

He then tried to mimic Mashyuu's voice, "Oh yeah, let me hire a thief on my crew, just don't steal from us." He then took to mimicking Yuurei himself, tucking his arms futher up the sleeves of his jacket to make his arms look dangly, an imitation of Yuurei's long-arms. "Oh I won't steal from anyone I view as family!"  Going back to his normal voice after that, Elias took a moment to catch his breath, "Oh man, you guys are like characters out of some comic book. ANd that's EXACTLY what I'm looking for. SOme people that can keep me entertained as entertained as I keep them!" Elias was, rather peculiar with how he expressed emotions as if no one was really around watching him. Then again, he suffered from Mania and didn't have anything medicine wise to relegate his emotional state.

He blinked a couple of times as his head listed to the side, glancing over his shoulder as he had turned around during his little theatrical mimicry of Yuurei and Mashyuu, "Fuck if I know." He responded to Yuurei's question about his plants, his tone having changed completely. "One day I tried to sneak off of my home island on a merchant ship. I found an interesting potted plant and got to take it home, my father paid for it. Next thing I know, it spits out some seeds, and I try to plant them outside. The first one I planted," He reminisced while tapping his chin, looking up at the ceiling of his leafy hut.

"It was that bouncy one. Trampolia. The one I used earlier to send those guys flying? Man, that was, that was NOT as fun as it sounds, but, I landed safely in the pool. On the other side of the house. More than a hundred feet away..."

"Anyways!" His voice has gone from sullen and terrified at remembering this, to jovial and eager. "They're some strange kind of seed from a strange kind of island where they grow like wild fire.  Some pop in the air. Some pop when people come close to them. Some grow when they hit the ground. No matter what, you can grow a full blown giant plant with them, some with mild cognizance of the world around them, in seconds. I still need to learn about them some more."

"And yeah. I kind of figured they would be back. But jeez, one trick ponies. Fire this, fire that, I am the man who wields fire. I am the man who wears fire. I am the man who's gonna get a trampolia shot in his face because I am the man that can't learn when he is beat!" He said, trying to mimic Fusebeard's voice, throwing his hands up in tot he air this way and that while he walked out the door, only to walk back in and point outside, "You're like a weird human compass, aren't you? You lead the way."

Yuurei was taken back with what Elias had said. He could only chuckle a bit from what he said about him. He was a bit confused on the doctor part, but he could only assume that Mashyuu had recruited a second doctor that he didn’t know about, or he had mistaken Harley for a guy. Still, what he liked about Elias was his sudden mood changes. He had gone from a serious person to a person with a delightful sense of humor. He understood this when he heard him trying to speak like Mashyuu, and then his imitation of him. He was laughing alright, and this person was someone they needed in the crew. His head move back while he was laughing and he could feel a single tear come out of his right eye from the enjoyment he was taking in. Oh yeah, Yuurei had an eyepatch, so it would be weird seeing a tear come out from his right eye.

Still, he was glad that Elias did enjoy the two men’s personality, but moving on from that, he heard explanation about the plants he used, and things like an island that grew them like wildfire. He wondered if they could to that island one day for Elias sake, so he could find more plants to use for his arsenal. When he mentioned the people coming into the forest though, he could only smile at the man as he had seemed relaxed and compose with the situation. He cracked his neck from side to side as he was calm about the situation as well. He knew this was going to happen, and it was why he followed Elias back home, but it seemed like he did know this was going to happen as well.. This guy needed help, and he was planning on assisting him just fine. What threw him off about this ordeal was the fact that he had known Mashyuu, which was a good thing.


He should have taken them out when he had the chance, if he knew this was going to happen. He thought to himself.

He watched Elias go through what looked like a disorder as he was moving around like a mad man as he exited the hut. Yuurei had a smirk on his face follow by a chuckle as he wondered if Elias knew where he was going. Of course, not even a second had passed as the his new friend walked back into the room and asked him to lead the way calling him a compass.

”Okay.” He chuckled.

”I will, and yes I have an ability that allows me to feel the presence of other sentinel beings. Maybe I can train you in it one day, or you might unlock it yourself, who knows.” He said this as he pushed himself off from the wall, and headed outside.

His eyes scanned through the area of the forest they were in. He couldn’t see the smoke from his position, but that was because of all the trees that was surrounding this specific area. Still, he could feel the presence of people grow in numbers. He was moving closer to them when he stepped out of the hut, so it meant they were in the on the right direction. He moved forward in silent as he started making his way towards the location where all these people were located. He figured that Elias would take a backseat, or provide cover with his pop greens, if anything went south. He stood close to the trees though as he was trying to be sneaky, so that nobody could see him coming. His pace was quick, but not quick enough to lose Elias; he knew that he was really strong compare to a lot of people, so he had to pace himself with them.

