Hanako Sakimoto's Story

" Don't worry, it'll just be a little prick."

" I"m sure you remember those ones still back in Impel's Down."

" Your heart stopped only twice this time. Progress, don't you think?"

" Good dogs beg for their treat."


Karin awoke from her memories, just like she always did. Always the painful and humiliating memories of the past. She groped around for her pocket watch and noted several hours had passed. She also noticed that she was in a bed; Grey must have carried her.

After exploring the small room, it occurred to Karin that while she had told the two that they should head for the Grand Line, she had never actually said where. Leaving her gauntlets and blade in the room, she headed outside into the open sky. It had been a while since she had been on such a small ship. Almost every voyage she was either on a large marine vessel or her submersible. Sometimes, it was good to be able to see the ocean up so close.

Karin found Grey at the helm and she leaned against the railing, looking at the ocean.

" Redb-- Grey, thank you. I am very surprised, and thankful you didn't let me die after trying to arrest you twice. I suppose I do owe you one. Also as for the island I had mentioned, it's somewhere on the Grand Line near Seabody. I don't actually remember which one, so we may need to hit a few islands within two and a half days."

Hanako hopped down from on top of the mast as Karin came out to talk to Grey, scratching the back of her head as she looked out around the open ocean surrounding them. "Of course it's around Sabaody... not like that place is dangerous at all, with all the pirate crews, bounty hunters, marines, slavers, occasional Admirals or Nobles, tons of fun there" she said with rather excessive sarcasm, of course she wasn't wrong. True, if one kept quiet and to themselves it was much safer, but for the most part if you weren't a very well known and feared pirate, a Noble, or a marine, it just plain was not a safe place, and that's still ignoring the fact that it's essentially right next door to the World Government and their center or power, or at least former center of power since Enies Lobby was destroyed thanks to a certain crew, and Marineford was now a regular base rather than Marine HQ, either way it was still less than safe.

Hanako glanced over at Karin, "You better hope they didn't give us bounties too high, otherwise laying low will be a huge pain in the ass" she said, she outstretched her arms towards either side of the ship, initially the ship slowed down, before shifting directions, "Little heads up, first, i suggest you hold onto something, second, i'm taking a shortcut through the Calm Belt, so uh... yeah just hold onto something" she warned, with a wide backwards sweep of her arms the ship shot forward at breakneck speed, if Hanako hadn't pulled up the sail before she hopped down the entire mast would likely have broken off from the wind resistance.

"Oh by the way, if something shows up, i wouldn't suggest trying to do anything, trust me, they are not the fun type"

Oberon was silent as the two women spoke, each saying what they had to say before the drunken river made sure the sails of the Black XII were firmly tucked away before the ship went fast due to her devil fruit powers. He also nodded at Karin in acknowledgement of her thanks. But he was visibly surprised at going to Sabaody for a brief few moments before his look returned to a quiet look of concentration as he looked around for any dangers on the horizon.

"Don't worry about laying low Drunken River. We'll just have to make sure you don't get drunk and cause any trouble." He said as he hung onto the Helm as the ship gained a lot of speed.

Karin grinned as Hanako moaned about the bounty she had set on their heads. " Ah yes, sorry about that. Don't worry through, it's as Grey says; as long as you don't get drunk, we should be fine. Worst case scenario I can likely end any arrest, although it'll be harder for me to stop bounty hunters. We'll need to stop at Marine HQ to remove the bounty now since I left my den-den mushi elsewhere. Anyways, it's not actually in Sabaody, but we''ll likely need to stop there for me to start hunting for the island I need to get to. "

She clung onto the side of railing and watched the landscape rush by her. It was quite an experience, especially since she mostly traveled underwater or on large, slow moving ships. As she was thinking, she suddenly realized she hadn't introduced herself yet.

" Oh right, forgive me. My name is Karin Seiryuu, officer of the Marines and dog of the Gorosei."

The ship suddenly slowed to a near stop as Hanako glared at the other two for several moments, clearly not terribly happy about their low estimation of her abilities. "Now you two are just being rude... you do realize that i've single handedly caught dozens of entire crews right? and that i could, say, blast you both overboard? I like sake so what? i'm no idiot, i've been to that archipelago more than once, lots of big fish pirates show up there, but you make one mistake and someone is liable to attack you" she said while giving them both a serious glare, before she swept her arms back again to resume their speedy progress.

"By the way..." she says, reaching into her jacket and pulling out an eternal log pose which she tossed to Oberon, "you can help keep us going the right way mr. navigator, that thing points to Fishman Island, so make sure we're going west of that needle and we'll find Sabaody quick enough. Since a compass won't work you're gonna have to keep an eye on the sun, i gotta focus on the water" she says, increasing their speed again slightly.

