Snippet #2635984

Navigating the streets of Lougetown brought Ayano some comfort; it was a more familiar task getting around the city that let her forget about what was going on with her life. The fact that there was someone attempting to evade her only made it all the better for forgetting about everything. Money making opportunities were extremely limited due to the near dissolution of the Stray Dogs and the death of the captain. Dmitri was spending his days drinking away his sorrows and she never bothered to figure out where the fish Lennox ended up after they arrived in Lougetown. Although she didn't understand any concept of economics, she could understand that the more money you had the better it was. In order to make some more, Ayano decided to go back into the alleyways and slink around the underbelly of the city. There were always some unsavory tasks to be done in any city, and it was always good to be back in the saddle.

Today's client was a little shocked that the girl he hired was young, much to Ayano's annoyance; these people would gladly see someone ruined or dead, but a kid doing it made suddenly appalling. Eventually she was given the task to burn down a warehouse and bring only the owner back alive. It was a fairly simple job--most of the workers and hired thugs there were unaware that a seemingly lost teenager would suddenly pull out swords and burn everything to the ground. Most of the hired workers fled as soon as the fighting started, but the thugs to their credit held their ground long enough for the owner to run out. It took awhile to finish up the mess of thugs trying to both kill her and put out the fire, but it wasn't long enough for the owner to escape the hunt. He ran as fast his legs could carry him, away from the warehouse and away from the demon that was burning down his operation. She had finally caught up to the owner after a length chase through the alleyways when it the skies begin to pour down. The torrential rain was very new to her as such an occurrence was extremely rare in the cells of Impel Down and the Archipelagos. Ayano struggled to find her mark through all the rain that began to limit both mobility and visibility. Luckily for her the target decided to take shelter, confident that the demon would have been forced to give up its chase. The moment he saw her was the last moment he would ever see.

" Now you see me, and now you don't." Ayano giggled as she slashed one of her blades through his eyes and stabbed the other into a leg. The client had said that the target had to be brought in alive, but he never specified that there couldn't be any bodily harm. As fun as the chase had been, the rain was starting to make her cold and damp and it wasn't a remarkable enough hunt for her to consider it worth it. The rush of adrenaline was already wearing off, even with the stimulants she had consumed earlier. The target had started moaning and she snapped at him " Oh come off it. Walk it off. Oh..wait." She pulled her blade out of the mans leg and was rewarded with another cry of pain. Her client eventually found her and looked rather green at the scene before him. " I said alive..."

" Well he isn't dead now is he?" Ayano questioned with an annoyed glare. The client threw a wad of cash to her and muttered something about the increasing number of psychopaths cropping up near the Grand Line. She wordlessly walked back torwards the Drowning Wench where Dmitri was likely drowning himself in booze. Ayano didn't know what a wench was, but she felt as if it would describe her new 'captain' very well. On her lonely tread back, she could still hear the Papa gently chastising her for being overly...excessive in her actions. She gritted her teeth and tried to shut out those memories and eventually yelled out to the rain
" And you're dead so stop it. You died and that's all there is to it." Something salty dripped down her cheek which was strange; she didn't know rain was supposed to be salty.

Eventually she reached the inn and as soon as she ,a man was missing a nose, Demetri seemed like he was trying to pet a dog woman, and some munchkin was pointing a gun at Demetri. By the time she could react to the sudden turn of events, the gun had already gone off and she nearly chucked a knife at the munchkin if only for the terrible joke. Sighing, she walked up to Demetri and shoved the wad of money in his face, or as high as her arm could reach anyways.

" Here's my paycheck for today oh great captain. Want to drink more of it away?"