It would only take them a minute or two to get to the crowd of people that were basically starting the forest fire. In this area he could see a few trees being burned, charred with the fire that was used. It angered him to see this because he used this place as an isolation area for his training, and these people were destroying it. This was happening all for one person, and it pissed him off even more now. He didn’t need to hide from the twenty-one people that were in the forest; they didn’t know that he was with Elias, but he could give them a warning to stop what they were doing before they regretted. He moved out to an opening where everyone could see him, but not Elias, if he didn’t want to be spotted. With one person looking at him it then turned to others looking at him as well. Soon they would all stop progressing through the forest to look at Yuurei.

”You guys need to stop doing this. This forest doesn’t deserve to be burn down because you are scared of one man. I won’t stand for this, and neither will mother nature. The trees brings us fresh air and you guys are destroying it. I ask you one time and only one time; please turn around and stop from further destroying the forest. If you don’t then I am sorry in advance.” He was ready to fight, if they didn’t back down, but he made sure that he didn’t take out his sword to escalate the situation just yet.

2/20 haki

"Sentient. The word is sentient. Sentinel denotes someone that stands guard watching over others or is someone that stands as a guard that remains unmoving." He commented toward Yuurei as the tall long-armed thief walked past him. Elias was pointing out the one error in his sentence, and, that was just him being a little anal retentive from all of the literary works he has read in his life time. And after that short exchange, Elias would take to following after Yuurei. "So it's like some weird power that you can train? You aren't just some weird fruit eating monster that got the power to turn in to a human compass? Sounds like something out right over powered out of a comic book for characters to get both super powers that others can't have and powers that everyone can have." He blew a puff of air up, sticking his lower jaw out more so that the air would fly up over his face and fluff up the bangs hanging down in his face.

Only a minute. It took but a minute for them to reach the halfway point to the crowd setting fires. ANd the moment that the first few embers hit the forest, they took to spreading, traveling up trees, getting leaves to fall off of the trees and catch fire, traveling along the wind further in to the forest to spread the fire further. They certainly started the fire, it was not always burning since the world was turning. These people definitely started the fire, and it's only going to go on and on and on until mother nature decided to shed about a thousand gallons worth of tears from on high to douse the flames. The smell of burning wood, wilting foliage, scorched earth, it was obvious what was going on. ANd Elias' face contorted in to disgust at the scent. He liked his plants, he liked caring for different plants. But it was a pain to see so much get lost in such a short while. It took ages to regrow a forest, decades even. But, at least he had a work around. He just needed some time after this to get things ready, he would have to fix the forest himself another day.

The next minute that went by, Yuurei was already walking out and approaching the collection of twenty-one men. Fusebeard just stood there, twiddling one of the fuses braided in to his mustache in between his index finger and thumb. "Oi! Oi oi oi oi oi! You're still here are ya? Well, I'll have you know, this is the best way to deal with it. We'll fix it ourselves later. We just need to steal some plants from another island and bring them here." He chortled a little while five of the men from the posse came from behind and formed up a defensive line in front of Fusebeard. They were equipped with sword catchers. Special spears with a separate blade sticking out at two right angles from the main spear blade, giving it a figure four look and the ability to catch swords in between the two blades, and wrench them out of the hands of the people wielding those swords.

Now, Yuurei would surely know where Elias was. He moved with the sole purpose of hiding behind Yuurei entirely while he had his conversation with Fusebeard, someone who was going on and on about how wherever Elias popped up, misfortune followed all pirate kind. It was a service to the world of free men that they put Elias down. And when he had said the next sentence, Elias popped up just like Fusebeard said, sticking his head out from behind Yuurei. "Boo!" He would shout while lifting up both arms, slingshot in one hand, seed in the other and pulling back on the elastic of his weapon.

Elias was unpredictable. For someone that specialized in the use of ranged weaponry, he liked to get close to the action, he must have had some sort of adrenaline addiction or something to constantly want to be up close to the action. He did certainly seem unstable enough to support this. And his little surprise tactic worked, the men with the spears jolting backwards out of surprise before Elias let go of the elastic, letting that green seed marked with a red X fly outward, and split up in the air in to four distinct shuriken shaped leaves.

They flew with purpose and cut straight through four of the five spear wielders. One had his stomach sliced from front to back on the side. Another had his thigh sliced up from the knee toward the hip. The third? He got the shuriken leaf to grind straight up from the top of his hand to his shoulder! ANd unfortunately, the fourth had his weapon cut through before the leaf lodged itself dead center in his chest. Four down, one move, seventeen to go.

"You little tosh pot! Get him boys!" Fusebeard shouted while ten of the men would start to chase after Elias. Someone who was already pressing his weight in to the ground with his right foot and using his Null Schritt movement to dash backwards five meters with his right, weight in to his left to dash off in to the foliage with his left foot. ANd a third to push further back from the smoke and flames as he went in to the jungle, leading those ten men away from Yuurei. That left seven for Yuurei to fight. Six grunt-like men and one captain class enemy with a fire spouting sword and a pistol.

