A Night to Remember

On Yotsuba Island, a strong wind blew across the cobbled streets with promise of rain in the near future. The darkened streets lit ony by beams of lamp light that snuck its way through closed shutters. Bishop looked up and felt the cool wind invigorate him. A quick glance at his watch told him that just two  hours of patrol awaited him before  he could get back to base and finally sleep.

He had been up since before dawn trying to squeeze in a little practise with his saber before work had fully begun. He rested his hand on the pommel and wiggled his sore muscles. He then grabbed the shaded lantern that sat next to him on a barrel and continued down a lonely side alley between two business. He walked this alleyway many times kicking aside the vagrants who lived there with a lip curled in distaste.

The homeless were an unproductive cur upon society and Bishop wished nothing more to just give them a dingy and send them all away. His commanders thought others wise but in the back of his mind Bishop knew that such errors would not stand when he was in charge. On this windy night though the back alleys were all but clear of the homeless except for a few stragglers. Bishop sucked his teeth and walked to the nearest, an old man with all of three teeth in his mouth, and planted a kick in the curled up old mans side." Wake up old man, no loitering."

The kick jolted the old man out of a drunken sleep and he looked up bleary eyed at the marine who had planted his boot into his side. His look held anger at being woken but after a glance at the fire arm and saber at Bishops side that fire quickly left him. He then got up and begun to grumble and shuffle away.

Reaching Yotsuba Island Monroe took it upon himself to explore the shops, merchants, and living quarters for the night. After securing a place for the night and seeing some of the places he wanted to check out he found it a little like the south blue so far. The people were friendly and free. No one seemed to dislike him or his appearance despite him having a smiley face mask and a rifle everywhere he went. It felt like they welcomed strangers here and tolerated a lot of people’s oddball behaviors.

At least, that’s what he was thinking when during one of his walks he stumbled upon a dispute between a younger male and an older male. The younger one kicked at the side of the older male. Squinting eyes of Monroe took a closer look as to what was going on. Additionally, his hands moved fast with the top gun trait, loading his rifle with an explosive bullet.

Using his rifle’s scope he looked closer toward the two and saw the older man look up angrily toward the younger male. Something is definitely up. He thought as he put his rifle back on his shoulder and walked backwards and then doubled back around. Taking in a path toward the younger male; this particular path being one that would cast them to past one another. Wearing his usual black suit, black dress suits, and hat he smiled under his mask ready for the confrontation.

Passing right by the younger male, Monroe nodded and said. “Good day to you, sir.” Just after passing him he would intentionally trip backwards, positioning the stock of his gun to be angled toward the younger male’s left shoulder blade as Monroe was on the left side of the younger male. This sly attack would be akin to his Rifling Stock Hammer technique would be hold with it a power equal to 1. This was practice to see just how aware this individual was to trickery.

After the trip, rather the younger male dodged the stack of his gun or not, Monroe would apologize. “Oh, sorry sorry sorry. I think I slipped on the ground backwards. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” His eyes sharp on the figure, he wanted to hurt him for what he had done to an elderly man. Why would anyone kick someone just to ask them to leave?

When the large man in the suit walked past Bishop he was immediately on alert. 'What was this giant, a good foot and a half taller than him, doing out in this back alley so late' thought Bishop to himself. Good thing he was on high alert or he would not have seen the stock of the rifle coming down as he fell. He was able to side step it though only barely.

Bishop Begin to draw his Saber. He didn't think that the clubbing was intentional but was not taking any chances with this giant. whether due to the smiling mask or the absurd height he was nervous being in a dark alley with this man. He said in a voice hat was meant to command respect "Sir, Is that rifle registered and what are you doing in this alley so late?" There was no law that stated weapons needed to be registered but Bishop figured if this man was from shells town he would know. The older man begin to edge away seeing that something was most likely about to go down. Bishop drew his flintlock without looking and aimed it at he the man and said "Why don't you stick around a bit." Bishop stared directly into the eyes of the mask trying to discern any hostile intent or was this truly an accident.

