Bang!

The gunshot rang loudly through the shop, disappearing just as fast as it had come. The only following sounds were the thud of Sam’s lifeless body against the floor and a faint click as Devroux released the pressure on Primo’s trigger. The mink returned to polishing the gun after the trigger was pulled, letting Sam’s head bleed out over the floor for the moment. The gunshot was loud and unique compared to the normal sounds coming from a smithery, but in the early hours of the morning there was little to worry about in terms of law enforcement – especially on Baltigo. As old as Sam was, his sleeping schedule had rotated to sleeping early and waking even earlier. The sun had just started to come up, but a quick glance at the clock hanging from the wall confirmed that it was only about half past 5. Most people wouldn’t be waking up for a few hours yet, let alone customers visiting.

Devroux took a few minutes to make sure the gunshot residue was cleaned from the barrel of the gun before setting it down on the workbench. With the shop opening up in a few hours, there was only a few hours left to dispose of Sam’s body and clean up the mess he had made. Although early in the morning, the sun was high enough to give decent light. He could make up stories for the noise if anyone dropped by, but moving a body when people could see it was far too risky. Instead, the mink opted to force the old man’s body into a broom closet; the very same broom closet he’d retrieve a mop and bucket from. Of course, with Sam still capable of bleeding out, Dev contorted the old man’s body to make sure that any extra blood dripping would fall into a secondary bucket.

Filling the bucket with soap and water, the mink began to mop the workshop floor. The grease and grime coming from the traditional work covered most of the floor in a thick, black sludge. As Dev swirled the mop around, that sludge mixed in with the blood until it was a slightly less black, more reddish-brown sludge. The sludge existed for a while, but Devroux was diligent in his efforts to clean up the mess, making several trips back to the sink to empty, rinse, and refill the bucket to continue mopping until the floor was spotless. After all, with Sam’s unfortunate early demise, the workshop would fall into the next of kin’s hand – or in the case of Sam, who didn’t have any next of kin, would fall into Devroux’s hands.  

As the mink continued to push the mop around, he mulled over his decision to kill Sam. The old man had a wealth of knowledge hidden within his head that couldn’t be faked; a knowledge that could only come from several decades working in the smithing industry. However, as useful as that knowledge was, Dev had come to the conclusion that personally owning the shop would be more beneficial to him in the long run. A young mind and body was what was necessary to push the shop forward into more popular territories – the experience that Sam had would inevitably come with time anyway.

With the Sam’s bloody mess now cleaned and less than an hour left before the shop would officially open, all Devroux could do now was prepare his statements. Most of Sam’s customers were long-time clients, so he’d have to be able to give them a reason that would satisfy them as to why Sam was no longer there. What that also meant was that he’d have to make sure his delivery was up to snuff in order to keep the clientele from falling now that it was just him.

WC: 636

Equipment:

Doriki:

After returning the mop and bucket to the broom closet with Sam’s now lifeless body, Devroux continued on to the bathroom. He had spent the night working on his new weapon and had to make sure his fur was kempt enough to see to customers’ needs all day, continuing without sleep the whole time. The mink ran his hands under cold water, splashing so me in to his face to wake himself up a little and revitalize the look in his eyes. With a nearby towel he dried off and stared at his reflection in the mirror.

Clearing his throat, Devroux began speaking to himself, practicing the many variations of lines he’d use that day.

“Hello. Ah, yes, Sam. He packed his things, said he was ready to leave the shop with me, and left to go back to his family on Sandy Island.”

“Agh... That’s not good enough,” he thought.

“Sam said he was too old for this. He wanted to be with his family, so he left the store in my hands and left.”

“Feels right, but it doesn’t sound natural...”

“He was having a hard time. He couldn’t keep up with work and missed his family. He finally had enough and just up and left overnight.”

“Is that too long-winded? Too personal?”

Devroux mulled over the several options within his head, but nothing seemed to be a cure-all. They all seemed right in their own way, but he knew that it was up to the customer to ask the right questions. Rather than trying to prepare an answer, he just began repeating the same line over and over.

“Sam left everything in my care,” he said to the mirror, his voice solemn.

“Sam left everything in my care,” he continued, lowering his voice to be more serious and determined.