"Don't die Yuurei! I wanna hear more about your story!" That was the last thing Elias said before the fight would really begin! Two fights, one battle, one forest at 99% integrity from the spreading flames.

Yuurei had ignored Elias when he had corrected him on what he had told him. That was what he meant, and his mind could only wonder why he had said sentinel instead. Still, what mattered was that he understood what he meant. While they were walking thought he kept wondering how Yuurei was able to feel the presences of others. It made him chuckle a bit, but he figured he would say one thing to him.

”I did a weird fruit, and I do have some strong power, but it definitely isn’t a human compass.” He said this as he couldn’t help but chuckle.

He, of course, would regain his composure because he knew that there was a situation that needed to be taken care of. Moving along to the present scene, while Yuurei was waiting to see what they would say he noticed that Fusebeard was here. He wasn’t surprised about that, for he figured that this man was the reason behind the fire that was occurring on the forest. Their eyes met with each other and he could see him playing around with his beard. The obnoxious man spoke and he kept thinking that burning the forest was the right thing to do. It was agitating him to hear the words he spat out, and his plan for fixing the forest now. His face creased with anger as he noticed the five men lining up in front of Fusebeard. Their weapon of choice was perfect too, which he honestly didn’t care too much about.

”Well I warned you guys, and it seems like you chose to fight instead of leaving like I asked.” He said this as knew exactly where Elias was.

He wished he didn’t follow behind him, but he figured that the man would have a plan of his own.

”Please just go.” He said this, but Elias had other plans.

Yuurei didn’t watch it, but he could hear Elias voice, and he watched the five guys who were guarding Fusebeard move back to the little scare that Elias gave them. He shook his head with this act because he could only wonder what was going to happen next. He watched four guys be taken down though by Elias’s attack. It was one move, which was good enough to down four out of five people that were in front of Fusebeard. This was going to get interesting; Yuurei had a way to get rid of everyone, but he figured he would do it the old fashion way. They didn’t deserve the quick way, and that much he knew. Still, he could hear Fusebeard yell at the other people who were here. It looked like they were ready for battle, which was something he wanted to avoid at all cost right now.

The forest was burning and he wanted to take care of that before anything else, but that wasn’t going to happen now. There were men running towards them right now, but he didn’t see any type of attacks being thrown in his general direction. He did notice that Elias was running away from him right now, which meant they were going after him. He figured this would happen, and he could hear the young man telling him not to die. He chuckled and shrugged to that suggestion.

”I will try not to die Elias, but you don’t die either. I will be upset that you ran from me and still ended dying.” he said as he turned to look at the seven people that were left for him to take care of.

They all looked upset that Elias had down four people, and they were ready to take their anger on Yuurei. The swordsman just took out Benihime as he held it with both of his hands to make it much easier to wield and move around. Four of them rushed towards Yuurei at the same time and he could see where each and every one of their attacks would land if he allowed them to land. Instead, Yuurei had used his gravity abilities to push them back as the force had knocked them to the ground, and causing them to roll on the floor. He took out the fire that was on their swords from the force that smacked against them. The men with the pistols shot at Yuurei, and he saw the bullets flying towards him, which brought him to dodge them without a problem and with minimal movements.

”Come at me again, but this time one at a time. It’s fun that way.” He said this to them.

The men on the floor got up from the ground as they were a bit annoyed on what happened. They weren’t sure how he did it, but that he had done a trick to make them fly back. Fusebeard, on the other hand, was twirling his braid as he could tell this guy was strong. He needed these guys to tire him out before he fought him, and he hoped that they could do at least that. One of the guys with the sword rushed towards Yuurei, and quickly swung at him, but missed by an inch. The swordsman turned slightly and swung his blade down on the man’s side. He used enough power to cut him deeply, but not enough to kill him. They saw this and knew it was something they regretted deeply.

”We are sorry, let us go please?” One of them asked.

Fusebeard heard this, and quickly sliced the man on the back for trying to back out on something they had started.

”You guys fight him, or you will face me. We aren’t running away until that curse is dead.” He told them this, and they looked nervous, but knew they had no choice.

Yuurei, on the other hand, got into a fighting stance as he was getting ready to continue fighting these guys. He was hoping that Elias was okay, as he could feel him running, but he wasn’t sure if he would be in his observation’s 50-meter radius for long.

18/20 Haki remaining.

Yuurei got to fight his people as much as he wanted and however he wanted. He could probably handle the grunts with ease. But that Fusebeard guy, despite how cowardly he could be, was more than resilient, enough to put up a fight against the long armed multi-sword wielding guy!  Fusebeard just kept that pistol raised in his left hand, his right hand holding the sword at the ready.  He was more than ready to take a shot or swing at anyone else that thought that they could make a swift getaway.

