Ideas, Deals, & Time Part 5

After walking down the hallway, I came to another door, this one, I also punched down, this time without even knocking, since I was in a rush to get Mariga out of this building.

As soon as I walked into this new room, I found a gambling den with more doors leading to places I didn't care about, except for one door. There were a lot of people in the room sitting around the tables, obviously they were all gambling, and I fully sensed all of them, considering the mask I was wearing was covering my whole face.

Without actually turning my face as if I was looking at them, I said "Oh? I did not have any idea that there was such activities going on here. It is too bad that I'm not here for any one of you, so continue on with what you were doing." And I walked in the direction of the only door that could lead to Mariga.

It just happened to have what I assumed were guards on both sides of the door, both with hands on their swords.

"Do not mind me, I am just looking for someone. And they are through this door."

The two guards looked at each other, and then both pulled their cutlasses out of the sheaths, and put their respective blades on either side of my neck, hovering above my shoulders.

Before they even started to speak, I said "Well, it seems that both of you don't have any good will here. Since I don't want to cause much of a disturbance, I will have to take care of both of you quickly."

They both tilted their heads and were about to say something in unison before I moved my arms around their arms, grabbed either side of their heads, and smacked them together without holding back, causing a loud crack to sound throughout the room, and them to fall to the floor.

I heard someone behind me say "Did he just.. kill them? Like that?"

And I stopped listening only to punch the door they were guarding down, causing dust to fly everywhere, and I walked through the proceeding hallway.

For a couple minutes, I walked through a maze of hallways and rooms, up until I found the door leading to the room Mariga was in, which was also guarded.

This time, I didn't say a word, I just used Soru to appear in front of both of the guards, and then punched both through the door, causing it to break entirely, along with part of the wall.

I walked in and passed by the destruction, only to find a fairly ugly guy, sitting on a crate, and he looked like he was talking to some people who were in cages.

I didn't care about that, as I saw Mariga straight from the door. So, I walked towards the cage holding Mariga, right past the ugly guy, and heard a click behind my head.

"DIDNT YOU HEAR ME? STOP RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"

It was the ugly guy holding a flintlock pistol to the back of my head.

"Are you perhaps the one I saw dragging Mariga?"

He looked at me with a mix of confusion and absolute rage before yelling at me again "WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT!"

"Hm. Seems like I am not going to get a single answer out of you. I can only assume that you are the ring leader of this, so I have a deal for you."

"WHAT KIND OF DEAL?"

"I will take Mariga, along with all of these people that have been put in cages, and you shall die."

His face turned to utter confusion with what I was saying, as if I had gone mad while he was holding a pistol to my head.

But I pulled Surya from its sheath, and said an attack name.

"Ittoryu: Thunder Vacuum."

And using Soru on my arm, in a millisecond, Surya slashed across the man's neck so quickly that the air itself was moved out of the way, causing a sound like thunder to come from where I slashed.

I never turned my face towards the guy, nor did I even move after he put his gun to my head. I just pulled Surya from its sheath, and behead the guy, without even knowing his name.

I continued to walk towards the cage that was holding Mariga while holding Surya before standing directly in front of it.

She stared at me with some fear, and she was still crying a little while in a ball. And I sliced at the cage with Surya, which caused Mariga to flinch like she was the one about to be cut.

When I did that, I noticed the other people in cages gasped a little in horror, and most of them looked away in fear, but I simple cut door like it was butter, and it fell to the floor.

After holding Surya with my other hand, I reached for my mask and took it off while kneeling down, saying "Are you okay, Mariga?"

She uncurled her head, as if thinking 'Im not dead?' and looked at me.

I was holding Surya with one hand and my mask with the other, squatting as if waiting for an answer, and the only light was coming through the hole I created in the wall from the hallway, I felt like I looked like a true savior.

As Mariga started crying again, I was about to ask something, before she jumped at me, wrapping her arms around my neck, head crying on my shoulder, and said "Bugs! I was s-so scared!" And I wrapped my arm holding my mask around her in a hug, as if I was protecting her from anything and everything.