Confident. Sad. Excited. Hopeful. He tried the many different emotions that he knew people would understand. Having been working with Sam for a couple weeks now, his skills with emotional tone were growing. However, as much as he believed his skills were growing, practicing with his own reflection wasn’t true proof of that. In order to properly show what he was capable of, he’d just have to head into the thick of it and gauge the reactions of the clients on a case-by-case basis.

Devroux opened the door to the bathroom and peeked out to check the time. There were only a few minutes left until opening, so he finished drying off his face quickly and scooted out of the bathroom, rushing around the shop to straighten up and unlock the door. Rather than rushing to the workshop, he stayed in the front to greet customers as they came in, a forced smile lining his face.

WC: 458

Equipment:

Doriki:

At 8 a.m. sharp the shop officially opened for its work day, although Devroux had spent many nights in the recent weeks staying late to work on the projects that customers requested. While the shop opened at 8 a.m. exactly, the customers didn’t roll in until roughly a half an hour after that. As per the evidence shown by the prior weeks, Sam’s oldest clients were the ones that often showed up earliest in the morning. Currently, this also meant that the hardest tests of the day would come through the door without any practical practice making other customers believe the statement on Sam.

The first customer to walk through the door that morning was an older man and a child, a duo that the mink remembered from some time ago. They had been introduced to each other by Sam, and the old man had done it with a surefire intent of making the child a future customer of Devroux, given the time that Sam would cease to be. However, it wasn’t in Sam’s predictions to be taken out early, and now Devroux had to re-introduce himself as the new head of the shop, making for a little more complicated of a reunion. Rather than reassuring the child’s continued patronage, he’d be reassuring the older gentleman’s continued patronage as well.

“Good morning, good morning,” the man yelled heartily as he burst through the door. The kid, as quietly as Devroux’s memory served, would follow the man, clutching tightly to his coattails.

Closing his eyes and bowing his head in respect, the mink would answer the man’s greeting. “Good morning, sir. It’s good to see you again.”

The man stopped and his expression faded. For a moment, he had forgotten where he had met the mink before him, but when his memory came back, his smile did too. “It’s good to see you again too,” he yelled, just as heartily as always. “I’m glad to see that you haven’t been run off by Sam just yet."

“No, sir,” Dev retorted, forcing a modest smile for the situation. “He was a great teacher and I learned a lot.” The mink dropped the hint, but he wasn’t trying to be too upfront with it. If the gentleman didn’t catch it, then it was even better for him.

“Ah ha!” he laughed, “You say it as if he’s dead already! Where is that old bastard?” While he joked, the man placed his pudgy hand against the child’s back, as if reassuring him that he still knew the kid was around.

“Oh no! He’s definitely not dead, at least not that I know of!” This is where the challenge began and this is why the mirror practice wasn’t as helpful as it could have been. He was prepared to answer questions, but some of the people he’d be answering to would be much more brazen than others. “When I got here this morning, he wasn’t here waiting for me like he usually is. I usually don’t come until long after Sam’s awake, so it was weird. I haven’t dared disturb upstairs though, if he’s just taking the day off.”

The man lifted a thick finger to his lip, glancing towards the ceiling – just on the other side of which was Sam’s living quarters. “I can’t remember a time when he wasn’t manning the desk,” he trailed. The man’s voice was solemn, almost sad, but what came next was far from that tone. “I’m glad he’s able to take this time off!” he laughed, shouting once again. “That old coot hasn’t taken a day off in years. Years! If he’d trust you enough to man the shop, then I’d trust you with an order any day!”

Devroux fed the man another sheepish smile, but the depths of his mind were filled with a much darker delight. The man stepped up to the counter and placed his pudgy hand against its wooden top, leaning forward with a finger out.

“I bet you already know what I need too.”

The man poked the mink in the chest, a friendly gesture, but it wouldn’t be received as such. While Dev could control the way he reacted, he could feel a slight tension in his temple as the rage festered within his chest. It was hard to control the urge to slap the fat man silly, but it was customers like this that offered long-term business and were capable of bringing in more customers; it was customers like this that he’d be dealing with most.

Devroux acted as if he was thinking for a moment, but the order had already etched its place in his memory. “If I do remember, you’re the man that always orders nails, correct?”