Meanwhile, out in the forest, the sounds of swears and curses could be heard while these people sought to try and get a hold of Elias. Someone who was more than happy to give them the run around literally. Sure, it was hard to keep giving them the slip in this situation, but that's what he was best at. Elias wasn't someone who specialized in fighting with swords, or some strange power he got from a fruit. He wasn't a fighter in the traditional sense, nor was he a sniper. Instead, he was a runner. He was a dodger. He was someone that preferred to get up close for a shot and take it rather than sit on the sidelines, and get to running to his next location. But when you were running form someone and leading them to you, yourself, it made it hard to do much when they were all clumped together.

"He's this way! He's not gonna get far! We're gonna find you! And we're gonna skin you kid!" They shouted at him while Elias moved through the thicket of trees and bushes.  The scent of fire hanged in the air. The smell of smoke. The odor of scorched wood.  It was hard to breathe through it, but this would be harmful for both himself and the men in the forest.  By the time that the men would have come on to Elias' position, he was going straight up. With the help of his Schuss Ablehnen move, he pushed his body to its current limits and scaled the face of the tree to get up to the first tier of branches. The moment that he did, he turned around and took out another seed, a brown one, lined with green stars all over it.

Midori Boshi: Trampolia, he had one left after this, so he made it count. While all the men below looked up at him in confusion, he shot the seed straight to the ground, letting the bouncy sap bubble grow up around the center of the men, pushing them out in all directions only for him to land on the bouncy plant and get sent up in to the branches so that he could get to moving around through them and start taking them out one by one. he didn't have enough seeds for that, so he had to make shots count and take them out in small groups before they regrouped. Or he had to rely on his legs alone. He just hoped that his plan was going to work out.

Forest Integrity: 97%

Yuurei had five people to face off now. Fusebeard had helped dwindled down his number, but he figured that this man didn’t want that. He looked around to see how many of these guys had swords and how many had pistols. The two that were out for the count were ones with swords. They were the ones to be most afraid as they had to face him up close. Still, they knew they couldn’t run away and it looked like the wound that their partner suffered from Fusebeard was worse than Yuurei’s. They figured they had a better chance to live if they fought against Yuurei, so they rushed over to him as they were preparing to attack him. The first man would swing his blade vertically downward on his torso in the front, while the other one would go for Yuurei’s abdomen horizontally. He didn’t needed observation to see their attacks coming, but it was nice to have.

The swordsman dodged the attack of the first grunt’s attack. He moved his body, so that it would be facing at a hundred and eighty degree angle, bringing the man to miss the vertical slash. He would return to his former ninety degree angle and swing his blade upward towards the second grunt. Their swords would collide, but Yuurei’s sword and power would break the man’s sword with ease as he sliced the grunt on the right side of his chest, and his shoulder. This would bring the man to fall to the ground in pain and being render unconscious a few seconds later. The men with the guns shot at Yuurei, but he simply moved his head to the right and then the left to avoid the bullets from hitting him. While he dodged the bullets, the man behind him would have tried to attack Yuurei at the same time, but when Yuurei dodged the first bullet, it had grazed the man’s face.

This would bring the man to fall on the ground in pain, and in fear of what just happened. He had almost died from a single gunshot, and he was not having it. He figured he would stay on the ground until this was over because he had no other choice. The swordsman looked at the ground for a second, and noticed that this guy wasn’t going to attack him. He brought out a little smile on his face as he looked towards the people who had guns in their hands. He would take out these guys right now, and then focus his fight with the man who started this whole entire problem. He could feel the smoke in the air affecting him with the lack of air that was being produce. The fire and smoke were consuming most of the air that was needed.

He wasn’t the only one though, he could see Fusebeard was doing his best to make sure that he didn’t inhale as much smoke as everyone else. Yuurei shook his head because he could see this wasn’t a thought out plan from him. He started running towards the guys with the pistols because those were the one thing he hated being pointed at him. They were lethal to anybody who wasn’t paying attention and didn’t train their body to take a shot. The two grunts that were aiming at Yuurei were trying to get good aim on him. Of course when he was running towards them he was moving side to side as he was making it hard for them to get a good shot on him. As he was inching close to them, they figured that it was best to shoot at him anyways. The bullets were shot at him, but of course they missed.

They shot a few more at Yuurei, but whenever they looked like they would hit, the swordsman would duck under, or delay his movement for a quick second before continuing his pursuit. It wouldn’t take long for him to get to the two men as their eyes widen because they couldn’t get a single shot to land.

”Should have left when I told you to.” He said this to the both of them.

Yuurei swung his blade horizontally on the first grunt, slicing his chest, and spun his body around, which would bring him to continue his slicing action towards the second grunt. That would also connect as it would go against his chest as well. When he returned to his former position facing the grunts, they had both dropped on their back against the floor. They were done for too, and his entire head moved back as a shot was fire straight at him. Yuurei would dodged the bullet as it would nip a piece of his hair. He looked over in the direction of where Fusebeard was angrily as the man had tried to get him when he was dealing with his henchmen. His body would turn towards his new target as their focus and tension could easily cut through bread.