"I'm here, Mari. I'm here."

And after a couple minutes, I let go of her and put my mask back on.

"Mari, if you don't mind, I am going to let all of these people free, so will you be okay with waiting a couple minutes before we leave?"

Still a bit of a mess, Mariga just nodded her head while rubbing her eyes, and I heard "Mhmm."

With that, I simply cut all of the doors off of the cages, letting 23 people out, and said to all of them while they were rejoicing at the fact they weren't becoming slaves: "You are all free! I will keep you all safe for a little while, but after that, you choose what you want to do!" And turned to Mariga "Mari, let's go." As I sheathed Surya.

And so, I left with Mariga, and 23 other people down the maze of hallways and rooms, until I got to the gambling den, where people were surprisingly playing again, but when they saw me, they all stopped.

"Do not mind me, I have found who I came for." And I walked out of the building like it was nothing.

Once back at the hotel, I decided to get a couple of rooms for the people I had just freed, and I personally walked Mariga back to the room I had for her.

Once at the front, I said to her "Lock everything fully, I do not care if someone knocks, do not leave, I am going to watch over you while I am gone for a couple minutes, I have to update Taki, she was worried about you, so please, don't even go near the door unless you hear my voice."

Mariga held on to my leg for a minute, and I just hugged her with one hand. We stood there for a couple minutes, and then Mariga let go, and ran into the room, and then I heard the door completely lock before going to the Hideout.

When I arrived outside the hideout, I changed back into what I was wearing before, and it felt weird taking the mask and red suit off for some reason. 'I don't know why, but I'll have to find out later. I have an update to do.'

I used observation to see if Taki had even started her Sulong training, and it seemed she hadn't, from the lines that appeared in the ground from her pacing. 'I guess she was too worried about it to try any training. Guess she will do that under certain circumstances. Oh well.'

And I walked into the Hideout, saying "Taki, I told you it was okay to start your training, but you've postponed it because of Mariga anyways.

I saw Taki covered with nervous sweat all over her, making her fur shine a little, and she turned her head a little, staring at me and bitting a fingernail, saying "Is she alright?"

I could tell exactly how nervous she was while waiting for an answer, and I simply said "Don't worry, while something did happen, it's taken care of, and she's fine back at the hotel. I'm gonna be joining her after I finished updating you on what happened."

Taki looked relieved, and let out a breath before saying "So nothing crazy happened, right?"

'Should I tell her? I still don't know fully about what "I" personally did, so maybe I should leave that part out?'

"Well, it was a little crazy. I think she was kidnapped to become a slave, but I bust in the place, and found her quickly, taking out the guy who was running it, so, nothing exactly that crazy."

Taki had wide eyes looking at me.

"NOTHING CRAZY?" Taki became exceptionally angry. "SHE WAS KIDNAPPED? AND THEN BECAME A SLAVE FOR THE SECOND TIME IN HER LIFE? ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY INSANE?"

"Yes, I am a little insane, but I made sure she was more safe than before, in fact, using that ability I'll teach you soon, I'm watching the entire room she's in right now, and I will need to be going back soon, otherwise I actually think something may happen again."

'Besides, the Grand Line is crazier than even me.'

"Why are you here rather than there? I thought you would make sure she was safe personally!"

"Oh, well, I didn't want you to worry, so I just decided to come in person before you started to freak out when I didn't appear and tell you what happened."

Taki stared at me for a second, and then said "Okay then, um, thanks for making sure she was okay. Now go, since I know I can trust you with her safety, make sure she is." And she smiled.

"I will." I said smiling back, then turning around and leaving back to the hotel.

After I got back, I said "Mari, I'm back."

For a minute, I didn't hear a thing, until the locks on the door all unlocked, and I saw the door open to find Mariga with a blanket over her head, and covering her arms, while she stared at me. She then jumped at me again, and I just decided to walk into the room awkwardly.