“Correct!” he shouted. The man was impossibly overjoyed his order was remembered by someone other than Sam, but he was also the type of man that was overjoyed about almost anything anyone set in front of him.

“What is it that you do, if I may ask? Sam never told me that.”

“Me? I’m a shipwright, but my crafts extends beyond just ships.” He leaned against the counter, the look in his eyes narrowing as his boastful confidence began to come forth. “I even built this very shop several decades ago.”

“Well, I guess I have you to thank then,” Dev smiled. While his thanks was forced and falsified, it was genuinely interesting that some of the people coming into the shop were as important to it as Sam himself. The man that built the shop was the one to thank for its founding. The mink wondered what kind of other clients came in that had contributed to this shop personally.

“Ha! I was only one of the people that worked on its construction of course, but I couldn’t give it up after I had finished. Sam is a great guy, so I keep coming back to visit. Been getting my tools made here ever since.”

“I thank you for your continued patronage,” Devroux said, giving a light bow.

“Ha ha! Well, tell Sam I dropped by. It’s about time I get this boy some breakfast.” He again pat the boy on the back, prompting the child to look down at his hands instead of up at the mink that had glanced his way.

“Yes, sir.” Giving another bow and waving as the man left, the situation calmed down rather quickly after that. The portly gentleman was the first trial run of the day, but he hadn’t reacted as if the mink were acting weird or off in any way. While he was just a trial run, Devroux made sure the he understood the man’s personality enough that he wouldn’t take it as true proof. However, the customers that followed didn’t give any signs of mistrust either.

The story that Dev had fed the first man would be changed and altered for the customer in front of him, but he tried to keep his story relatively similar given any intercommunication between them. As the day went on, he did try to extend the story and give off the impression that Sam wasn’t just taking the day off, but would be gone a lot longer than that.

The day was going fine, but as the sun began to set for the evening, a final customer would walk in that would give the mink a run for his money.

WC: 1,235
Haki Stamina: 10/10

Equipment:

Doriki:

Sam’s shop had been growing in popularity since Devroux began his internship. It wasn’t due to the quality of the work, as his crafts were merely beginner or similar to that, but the amount of orders the business could take in had increased with the younger, stronger hands taking over the working part. Since they could handle the orders, the orders began to roll in and customers were coming more frequently than they had before.

The rest of the day went similar to the conversation with fat man and his child; everyone who came in either didn’t bother to ask where Sam was out of respect or would be guided along the same path that he was just taking a few days for rest. Although there were a few customers that cast a sideways glance towards the information they were presented, they ultimately accepted what they were being told, ordered their goods, and continued on with their day. However, this simplistic and easy reaction ended abruptly with the introduction of a customer Devroux had never met before.

Noon had already come and past with the end of the day coming closer when an older lady walked through the door. This woman’s hair had completely grayed with her age; she kept it tied up tightly in a neat bun atop her head with her bangs hanging loosely around her eyes in contrast. As she walked her bangs swayed back and forth over her eyes, but between the hair were flashes of light being cast off her eyes. Although the mink wasn’t aware, he was within not only the gaze of this older woman, but her haki as well. From his point of view, Devroux could only see the piercing blue eyes of this old woman locked on him as she approached the counter. As chilling as Dev could be with his own emotion, this woman seemed just as powerful.

“I take it you’re Devroux?” she blurted out. She placed her hands on the counter and continued to stare down her mink opponent, obstinate in her tone.

“Yes, ma’am,” Dev replied, doing his best to keep his tone polite and free of any fear.

“Where is Sam?”

“He’s not here. He’s taken a couple days off.”

The old lady’s eyes narrowed into thin slits, her gaze turning into daggers the mink could almost physically feel against his body. “I highly doubt it,” she said. The way she said it wasn’t that it was a possibility she questioned, but that she was already completely confident that she was being fed a lie. “This old fool never took days off. ‘Day off’ wasn’t even in that man’s vocabulary.”

The combination of the pressure coming from the woman’s stare and the tone in her voice put the mink on edge, even further than he already had been. The mental game had begun between the two and she was very quickly forcing the mink against a wall, but as the saying always goes – cornered animals can act unpredictable. Rather than caving to the pressure that she was forcing upon him, it began to put him at ease, almost as if the pressure and feeling of being cornered was a source of strength in itself.

