Chapter 63

Grandline, Paradise, Enies Lobby

'Damn it! What to do, what to do...' Director Spandam thought while he was walking up and down in his office in the tower that sat at the headposition of the island of Enies Lobby, mumbling to himself while occasionally jumping up in frustration.

The reason for his conundrum was one of his Cipher Pol teams having missed the report they were due to have given two hours ago, after they had informed him this morning via transpondersnail that they had spotted and made contact with Nico Robin, whom the world goverment had issued a missive for to be capture on sight. Fullfilling their duty while not blowing their cover the CP9 had done just that and at first everything had went fine but it just so happened that they hadn't reported back to receive further orders after taking Nico Robin into custody!

Hence Spandam's frustration and restlessness. At first he had thought about sending another CP team that was standing on standby in Enies Lobby to check on and possibly assist them, had discarded that idea though because it may blow their cover and he didn't believe Nico Robin to be able to resist his CP9's attempt to capture her in the first place.

His second idea had been to contact the marine outpost on Water 7 and have them check up on his team. The problem though was that he had no authority over the marines and it would blow the teams cover a hundred fold as well.

Not knowing what else to do he had decided to call the fleet-admiral, in the hopes he knew what to do and maybe even take charge of the operation. In his mind Spandam was already formulating various ideas on how he could adress the issue without himself getting another reprimand when, ripping Spandam out of his thoughts, the call connected and the annoyed voice of the fleetadmiral came through.

"Who is this?" Sengoku asked, holding the mic with one hand while his other worked through the piles of paper that had acc.u.mulated on his desk, only have focusing on the speaker on the other end.

"This is director Spandam speaking, fleet-admiral Sengoku, sir! I hate to interrupt you in your duties but I have come upon a... a situation you may say hehehe... I was hoping you may be able to maybe help me a little since I have come upon a dead end with my limited authority." Spandam spoke slowly, trying not to mess up and follow the script he had written in his mind to the last letter.

"Urgh, what is it this time?" Sengoku voice sounded through the mic, bringing a slight sheen of sweat to Spandams forhead, causing him to gulp silently before continuing his charade.

"Well, as you may know sir, the world government officials, who regularly issue missives for fugitives that are wanted by the world government, have renewed the one for a woman named Nico Robin. As you may or may not recall, she was the only survivor of Ohara and has been on the run for a long time now. My CP9 agents, stationed undercover in Water 7 at this very moment, have spotted her in said city, after which they contacted me and I ordered them to make contact with her, using her crew as leverage to make her surrender in silence, in order not to blow the CP9's cover or if nescessary take her in by force. The problem though is, that the agents were due to report back to me two hours ago to update me on their missions progress and if they had taken Nico Robin into custody. They did not report in. I wanted to contact them myself but every evenue I may have been able to exploit had for a consequence the blow up of their cover, so I decided against it and was hoping you may be able to help me out of this situation, hehehe" Spandam spoke, wiping the sweat off of his brows after having said what he had planned to say, bringing it over in the best way he thought possible.

".... I have a bad feeling about this..." Sengoku murmured, coincidently having todays newspaper laying next to his paperwork with the frontpage displaying an article about the marines newest threat, Azul, displayed all over it. Thinking back to the information he had received on the man, he

remembered that said man had traveled alongside Nico Robin for some time so it may not be a coincidence that the agents didn't report back if they came upon someone they were ill-equiped to handle, bringing a headache of gigantic proportions to the fleet-admirals head.

"You will pull out of this operation Spandam. I will order the marines on Water 7 to investigate the matter." Sengoku spoke into the mic, hanging up after issuing the order, making Spandam sigh in relieve, after which he slumped back into his chair. Once again his sharp mind had safed his a.s.s...

-------------------------------------------------

Grandline, Paradise, Water 7

"May I ask why you sent me out of there? Not that I am not grateful but I am still curious." Robin asked while walking next to Azul as they tracked back to the flying lamb through the dimly illuminated streets of Water 7 that were swarming with groups of people, venturing out after a long day at work to enjoy the company of their friends and families at a nice dinner, letting the occasional faint laughter echoe through the evening air.

Humming to himself, Azul began to formulate an answer, not sure how much he should tell her.

"My devilfruit has many abilities that differentiate it from the norm, even among Zoan-fruits. I believe that has to do with it being of the mysthical type. To understand some of my fruits quirky abilities better it may help if you knew about the being it represents, the hellhound.

In tales of old the hellhound is a being that isn't easily classifiable, mostly due to its fickle nature.

In the stories, when a person gets lost in the dark of the night, somewhere in the woods for example, it may happen that he comes upon a hellhound. From their it depends solely on what the hellhound sees in the person himself, being able to perceive and examine the soul of the individual to the deepest part. If what he found left him satisfied he would lead the person back into safety. If not though that person would never be seen again.

In other stories the hellhound is depicted as a hunter that marks the souls of its victims, enabling the hellhound to find them wherever they are on the planet, chasing them over land, water or even through the air until he finds them and drags their souls to the fiery pits of hell, where they would await their judge-and punishment according to their sins commited, which caused the hellhound to leap onto their trail.

Now that I have told you about some of the stories that cover the myths of the hellhound you may understand why I sent you away or at least come to some conclusions..." Azul finished speaking, after which silence descended on the duo, Robin deep in thought while Azul simply enjoyed the beauty of the dimly lit evening and soothingly fresh air, soon arriving at the flying lamb. Though as soon as they arrived at the landing side, both of them were a little dumbfounded at what they saw happening between two of the crewmembers...