”Well it doesn’t look like your plan went as intended. The only thing you got was burning the forest.” He said this upset at this man.

”Oi, my plan is still in motion, and who is to say that my guys haven’t gotten the curse and are beating him to a pulp.” He said this with a smirk on his face.

Yuurei shrugged his shoulder because he had more faith in Elias than that. They had just met each other, but he figured that the man would be capable of taking care of himself. He cracked his neck, and when he did Fusebeard shot another bullet straight towards Yuurei. The thief had moved his blade upward to deflect the bullet away from him. He wasn’t trying to get shot, but Whitebeard kept going at him with these dumb attacks.

”Just fight me close up, and let’s see who is better.” He taunted Fusebeard, but the man was stupid, but no fool.

17/20 Haki remaining

"Where the hell is he?" "How the hell should I know? First thing I see is him running up the side of a tree like some kind of animal. Next thing I know is we get sent flying by some giant rubber thing!" "Yeah? But where do you think the others are? Shouldn't we, you know, try to find the others?" This was a conversation going on between two of the Fusebeard Militia, looking to try and regroup after their little stint of being flung through the air and straight in to the underbrush of the forest, getting the wind knocked out of them so that when they started to catch their breath, the smell of smoke and fire was more than overwhelming, it was borderline too much for them to even fight against.

Elsewhere in the forest, the other collection of men had gathered up in to a group of three, three singles and another pairing. So there were a total of six groups, that would make this hard. He certainly didn't have enough of his shuriken seeds to take them out each with one. ANd he didn't have enough if they all clumped together, because they would spot him. Elias sat in the foliage of the tree nearest the arguing two men, crouched down on top of it. He had to be nearly motionless. Animals ran from disasters in the forest like this, yet, if he moved, it would sound as if an animal were still in the area.

He had to bide his time. He had to wait patiently. He thought to himself while the two men started to walk back in the direction that they came from. He really hated this. He wanted to get up close and personal. But, that would mean risking getting hurt, and he just made a promise to Yuurei. Or at least, Yuurei shouted at him to not get hurt, and he sort of had to adhere to that. That way, Yuurei wouldn't complain at him later.

So when he had the chance to, Elias stood up right, his legs spread while he braced himself against the branch, rustling the leaves enough that they could be heard before the men spun around to take a look and see the very last thing that they would see. He was readying that sling shot and letting go of the elastic to let fly a green seed with a red X through it. Halfway to the two men it split in to four shuriken and shredded them to bits on the spot.

"Sorry, but I'm not in the mood to put up with this right now. And I have eight more guys to take care of." He pushed off of the branch and sought out the next set of guys to target, climbing up another tree and jumping from branch to branch.

Meanwhile, the forest had reached 94% integrity from the spreading fires.

Yuurei was paying attention to Fusebeard, but he was also paying attention to the fire that was expanding throughout the forest. This was bad as it was getting worse, the smoke made it hard to breathe, but the life of the forest was burning down. His eyes glared at Fusebeard as the man was looking at Yuurei waiting for him to make some sort of move. The two of them brought out some tension in the air as if something was going to happen. The swordsman was looking at him waiting for an opening to come and avail itself to Yuurei, but there was nothing of the sort. Instead, Fusebeard had done what he did last time and shot at Yuurei once again. Instead of Yuurei staying in one place and dodging the attacked he decided to dodge and move from his position that he was in.

When the bullet had gone passed Yuurei, the swordsman started running towards Fusebeard with speed and accuracy. He was able to see where he was going, and he used his observation to see another bullet flying towards him. He had used that to his advantage to dodge the bullet again as he was inching closer to Fusebeard. The man with the braided beard was angry that he couldn’t hit Yuurei and wondered what was up with this guy. It wouldn’t take long for Yuurei to get close to Fusebeard as the two had collided their blades with each other. The swordsman wasn’t going for the kill right away, no he was measuring Fusebeard’s strength so that he didn’t get careless in their fight. Fusebeard defended himself as his strength at least matched Yuurei. Still, the craft in their blade was different with Benihime being the ultimate creation in swords.

Fusebeard had slid his blade from Yuurei and swung it again at the swordsman. Yuurei saw it coming due to his observation and moved his face head back as the blade passed his face. It was inches away from connected, which annoyed Fusebeard, but Yuurei had thrust his leg into the man’s chest sending him sliding back a bit. The two looked at each other as Fusebeard couldn’t understand what set him apart from Yuurei. Yuurei had Haki, and even though it was something that was seen in the Grandline it wasn’t as common until you reach the New World. Of course, Yuurei wouldn’t know that, but it was just a natural fact to go by. That didn’t mean there were people who were traveling in the Grand Line that didn’t have it. Still, Yuurei looked at Fusebeard as he observed the man moving his arm towards him, and he knew what it meant.