“Then I have no idea why he’s not here, ma’am. I haven’t seen him all day.”

“So, you won’t mind if I go up and knock on his door myself, correct?”

“I haven’t even done that, so I would prefer you didn’t, but I’m only here to craft you what you need, not tell you what to do.” The attitude in his voice was biting, but the best option in order to make the woman fall back was providing just as much pressure on her as she was on him.

Yet, even with the pressure the mink was attempting to put on the woman, he should have known it would never be enough. In a test of willpower, he was always destined to lose. She pursed her lips and scowled at Devroux before shuffling off to the stairway leading to Sam’s living quarters. She was gone a couple minuts, the only sound left in the darkening shop being the banging on Sam’s door above, but aside from that Dev had a momentary silence without hearing the woman’s screeching voice. This was doomed to end as the banging ceased and the area grew quieter as the woman walked back into the shop.

“What have you done with him,” she snapped. “I know Sam. There’s no way he’d leave this place to you. He’s only known you a couple weeks at best.”

Devroux had leaned his face down into his hands to enjoy the silence before she had come back, but after she spoke, he looked up from his furry fingers with an apathetic glaze over his eyes. “What have I done with him? Somehow, with no proof or reasoning, you’ve decided to blame someone that has been working with him for weeks without incident?” The mink walked out from behind the counter, inching closer to the old woman with a finger raised in frustration. “I have, in these past weeks, seen you not once – not once. And yet you choose to blame me? How would you know anything about Sam? Or the way I feel about him?”

The woman, who had been inching backwards as Devroux moved towards her, had finally had her expression forcefully shifted. The defiant look that she had worn up until now had finally been traded out for a look of surprise. Aghast at the way Devroux had spoken to her, she couldn’t shake the fact that he was right – something that Dev would never know without being told.

“You’re right,” she conceded, “I don’t know you. I have no reason to blame you for anything when I don’t even know what’s happened to Sam.” She paused for a second to straighten up her stance. “But I do know Sam. Better than most. I’ve known him for longer than almost anyone else.”

“I’ve already told you. Sam’s left. He’s left the shop in my care. He's not planning on coming back.”

“Yes, but even if he trusted you to run the shop, he would be here. That’s the kind of guy he is – the kind of guy he’s always been. It’s why I divorced him in the first place.”

Devroux snapped a look into the old woman’s eyes, then realizing what her angle was. They had known each other only a few minutes and she had already shown herself to be strong willed, so the only reason she’d spill any emotional information, such as that about her former marriage to Sam, would only be released to incite an emotional reaction from the mink – something she wouldn’t get so easily. While Devroux was only beginning to open up to the possibilities that emotional manipulation could present, this woman had had many years to perfect the art. Yet, even if her tactics and display were perfected, garnering an emotional response from someone that lived life by logic wasn’t any easy feat. Yet, even while Dev wasn’t fooled by the obvious attempt, his sheer curiosity was enough to force her desired reply.

“You and Sam were married?”

The strength in her eyes was lost to excitement as the mink took the bait. “For many years. I loved him. I still love him. But this shop was the death of us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just as I’ve been telling you. He couldn’t leave it alone. No days off, no breaks. He met every deadline, took every order, and did it all for the sake of everyone else. He always said it was to pay everyone back for the affection they showed him.”

Devroux simply nodded. Sam had given the mink free range of his facilities and materials so easily. He had trusted his apprentice in the shop even whilst he slept. What the woman was telling him now, whether or not it was true, sounded like Sam.

“I couldn’t stand it anymore. I wanted a life too. So, I left him. But if I don’t look after him, who will?”

The mink gave the woman a toothy grin. “That does sound like Sam. Always needed someone to keep an eye on him or he’d just keep going without a moment of hesitation. But,” he trailed, moving to respond more seriously, “he’s old now. As much as he loved the shop, don’t you think he’d rather spend time with his family?”

“Maybe. If he had any,” she shot back. “I was his only wife and we never had kids.”

“Family doesn’t just mean blood relation. Friends can be family. He was loved by many.”

Her eyes narrowed. An argument in semantics was easy to get away from the main point. The woman was well aware that that was Devroux’s intention, but she wasn’t going to let the discussion take that route.