He sidestepped, what a cheeky marine. Seeing the timely dodge Monroe would get back on his feet quickly and turn around, face to face with the man. When asked if it was registered Monroe perked up. Taking his rifle in his hands and looking at it. “Uh, does it need to be registered? It’s an old gift from my father. What do you think?” He said slowly positioning his hands to get ready for something more confrontational. “Oh looks like the old guy is going now. Maybe I should too---“Monroe was cut off by the action of the marine reaching for one of his weapons. While he reached for his weapon Monroe would attack him blatantly using his technique from before, Rifling Stock Hammer. He’d use the end of his rifle as a blunt instrument to damage the center of the Marine’s chest. This was done in an attempt to push him back a little or make him dodge and go backwards. Gaining any sort of distance would be beneficial for him in such a narrow alley where the only way out to run away, straight.

Bishop saw the stock of Rifle come down and tried to back off but the giant was too quick. Although the giant was much bigger then Bishop he would find that Bishops frame was mostly muscle and as such doesn't go as far back as he would like. The pain though caused  Bishop to hunch over slightly. He quickly righted himself though and as he did would attempt to re-close the distance. As he does this he will attempt to use his Perfect shot technique at really close range to throw off his foe. The shot would be for his lower body around his feet to try to immobilize him. Bishop would at the same time keep his sword arm up to block any more swings that come his way and try to say ' By issue of the Marines of Shell town I hereby place you under arrest for assaulting  a marine.'

Connection, the stock hit the center of the Marine’s chest, which was good, but marines were stronger than the average person and it didn’t do much damage or did it make much ground. If anything, it was foolish of him for attacking like this. Nonetheless, Monroe would flip his rifle midair after he made just two feet of distance. Despite being hit, they were still on equal footing. It was ironic though, because Monroe wasn’t known for his melee skills, he was known for his Marksman ship. Meaning, a gun battle wasn’t one that this marine would likely want. By flipping his rifle around him would point the barrel at the flintlock toward the marine’s hand holding it, this happened around the same time he too had positioned his post toward Monroe’s feet.

In jest, as the Marine fired his shot, Monroe fired his. Both shots going similar places as Monroe’s objective was to shoot the Gun out of the Marine’s hand and the Marine was trying to shoot his feet. Likely the bullets would meet each other in their trajectories; it would be on collision that a distraction would be made. Little did this marine know that Monroe was carrying explosive ammunition and his gun was loaded with such ammunition at the time. When the bullets would collide an explosive element an equal distance away from Monroe and the marine would occur, this explosion would likely push them both back and deal damage to them both. However, the distance they would be blown backwards to would be very negligible.

After the explosive shot had gone off Monroe would reload his gun again using his Top Gun trait to not waste time in reloading. He also made a step back while he was reloading. This time Monroe would fire a second around at the feet of the marine, trying to injure them to where they could run after him if he were to escape. He also wanted to make it so that when the marine tried to get closer it’d be more difficult. The small dust cloud that was created by the first explosive round hadn’t quiet settled yet, so when he fired his second shot it would be shown that another bullet was heading his way through depicted dust cloud. The distance between Monroe and the marine would be approximately seven and a half feet. This was deduced that the stock attack would push them 2 feet away from each other, the explosive bullet would push them one feet each away from each other for another 2 feet and Monroe's stride due to being so tall would average around three and a half feet. Concluding for a 2+2+3.5 equaling for 7.5 feet.

Bishop was in quite a pickle. The masked weirdo was around 7 and some change feet away. The explosion really caught him off guard. As the cloud of dust rose Bishop tried to think through the haze of pain. The Masked man was obviously the superior marksman. To fight at such a range would be Moronic. With gap being what it was Bishop decided to improvise.

After a moment of focus his body begin to contort into that of a jaguar. Lucky he did for just as he changed his foe fired another odd bullet through the dust of his last explosion.The shot would have hit him square in the chest but sailed above his head down to the other end of the alley His clothes fell around him and his sword clanging against the ground, Bishop decided to try to use a bot of trickery. With all the Humph he could muster Bishop let out a roar that he hoped inspired fear and caution into the heart of his foe. The sound bounced off the walls of the alleyway making it seem many time louder than normal. Bishop would then, with his powerful legs, try to pounce to close the distance hoping that last vestiges of smoke would hide him till he was close enough to land on his prey with extended claws. If he missed he would roll and try yo jump through a window just to get outta line of sight.

Bishop also could make out heavy boots coming from behind the masked man and knew the explosion had alerted his comrades to his plight.