The thief had started running to his right as the gun was pointing at him and shots were fired at him. Yuurei was on the move again, and this he didn’t give Fusebeard time to shoot another shot at him, but when he got close the man he had swung Benihime at him with one hand this time. Their swords would collide again, but Yuurei had planned that to happen from the beginning. He had another motive as his left hand had was swinging straight towards Fusebeard, well to his gun. Yuurei’s fist collided with the pistol and it was crushed in Fusebeard’s hand. The man eyes widen when he saw this happening. He didn’t think he was that strong, but it had happened. Yuurei had destroyed that pistol, which caused Fusebeard to jump back from nervousness. The two looked at each other as Fusebeard had an angry look on his face.

Yuurei, on the other hand, had a smile on his face. The man had warned him from the very beginning to leave this forest. He had told him this was his place of training, yet Fusebeard chose to ignore him. He warned him again, yet he chose to continue on. This annoyed Yuurei, and now he was going to make sure that this man was going to pay for his sins.

”I warned you. I asked nicely, and I pleaded with you guys before any of this happened. Yet, you chose to ignore my warnings. Now I am going to make sure that you will die and become one with this forest.” He said this to Fusebeard.

The words that were spoken by Yuurei got to Fusebeard as he twitched and his feet stepped moved him back without him consciously doing it himself. He didn’t know or understand why this man scared him. There was a blue aura around Yuurei, and for some weird reason, he could see it. He was resonating a lot of power coming from him. It made him nervous, and he wanted this to end; he regretted what he had done, and he figured that this curse child was not worth what was happening to him now.

”Oi, we can still come to terms right? I will leave now and never do this again. Hell, I will leave Jaya Island and never show up again.” He said this to Yuurei.

Yuurei could only shake his head when he heard those words because it was too late.

”I’m coming for you now, so fight Fusebeard. My name is Yuurei by the way.” He smiled when he said his name to the man he was about to cut down.

Fusebeard’s eyes widen when he heard the name. That man was in the News Coo, and when he looked at him again, he could see that it was indeed Yuurei. He couldn’t believe that he didn’t notice him before, but it had something to do with that he was in the minor news. Still, he had remembered what he read about him. It was simple this man was dangerous, and the marines didn’t even have a reason for it.

”Yuurei, the thief of Mock Town? Please spare my life.” He said trying to plead again.

Yuurei didn’t say anything to him this, instead, he placed Benihime in sheathed again, and started running towards Fusebeard. He picked up his hand again but remembered that Yuurei had destroyed his pistol. He brought his sword up then and decided it was best to block against his attack as he had done before. Yuurei had a smirk on his face though as he was holding the hilt of Benihime as he was inching closer to Fusebeard. When he got close though he had released the beautiful sword from her slumber once more and straight towards his target. Fusebeard tried to defend himself, but Yuurei’s blade broke straight through his without any problem and cut him straight on his chest. Fusebeard was the only person Yuurei didn’t cut shallow enough for him to live. Instead, his blade had cut deep enough for him to bleed out, and make it hard for anybody to tend his wounds.

”Shishi Sonon.” Those were the words Yuurei said as Fusebeard dropped to the floor unconscious from the swordsman.

16/20 Remaining.

Technique used:

Two down, eight to go. One group had reformed, giving them four people. The rest were scattered about. One pair still wandering around, trying to get away from the smoke and flames. The others were all in single positions. Funny how people who started fires didn't like to be inside of them. He just sighed to himself before he clutched on to his chest and started to cough and wince. The smoke may have been getting to them, but it was getting to himself as well. He needed to get out of here and soon. He would see to it that these remaining eight guys got the brunt of the damage. He just had to stay focused, and breathe less. Or, get breaths low to the ground and then hold them. Smoke rises, and that meant that the higher you were, the worse it was to breathe. So he jumped down from the tree he was on and in to the bushes so he could clear his lungs.

Problem with that was that the moment he got in to the bushes, and started his little coughing fit, he alerted the largest group of enemies. Was he that lucky? Or was it unluckiness? It was hard to say, because the moment that he heard men getting alerted to his position, he went in to a panic and pulled out two of his platanus shuriken seeds. He had two more after this and pulled back on the elastic band before he let loose the leaves just as he popped up from the bush.

The seeds flew in the air, popping half way in a plume of vapor, eight leafy shuriken flying through and slicing up the four approaching men. Right after they felt to the ground, Elias dropped down to his hands and knees so that he could cough more. And hack. And wheeze. The sound of the fire was enough that he didn't have to worry about anyone in the distance hearing him, he just had to worry about anyone in the immediate vicinity. His eyes were watering now.

Why did he think this was a good idea?! Why did Yuurei let him do this? He would blame Yuurei for this, and many other things, the next time he met that multi-sword wielding long-armed fool. He pushed up to his feet shakily and ran deeper in tot he forest, away from the approaching fires and smoke. He had to get far enough that he could breathe freely. Looking back every so often just to gauge how fast the fire was spreading, it seemed that it was spreading faster. That was only natural. The more fire spread from one spot, the faster it would spread outward.

