Chapter 14

West blue, Ishiria island, roku town

The small town of roku which was usually bustling with activity at this time of the day strangely was housing deserted streets, which was only patrolled by the occasional group of soldiers belonging to the royal army. Said royals had received a call via the transponder snail not too long ago that a group of cipher pol agents would be arriving in the kingdom of Ishiria and the royal army received the order from the king to greet them with alot of fanfare and assist them to the best of their abilities in order to not hinder and in fact help them to fullfill their mission which in turn would reflect positively on the king which may in the end help him earn a few favors with the Gorosei. So it came as no surprise that soon after the call was received all hell broke loose in the royal palace and the troops assembled at its gates before marching straight to the docks while on the way proclaiming and enforcing the curfew ordered by their royal majesty to not leave a single soul out on the streets that could possibly hinder the cipher pol agents.

Soon all the soldiers that had been called to duty had assembled themselfs at the docks and awaited the agents arrival.

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west blue, Ishiria island, secret underground facility of the underworld

Meanwhile old man Bai had broken down the main entrance to the underground market place belonging solely to the underworld and jokers syndicate, swatting every nuisance in the form of guards out of his way and leaving a path of destruction in his wake. Not letting himself be immersed in the carnage he caused by appearing in said place old man Bai simply held his whole concentration centered on one point inside the underground facility which exuded an all too familiar aura he had come to know over the years in his time in the grandline and he would not fail to acquire why he came here. And anyhow, who was supposed to stop him?

So with a single thought in his mind he wove through the labyrinth like structure of the facility, listening fully to his souls instincts while observing the rest of the island with his observation haki. Nothing could go wrong, for there was no room for mistakes. Too much was on stake!

Soon he reached the room and with a single punch old man Bai blew the door away and stepped into the room, walking straight over to a c.h.e.s.t, which was chained to a table. Not minding this he ripped the chains apart, grabbed the c.h.e.s.t and turned around and left without a single glance at the rest of the rooms contents. He still had some more preparing to do.

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West blue, on the horizon on course to Ishiria island, ???

The soldiers on the coast were growing a little restless. And who could blame them? Nobody liked to stand still for hours without moving a single centimeter. But that restlessness soon turned into murmurs as the first rows spotted a ship appearing on the horizon.

"There they are sir!" one soldier on the lookout spoke loudly to his commanding officer who was sitting on an obviously expensive looking horse who in turn turned his attention from the lolipop in his mouth to the single ship on the horizon. Throwing his precious little lolipop away the commander yelled at his soldiers: "Alright you maggots, stand sharp and shut your trap! I don't want to hear a single word from you lot while I great the agents. Should any of you go against my orders you'll scrubbing latrins for the rest of your miserable life, you got that!?"

"SIR; YES SIR!" the soldiers responded with horror written over the faces of a select few who seemed to already had had the p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e to make the madam latrins aquaintance in the past, memorable no doubt.

Soon the ship was only a few minutes away from landing which at first caused exitment to surface on the commanders face which very soon turned into confusion.

"Soldier! Were there supposed to arrive more than one ship?" the commander asked the communications officer who in turn denied the question which caused even more confusion inside the commanders mind but gradually said confusion turned into a vague sense of foreboding. Granted, said commander had never been involved in any actual fighting, due to his highborn status but that didn't mean he didn't have human instincts which in this case told him to grab himself another lolipop and get the hell out of there! Sadly he couldn't do that so he pushed those feelings down and told his soldiers to prepare for the worst should anything unexpected happen. And as it turned out he was right to do so.

The sh.i.p.s took a sharp turn to the right, presenting their flanks to the soldiers who only now realized how many sh.i.p.s there were coming towards them. At first it seemed like it was only four but it turned out that behind those four hid another eight sh.i.p.s, bringing their numbers to a staggering 12 fully weaponised galleys who by now with an audible *cluck* pulled up the covers for their canons which sparkled ominously in the sunlight of the midday sun before all hell broke loose and the whole pier was turned into rubble. Men were screaming, animals crying and chaos took over the place until the first of the invaders landed and charged every soldier who remained battleready with an audible cry to strike fear into the defenders. Fighting took over the place, screams of the dieing or wounded, motivational cries to rally allies behind a few to charge once again and the hitting of metal against metal singnalling the beginning of war in the kingdom of Ishiria, which was promptly relayed to the kings administration via transpondersnail which in turn called the world government and informed them of the happenings which caused absolute chaos with the marines and the world government, not knowing what the hell these people were up to.