Everything was going according to plan. At least, that was what Monroe thought until he heard a roar, saw the silhouette of a beast and heard his shot go much farther than it should have exploding out in the distance. Damn, a devil fruit? Hearing the sound of a clank which could have been the sound the marine’s sword falling reassured him that this was likely the work of a devil fruit. He had to get away, and fast. “Chow, kitty.” He said looking to his left and smashing himself through the window of a residence. Running through the house he would reload and shoot at a random place in the house to create sound distortion making it seem like he could have gone anywhere in the house and ran. It also caused a bright flash in the house which could pseudo-disorient someone for a few seconds.  


Kicking the front door down, Monroe found himself in the streets around the corner; he booked it toward another dark alley and then repeated his process of going through a residence and shooting to create sound distortion. This time though, he ran up the stairs and toward the roof top where he could jump from rooftop to rooftop in an attempt to escape the scene. Hopefully this would work, though, if the marine chased him and didn’t fall for any of his distractions, things would be weary for the young marksmen.

Bishop ran into the house after the tall man hoping his enchanted speed would be enough to catch him when the smell of smoke caught at the back of his throat. Bishop had heard another explosions after the man had entered the home and saw that a fire was spreading where he had apparently launched one of his bombs.  Bishop focused on that seeing that he could give chase from sent and as such could back off a bit. He morphed back into a man and quickly ran to put his clothes on. He then began to smother the fire with a rug he found in the homes living room. As he did he could hear another explosion which he planed to do something about. As more Marines entered Bishop saw a opportunity to slip away and continue his chase.

He morphed into his hybrid form and with enchanted quickness sprinted along the trail he had scented. Around the Corner he saw a familiar scene of a house that had been trashed. Luckily this one had been spared from anything burning. He then followed the scent to the roof of the house. Up on the roof the strong winds had blown the trail away and Bishop swore as he returned to his comrades regretfully reporting the mans escape. He planned to get permission to big a man hunt for this dangerous man. Knowing the commander such a request would not be approved to that morning at its earliest. Bishop took a deep breath and remembered the scent. This man would pay for the humiliation of his defeat when they found him.

Sneakily bashing the window of a house’s second story, Monroe side jumped into the house from the roof and noticed that no one was home. Why are so many of this town’s houses empty? he thought to himself. Looking around the house he would peer slightly out of the windows and notice he wasn’t being followed anymore, not that he could tell anyway. Searching the house for a map of the city he would go crazy. Do people not own maps of where they live?!?!? He spoke loudly inside the confines of his mind. In the middle of his search his stomach started to growl. He hadn’t eaten anything for the last ten hours. He rummaged the house for any food and found some cheese to eat for now, he would even leave 25 beli behind where he took the cheese to repay for it, he left an additional 150 beli on the counter to pay for the broken window.

Wondering about in this house he found a basement and chose to get some rest before finding out how to escape this retched marine controlled city. Curling up around his gun he would crunch up and doze off. In his dreams he dreamt of facing against that beast he saw earlier and how he could hunt it and kill it as if it were a sport.

The night seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye. After requesting the search to begin Bishop took a nap for a few hours. Awaking to an overcast day Bishop stretched and quickly left the barracks. He went to the commander just to see if his request got through and to his disappointment the barricade at the docks was deined.But no matter, Bishop thought, how hard could it be to catch a nearly eight foot tall man. The streets that day were not as lively as they usually are do the down cast weather. The five other marines sent with Bishop to aid with his search were as useless as them come. To save himself the irritation Bishop told them to spread out and search. Two were going to g to the local inn the while Bishop would search the docks and the last two would sweep the streets.

Bishop took off towards the docks passing Stalls of vendors leering at him. The locals were not found of his harsh nature to te destitute but wouldn't dare say anything out loud. There was a few more people milling around the docks. Packing ships, saying good-bye t sweet hearts, downing a last few beers before their long journeys. An initial scan of the docks did not revel the tall man so Bishop resolved to head from ship to ship to tell the captains of a criminal who if passage is allowed would send the captain and the tall man into a cell. Most took the warning and seemed to shrink back at the thought of being put into a cell but a few seemed to not take much head at his threat.