“You’re not wrong, but something tells me that’s not the case.”

“Yeah? And what might that be?”

“You.”

This remark confused the mink. He had, as far as he could tell, not given her any reason to think that he wasn’t telling the truth and had been leading the conversation around for a while. With a confused look on his face, he nodded, gesturing for more information.

“When I came in, you said he was gone for a couple days. But you changed your story not too long ago when you said he’s not coming back.”

Devroux stared at the woman, his heart racing as he traced over the conversation in his head. None of the conversation had mattered enough to him to stick, so he couldn’t remember whether she was right or not, but she had cornered him with the accusation. His moment of silence was all she needed to confirm that her beliefs were right.

The woman simply let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose between her index finger and thumb. “It’s okay,” she said, raising her other hand to signal for the mink to calm down. He hadn’t moved or spoken, but she was perfectly aware of his internal panic. “I have nothing to prove you did anything to Sam. God knows he was old and wouldn’t be alive for long anyway. But... knowing is important.”

As Devroux stood frozen, the woman walked past him, brushing a hand over his shoulder as she did, and moved to the entrance to the workshop at the back. As she peered into the room with the work materials, she noted the cleanliness of the floor, but there was nothing aside from that to warrant further investigation. However, her eyes scanning the room forced Dev’s heart to beat harder, as he knew Sam’s lifeless corpse was propped up in the broom closet only feet from where she stood.

“I won’t send anyone after you. Under one condition...”

The mink swallowed the saliva that had built up in his mouth, carefully speaking his next few words as to not trip and hint that she might be right; accepting her conditions and ending the scene would be more than enough. “And what is that?”

“The name of the shop stays. ‘Sam’s Workshop’. If you don’t change it, I won’t bug you.”

“I understand.” He hadn’t thought about changing the name yet, since it had only been a matter of hours since Sam’s murder, but the decision had been made for him. While the lack of control over it may come back to bug him later, it was an acceptable term in the immediate.

“And you make me what I need when I need it, but that’s a continued agreement from when Sam ran the shop.”

“Alright.”

“Hmph,” she tutted happily. “I’ll be on my way then. I’ll ring when I need something.”

The old woman turned on her heals and swiftly moved to the door. Her heels clicked against the wooden floor loudly, but she exited the shop without another word, leaving Devroux to breath heavily on his own. His heart was still racing. The mink couldn’t care less about having killed an old man or that someone had found out, but his plans for the world didn’t end her and neither could he. If she was going to stay silent, then that was enough for him to find some amount of comfort. However, the only reason he could trust her was the fact that she was going to get something out of it. Until he could find a way to take out the woman too, he’d comply with her demands.

WC: 2,099
Haki Stamina: 10/10

Equipment:

Doriki:

Night had fallen and with the woman gone, Devroux had no more reason to worry about customers. Before any last clients could make their way into the shop, the mink swiftly moved over to and locked the door. He shut off the lights for the front room and moved to the back with the curtain drawn. This woman might serve to be trouble in the future, but for right now she was safe and he simply had to deal with Sam’s body that was still sitting in the broom closet.

From a cupboard Devroux withdrew a roll of garbage bags. He took one off the roll and opened the broom closet, making sure to throw his arm out quickly to make sure the old man’s body didn’t fall back out onto the clean floor. Very carefully – and with astonishing ease – Devroux loaded Sam’s body into the first garbage bag, which he then loaded in to another just to be safe. Now that night had fallen, he only needed to worry about transporting the body safely, not about being seen.

Exiting through the back entrance, Devroux carefully checked to make sure no one was around before pulling the bagged body out and setting it down to lock up. With the door locked, the mink spread his black wings, grabbed the bag, and took to the air. His naturally black fur kept him concealed in the night sky making the flight calm and within a few minutes he had flown out over the ocean far enough to drop Sam’s body.

Devroux hovered in the sky over the drop point momentarily, watching the bag sink into the ocean before finally turning to fly back to the inn. After spending weeks on Baltigo he not only had a shop of his own, but he could move into Sam’s former living quarters the following morning. And as long as he kept pushing the narrative that Sam had gone to live with family elsewhere, no one would question it.

[EXIT]

WC: 333
Haki Stamina: 10/10

Equipment:

Doriki: