The Indestructible Man

Kouen's post over East Blue has been mildly entertaining at best so far... the only criminal he's gone after so far were the criminal duo who charmed almost everyone they came across and now, his ship is going after a certain somebody simply known as "Indestructible" Tony, who gained the nickname after miraculously surviving three attempts on his life that would've killed any other human. He somehow survived a bullet to the head, a sword piercing through one of his vital organs and then he managed to somehow survive being burned alive and resurfaced every single time. The more far-sighted people of the world believe that he's a Devil Fruit eater, while others simply believe that he's just a monster among men. Regardless of what it is, the marines don't know how he's survived every time and they believe the best course of action is to just capture him instead of leaving him for dead.

Reports were given that Tony has shown himself in Loguetown, the one place where most pirate crews stop before they attempt to go for the Grand Line. Kouen's captain believes that Tony has built up enough of a following to go for the Grand Line and it'd be in their best interest to intercept the man before him or his grunts can even get there, otherwise Tony would just grow stronger and become an even bigger problem down the road. The marine presence in Loguetown is pretty scarce but there are a few agents here or there undercover to keep an eye on any uprising pirates that come to Loguetown. The marines used to have a strong foothold on Loguetown once, but no more.

The marine battleship finally docked near Loguetown's port, with a number of people at the port giving cautious looks at the ship, but it didn't seem to bother any of the marines as a wooden ramp was lowered on the side of the ship for squadrons of marines already in formation and ready to hunt after Tony, doing a widespread manhunt for him and his affiliates. Normally Kouen should've gone along with his own squad formation, but he slipped out after his squad ran into the entrance of Loguetown and started his own, individual investigation to find out where Tony is. He got the idea that charging in force like this would just spook Tony off, and wants to take matters into his own hands.

In all honesty Ivy found Loguetown rather... strange. A city with no distinctive class differences between the middle- and lower-classes was an oddity she'd never really get over the differences to how she grew up. Still, everything was better than the Slum Towns of Osore and so she was far more focused on the marvels of everyday life around here rather than dwell on the lack of luck she had growing up. Of course she had been lucky in other ways, her mother saw fit to that, but life now was something she took one day at a time and always tried to see the good in it, regardless of where that good came from. Today she was mostly happy that she had eaten - a full belly and a nice set of supplies in her satchel was enough to keep her going and she met the stares of the folks around her -her white skin, hair and eyes all combined always drew looks- with a cheerful grin and a nod of the head.

Today was a day she needed to earn some money though, a day where things needed to look up. She was otherwise fairly broke after her shopping spree that morning, food and supplies to last her another week in the town as well as paying board for the room she was renting in the little motel near the port itself, not to mention sending off half of her money back to her mother and her daughter, making sure the little one was well seen to. She hadn't seen Emilia in almost a month now, it was about time for her to head back and see her daughter again for a time. For now though she needed money, money to hire a ship to go see her daughter, money to live and eat here in Loguetown -it had such a high population of pirates that work was never dry- and money to send home for when she could. It was for those reasons that she was making her way towards a dingy little dive in the alleys of Loguetown, a little dive where the newest bounty posters could always be found.

It wasn't a far walk and the barman nodded to Ivy evenly as she entered, having been here multiple times over the past few weeks to pick up jobs here and there. Strangely enough the board was almost empty today, almost nothing on it save a few posters that she'd long since given up hope for. A pickpocket who was only worth a hundred thousand; a pair of livestock rustlers up in the hills who raided the farms on the island for cattle and sheep and took them away; some pirate or another who had departed dear old Loguetown so many days in the past that the posters were more up for show than anything else; and some guy who was apparently unkillable and had just arri-
Wait, that one was new.

Even as she had begun heading away from the board to go to the bar she spun back around sharply, making a nearby patron jump, recovering slightly when she grinned at him and tore the poster from the wall and then looked back over her shoulder to the barkeep.
"I'm taking this one Bobby," she said excitedly, waving the poster a little -to which "Bobby" just shrugged- and then turning it up to read it as she moved to the exit rather than even getting a drink, "Don't go telling anyone else about it y'hear? An unkillable bastard sure as hell aint gonna survive if you cut him up after all, but that's my idea - not theirs!"
She bumped past a tall man as she left the bar, not even sparing him a glance as she did so, walking back into the streets as she read the poster proper.

"Tony "The Unkillable" huh?" she mused to herself, stopping at the mouth of the alleyway and leaning against a wall, watching down the streets towards the docks as a large marine vessel came in to dock, "Sure as hell could use a million Beri, anything's better than nothing and it says Dead or Alive, so this shouldn't be too bad, right?"

During the briefing, most of the marines were given a copy of Tony's wanted poster, to which Kouen is carrying one on his person currently so he had no problem identifying Tony when the time came. However with most of the marines just charging the island like they are now, patrolling the streets in massive force and targeting the locations of interest, Kouen suspected that Tony would receive word at this point that the marines are after him. He's going to lay low and that's why Kouen slipped away from his marine formation to do his own little hunt for the man. "I need to see what he looks like again..." Kouen muttered to himself, bringing out the feeble, rolled up paper and unrolled it to reveal a bald man with many scars over his face, notably one going over his eye. "I see why they call him indestructible... guy looks like he's been run over by a ship or something." anyway, now that he got a good look of the guy in his head, he placed the paper away and back into his pocket.

Kouen was currently making his way through an alleyway, stopping around the corner at an upcoming street to eavesdrop on two pirates who could audibly be heard talking, they weren't loud but they weren't exactly being quiet about their conversation either. "You see the marines around? I reckon they're after Tony." one of them said, while the other just chuckled at it. "Really? nah... they're not going to catch Tony. My captain went toe-to-toe with the bald bastard once, flipped his shit in five seconds, I'm telling ya... this Tony guy can handle a few marines. Either way... we should get out of the fight between them, I get the feeling something bad is going to happen and I don't want to get in the middle of it." and with that, the two started to make their way off, to which Kouen started to slowly follow behind them though doing his best to very discreet, as the instant they see Kouen, they'll notice his marine uniform and trouble might start from there.

Then came an interesting catch, they stopped at the back of a tavern where at the front, it says it's closed but anyone who bothered to look through the windows could see that the place is filled. A bouncer being present at the back entrance and after a greetings of sorts was passed along between the pirates and the bouncer, he opened up the backdoor for the two. Kouen just to make sure went close to the bouncer after the two went in, with the bouncer holding his palm up to motion the marine to stay back. "No marines allowed." he bluntly said, with Kouen getting the gist that the closed tavern is a pretty high-profile place for pirates, and hopefully should be able to ask around about Tony if he could get in there. He could transform into his hybrid or full form and storm the place, but that'd draw unwanted attention to the tavern for more pirates and marines alike, screwing up his hunt. That's the last thing he needed. He'd need to play this smart or he won't get any closer to Tony, currently... Kouen is just a few buildings over from the tavern, thinking up a plan to infiltrate the place.

Ivy's search started so very promising, or at least she had felt like it did, but it did not take long for her to start reaching some rather irritating dead ends. First and foremost as she watched the Marines start sending out their troops she noticed someone on the other side of the street to her was eyeing her -or more particularly the poster she was carrying- askance, and when she looked at him directly the man started and then turned and hurried away. It hadn't been a very long chase, in a few moments she had him face-down in the nearest alleyway on his side of the street, one foot on his head holding it sideways to the ground and her right arm pinning his legs to her chest, a wicked glint in her eyes as she questioned him.