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The morning croaked an early start for Monroe. He woke up to the sound of people coming home. A little girl’s scream seeing her window broken into was the alarm clock for him to get up and leave quickly. He snuck out of the basement and was spotted by one of the girl’s parents, he made a run for it out the front door saying, “Sorry sorry sorry, left money for you!” while his left hand went up and held his hat on his head while his right arm clutched the strap of his rifle. Monroe’s long legs making even longer strides as he ran away from the angry family and toward the docks of the town where he’d try to pay for voyage to another town nearby. One of the ship’s captains had agreed to do just that for two-thousand beli. Of course, that was too good to be true though. During his negotiating tactics Monroe would see, through his left eye hole, a Marine, similar to the one last night, talking to all the Ship’s captains and checking the crew.

Does this guy ever let up? Inside of his mask his eye twitched in annoyance that this marine was still on his tail. Apologizing and leaving the ship he was currently on he’d venture back into town, that’s where we met two egghead Marines at the inn he was going to get something to eat. The two marines literally came up to Monroe and asked if he knew of a man that was tall and held a rifle that shot explosive rounds. Laughing internally, he would point toward the docks. “Yeah I think, I saw him trying to board a ship over there.” The marines were stupid enough to listen and leave. They were definitely useless indeed. Thank god not all marines are smart.


He thought before sitting down and ordering a buffet of food that cost him roughly a thousand beli. Gobbling up the delicacies of this town Monroe would sit back in his chair with his full belly and hum. “Oh, that’s great.” Rubbing his stomach as if it was a child he’d shut his eyes and relax. For that one second of bliss he’d had forgotten he was on the escape. He left the money on the table and left.

Getting up he grunted and leaving the inn finally he headed toward the sea train. If he wasn’t going to get passage on a ship then he had to just leave the way he came.

Bishop watched the door like a hawk. Ever since the two idiots told him that a man large man with a rifle and mask that the saw the man they were looking for, Bishop had to control at the near blinding rage he felt at the two idiots. Bishop watched another marine he was unfamiliar with hide his uniform underneath a black hoodie. Bishop wanted to get a closer look but instead of going inside  he thought to instead play this one a bit safer.

The two idiots were trailing behind him as he watched the front door of the inn."You two go around back and if you see the man with the fucking smiling mask on, you immediately fire a shot at him. The sound will be my single to come around back and pincer him got it?" The men looked mad at how he spoke to them but ultimately listened not wanting to get reported for their mistake.

Bishop grabbed the shirt of a passing citizen and pulled out a beli 100 note saying" hey do me a favor and this could be yours." The man eyed bishop wearily but nodded for him to continue." there are two men in that inn one with a black hoodie and the other with a smiling mask. I want you to look at what there doing and just tell me. Not to hard right?" The man shrugged his shoulders and walked into the Inn and a few moments later walked out with a loaf of bread and said "There just sitting in there talking." Bishop nodded and handed the note to him saying "Thank you for your service citizen." The man shrugged again and took the ni=ote and walked away.  Curious, thought Bishop, Maybe this new recruit was trying to get him to lower his guard to arrest him. No matter concluded Bishop he would still have the perimeter secured if he tried to get away.

Sitting there enjoying his food, he was interrupted by a newer figure. They asked if they could sit down next to him and he didn’t mind. He didn’t mind because nothing was distinguishing him as trouble, he couldn’t see the marine shirt that was beneath the hoodie which this new figure wore. “Sure, come here. You’re not bothering me, I’m just hungry. I didn’t get much to eat yesterday.” Yawning from lack of energy he’d go back to munching on his breakfast. “What’s your name, stranger? My name is…” He thought an alias would be good to come up with and given his appearance he would come up with one quickly on the shot. “Laughing-Man. It’s kind of like a cartoon name, I know, but it’s a name nonetheless. It’s because I wear this mask you see.” His attention wasn’t really on what was going on behind him as someone came in and left. “I bet you’re a pirate, right? You seem like one.” He finished up his food and looking around the Inn to see if there was anything off, he had been here for a while now and those two bone-heads were likely coming back soon. “Well, I have to go. Was a pleasure meeting you.”

Standing up, his height being rather pronounced over the people here he would duck slightly and find his way out the front door. What an odd person that was. thought Monroe. Stumbling into another surprise, the marine from last night, his appearance prompted to draw his gun from off his shoulder. “Hehehehehe, you got here quick. Beast boy.” Monroe’s eyes darted left, then right, he looked for an opening and would chose to take one at the first chance he got.