Just as he was trying to eyeball it, he hit something, and fell back on his ass. What did he run in to? Well he wasn't any George in the Jungle, or Tarzan, so he didn't bump in to a tree. He bumped in to one of the single guys on his own. A red haired man that Elias scrambled on the ground to pull out a seed, thinking he grabbed a Platanus Shuriken. Instead, the moment the seed hit the guy, it burst out in to a trampolia. Shoving the man in to the trunk of the tree and causing it to snap and fall over while the growth of the seed pushed Elias backwards and in to another tree, knocking the air out of his body as he coughed in pain. Well, that guy was dead now. Probably from the force of the bounce shoving him in to the tree, or it could be the fact that the tree was now napping on his body.

"Shit. I needed that for a quick getaway. Stupid. Stupid. You stupid idiot." He hit himself in the forehead with the heel of his palm multiple times, trying to keep his senses about him. There were still three guys remaining, he just had to find them, then get out of the forest. Thankfully, clouds were gathering in the sky already.

Unfortunately, the forest had reached 89% integrity.

Yuurei had made sure his blade was clean from any blood that might have gotten on it, and then sheathed his blade. This fight was over with, and he decided that it was best to look for Elias. The air here was getting hard for anybody to breathe in it. Yuurei coughed a bit when he could see the smoke in the air, and the fire as well. It of course only angered him, and he took in whatever air he could and held his breath. He had the endurance to hold his breath for quite some time, and at the same time take in this awful air without having much of a problem. He could feel Elias presence now that he was paying attention to it. He figured he would meet up with the young man, and he started running towards his direction. While running he could feel the presence of other men approaching Elias but had soon stopped a few seconds after he felt it.

He figured Elias had done something to take them out, which was a good thing. There were three other people that were left in the forest. The only reason he knew about this was that they were moving around the area. That only meant that Elias had taken out the majority of people who were chasing him. That was good, and he continued to move through the burning forest. This wasn’t good, and he would hope Mother Nature was on their side and could kill the fire. While he was running through the forest he would pass by the bodies that were on the floor. The attacks they had suffered had definitely come from Elias. Yuurei continued to move through the area though, using his observation to guide him but that wasn’t all.

I wondered if he is going to go and look for the other guys that are around the area. He thought to himself. He wanted to call out to Elias, but he figured that wouldn’t be a good idea. He would only reveal his general area, but it would be a waste of energy since he knew where the man was located. Of course, he would feel when Elias started moving again and sure as hell the guy was moving again. He had an idea on what he was going to do, which caused him to stop rushing. Instead, he looked around the area he was in, and was trying to think about what to do. He figured he would try his best to get rid of the fire that was around his area. Yuurei looked at one of the guys that were on the ground and shook his head at the idea he had.

Yuurei brought the guy onto a tree and took out Benihime, but also Kusanagi. He reversed his blades and started rushing towards the man. When he got close enough he spun around and when the blades connected with the man two huge gust of wind spiraling slash had gone around him, the victim to his attack, and the tree. The initial wind spiral had gone around up to 25 meters radius, and the second one had gone around up to a 50-meter radius. The wind was powerful enough to get rid of the fire that was around this general area. He was trying to help out this forest the only way he knew how. When he had done this, he looked around and started moving towards Elias again. He wondered if the man was okay. He rushed towards his general area to see if he could get to him in time, but he didn’t know if the guy would need his help.

15/20 Remaining.

Technique used:

The forest reached eighty one percent integrity. Nearly a fifth of the forest burnt up to a crisp and charred in to charcoal. A chunk of the forest that supported the island of Jaya, gone, up in smoke, never to return to its original state unless someone did a grand reforestation effort. It reached such a low level from just one spark being set before mother nature intervened. A loud boom of thunder could be heard. Loud enough that it caused even the steeliest of hearts to feel the boom, and the weakest of hearts to have a hand clutch over them for support before the downpour came. Rain rushing down from on high, washing over the forest and starting to douse the fires before it could progress forward.

The smoke was being smothered out by the rushing of water, and Elias could grip on to the dirt turning to mud with his fingers sinking in to the water saturated soot. His hood hung over his head while he shuddered and sputtered several more times. His eyes had been shut tight, trying to catch his breath before the water came rushing down, and the smell of rain helped him to catch his breath, if only a little bit. He sat back on his haunches, arms dangling at his sides while his rear end rested on the heels of his shoes. His back arched a little bit while his red eyes were cast up at the sky, water pelting his face in a constant harmless pitter-patter. He blinked, and blinked again, and blinked thrice. Well, the fires were taken care of, but now he didn't have the cover of fire or smoke to hide him from the remaining three men. Two of whom had regrouped and were about forty meters away from him. The other one was closer to Yuurei.