But alas it had not been, the man had simply noticed her poster and assumed she was any old Bounty Hunter - even cutting off one of his fingers hadn't revealed any further truth and no pirate was that loyal to their captain that a bit of maiming didn't reveal any lies. So she let the poor pirate go -he hadn't had a bounty so she didn't care and he was a pirate so she wouldn't get arrested for it- and instead stepped back into the streets and decided to wander around, listening for the gossip of the town and to the voices of the people. She passed several Marine patrols as she went, it wasn't like they were being very surreptitious after all, though it was odd that such a heavy force had been deployed for the benefit of a single individual, however "unkillable" he had supposedly become. Maybe they were here for other reasons as well, or instead, and this was all coincidence?

She didn't really care, she had a target in mind and like an arrow being drawn to the cheek she was ready and waiting to unleash her Hunter fury on the man in question. It wouldn't be quick when she found him -she really wanted to test out how truly unkillable he was- and if it turned out she did have to bring him in alive she'd carve off a piece of him as a trophy, something she'd only just gotten into the habit of doing. Checking into a few of the port-side bars it didn't take her all too long to find a general lead was drawing her a little deeper into the alleyways of Loguetown, towards a rather particular bar that was otherwise fairly well known with the skull-duggerous crowd of rogues who called this their full time home.

It was a few minutes of a walk, Ivy whistling tunelessly to herself as she went, and as she entered the street where the bar could be found she spotted a rather circumpsect individual being waved away from the entrance, the bouncer -Franky Two-Toes- saying something about 'No Marines allowed' as the man was ushered back. Ivy wasn't particularly bothered by this, Franky knew her after all and her reputation was rather low itself, so she simply gave the evident Marine an impudent grin and nodded to Franky, pushing her way in with a little coin slipping from her palm to his. The inside was jumping as usual, the seats were full and the crowd raucous, and she walked up to the bar and slipped onto a stool, the one-eyed bartender nodding to her familiarly as she passed her a beer. This was the place to find the information she sought, since she couldn't see the man Tony in the crowd, but for now she'd keep a lower profile and enjoy her drink.

No good investigator started before everyone was at ease after all...

Kouen spent his sweet time trying to find a way into the establishment by other means, such as catching certain pirates who walked through, asking them for a way to get in and even offering to bribe them so, just to get told off. He felt tempted to give them a fistful, but that would just alert the nearby pirates in the tavern and once more, ruin his entire search... a particular idea popped into his mind, a bit risky but it's probably the best one he has. As soon as he was sure nobody saw him in a nearby alley to the tavern, he quickly transformed into his full, jaded rabbit form. As it stood, he's about eight inches tall in this form. A rather embarrassing form, but one that had it's uses sometimes such as this time.

He hopped on over to where the guard is, doing his best to stay under his eye and to be in a "convenient" place for him to find. He had to wait for a few minutes but as soon as the guard finally rotated around to see the small, jaded rabbit, Kouen balanced and paced his breathing so he wouldn't seem animate. The guard then carefully picked up Kouen and looked around, seemingly to check if anyone else were nearby and then after a few seconds of that assurance, he entered the tavern.

Grabbing the attention of the bartender, he quickly showed him the "item" that he found before also grabbing the attention of all the patrons. "Hey mates! I found this outside the bar, does this belong to anybody?" a few people didn't seem that interested, but those who knew a bit better about what it seemed to be soon came a storm of voices saying "It's mine!" pirates trying to claim ownership over the rabbit statue. The bartender then quickly snatched the rabbit and placed it on the bar itself, keeping an eye on it. "I'll hold onto for it now, I don't want you boys and girls fighting over it. Marines are in large numbers on this island right now and the last thing we need is a fight with marines kicking down our door for it." Kouen with all the grabs and pulls did his best to not move a muscle and to breathe as slowly as possibly. As far as they were aware, he's a priceless, inanimate jaded statue. An odd find for sure in their eyes, but not one they'd complain about. As long as he stayed like this and listened to the conversations inside the bar, this is the best way to gather intel before he'd have to figure out a way to leave the bar.