Thankfully Yuurei wasn't anywhere nearby, because he would see a rather difficult to describe look on Elias' face. Even in his oxygen deprived state, Elias brought his shooting arm up, his hand clutching on to one of his remaining Platanus shuriken seeds. Pulling back on that burlap flap that cradled the seed, the elastic wiggling in the air as it strained to spring back to its original position, his look was just, well, here's the best way to describe it.

His jaw was slightly slack, hanging open in disbelief at the sight of the people who could be so brazen as to blazon a forest to this degree. Those red eyes of his, shrunk down, the pupils fine little dots so that nearly all could be seen were the whites of his eyes and those red irises. As if some spiritual presence was hovering behind him, some sort of effigy of the demonic ill intent he harbored toward these people.

"I'm done with you, go away." he said coldly before he let go of that elastic. The men wouldn't even make it halfway to Elias before the shuriken leaves had appeared, and sliced through their legs clearly, leaving them on the ground with stumps after they were severed from their stompers. Pushing up off of the ground, Elias stood up right, still looking up at the sky, wishing he could see the canopy of the trees instead of the clouds. It was boring to just see what you knew was coming down. At least in a forest you never know what could be jumping from tree to tree.

Just as soon as he got up to his feet, he dropped back down and laid on the ground, arms at his sides, and head turned to the right so he wasn't going to suffocate. Apparently, all of that smoke inhalation was bad for you, who would have guessed smoke was bad for your body? And there, right there on the ground, Elias would remain until Yuurei came along to find him. At which point, Elias would greet him in a delirious state, "Oh hi! I didn't die! See?" He was smiling the moment he could see Yuurei, a stark contrast to the people he left to bleed out on the ground not even twenty meters away.

And however he got back to his home with the help of Yuurei, Elias was going to stay there, a promise to join the Phantom Raiders made to two people at that point, whereupon he agreed to join them as they were leaving, but he wanted to fix the forest first. And so ended the tale of Friendly Flora and Fatal Fauna.

[exit]

After Yuurei had done his attack and started running off in the direction of where Elias would be located. He could hear the thunder appear from above him, and he could only smile because he knew what was going to happen next. He had done something for the forest; now Mother Nature was going to the rest for them. He was glad this happened or else the forest would continue to get worse than it already was. Yuurei continued to move through the forest though as he didn’t have held his breath any longer. The rain had snuffed out the fire that was all throughout the forest. While he was moving through the forest, he continued to pay attention to the man who was nearby him. The other two men had grouped up together, which was interesting and he hoped that Elias would be able to take care of the men around him.

It wouldn’t take long to see that the men that were moving towards Elias direction had stopped moving. That was good, but the third man had continued to move towards Elias. He was going to stop that from happening, so he rushed towards the man right now and it was because he didn’t want him to get the drop on his friend. Yuurei would soon approach the man at full speed, and when the man noticed that Yuurei was close to him it was too late. Yuurei had cocked back his right arm and thrust his fist right into the man’s face. The man’s eyes widen when he saw this because there was nothing he could do about it. His face had felt the blow of Yuurei strength behind it; it wasn’t as strong as he would normally do it, for he knew this man wouldn’t survive that attack.

The man was sent flying through the air and towards a nearby bush. He landed on the ground unconscious from the blow, which allowed Yuurei to continue running through the forest. He could feel Elias presence again, but this time his friend wasn’t moving. The rain had soaked him, but he was okay with this feeling as it felt nice. It wasn’t just that, but this rain was the reason why the forest had been saved. It wasn’t completely saved, but he was glad that they didn’t have to start from scratch to save the forest. Yuurei would soon find Elias on the ground and on his back. It worried him for a second, but then he noticed that the man was okay. He didn’t see any type of wounds on his friend, which made him feel calmer than he was before. His run slowed down, and soon enough he looked over to Elias with a smile on his face.

He could hear the young man’s words and he could see the smile on his face. He was glad that he had done his best to stay alive. It seemed to have exhausted him though as he was laying on the floor instead of standing on his feet. Yuurei figured he would help him out as he picked him up from the floor, and started walking towards Elias’s hut. It wouldn’t take him long to do that, but he had to make sure that he was okay, and he didn’t need anything else. When he got him to his hut he would help lay down as best as he could. He had made sure to look over him for a bit before deciding it was best for him to leave, and head back to the ship.

”It was nice to meet you, but I wish we had met under different circumstances. I hope you can rebuild the forest back to what it was, or better. I will try and help out the best way that I can. Still, make sure you call for us whenever you need us alright.” He said this to Elias as he was ready to leave this place.

He had stepped out and looked up at the sky as the rain was falling down on his face as he was enjoying it. This was beautiful in its own way and he just couldn’t help but enjoy this. He knew the world was sad for what had happened to one of its many children today, and he couldn’t help but feel her pain. Yuurei sigh, and started walking back to the ship to the others for the night.

[exit]