Hanako focused her attention of the feeling of the water around them, and noted when the clouds seemed to vanish and the water became smoother, "We're in the Calm Belt now... keep an eye out..." she says warily, clearly not all that happy about doing this despite it being her idea. Though to be fair it was the only realistic way they were getting into the grand line and to Sabaody within a week. For the moment she didn't feel anything at all, not through her haki or the water, but she had been through the Calm Belt twice before, and she knew such a thing case didn't stay that way for long...

Oberon felt the ship stop as he knew he struck a nerve and smirked. "I know your reputation, and your natures. I know how to take care of myself. I have since I left the last crew I was tangled in." He said silently as he caught the log pose and looked. "West, understood."

He then kept the direction as he also noted they were entering the calm belt. Almost anything could happen here, a smooth ride or a run in with a Sea King. He had never gotten close to Amazon Lily either due to those facts, but he shook that thought off his mind. He still had his own travel plans after the stop at the Archipalego. He then learned the name of the Woman next to him. Karin seemed to want to be friendly.

His mouth tightened in small hesitation. "Oberon. My first name is Oberon." He stated quickly and kept his eyes on the water in front of him and the log pose as well.

Karin stared into the horizon and ignored the bickering of Oberon and Hanako ; it didn't really concern her anyways.
After a brief period, she realized where they were.

" I've cleared this area out twice already, but pirates always seem to keep coming back. It's been getting worse ever since the Whitebeard War. I'd be on the watch for them, but most of them don't have bounties too high. Anyways, have any of you actually been to Saobody before?"

"I ended up there a few months ago, chasing this guy worth a good few million beli, had to make a hasty getaway though" Hanako said as she glanced at her companions, "and no, i wasn't drunk, some wannabe pirate idiot got into a fight with someone and the fight spilled into the street in front of some Noble chick, i wasn't taking risks around those... people.... and high tailed it." she explained, "and its not a surprise, you both probably saw the boom after roger finally went down, you think something even more public and extreme from the next strongest guy in the world, not to mention those Straw Hats, Law, and even that fishman Jinbei, i'll bet every beli i've got there's twice as many pirates now as there was before Marineford." she says simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Suddenly her face took a worried expression, she glanced around, closing her eyes for a moment to "feel" through the water, "tch... figures... and here i thought we'd have clear sailing.... uh... so to speak... we've got some big... somethings coming towards us pretty quick and i doubt they wanna say hi, and i can't keep us moving and defend as at the same time and doing one or the other isn't a wise choice, so... really hope you guys have some ideas." she says with a somewhat anxious tone as she does her best to speed the ship up, at the rate they were going it would still be almost an hour until they got out of the Calm Belt and down into the Grand Line.

Oberon didn't keep his eye off the sea as he replied, "Once or Twice, not someplace I visit often. I go where I find less trouble and hope for the best." He stated before listening to Hanako.

Oberon sighed as he looked at Karin, "Well, we'd better find a way to fend off an attack from whatever might be coming at us." Oberon stated as he let go of the helm and started walking to the main deck of his ship and drew his sword and gun and prepared for anything and anyone that would come out of the water.

"Black XII, prepare for Battle." He stated calmly as he stood silently watching the water.

Karin whistled at the giant shape that was starting to rush towards them. More likely than not a Sea King, or possibly a ship surfacing from the deep. Given the speed of the object approaching them, she was certain that it was a Sea King. Karin quickly ran back to the room she was previously in and grabbed her weapons. She pulled on the gauntlets and ran back onto the deck with her runic blade.

" Invoke : Flames of Purgatory! "

The blade responded by flashing, then igniting into blue flames. If it was a Sea King, Karin was certain she could use the blade to an acceptable standard. Failing that, she could always just beat it into submission or death. The very large sea king emerged next to Black XII and roared. Grinning, Karin leaped into the air and prepared to swing her blade; perhaps this would be an interesting fight.

Hanako saw karin leap toward the first sea king to appear, and was immediately making to spin the ship around to catch her, "dammit you can't go jumping out like that while we're going this damn fast! you're gonna go an- oh shit!" she exclaimed, a huge shadow appearing beneath them, a sea king sea snake, and a darn big one, dwarfing the creature karin had launched herself at, and from the feeling she felt from the currents beneath them more were close.

"D-dammit! we must've sailed right over a nest! we're in some deep trouble... hey mr. not-red-beard! i'm gonna try something, it's gonna take me a minute to focus enough and you're gonna have to do what you did before when you launched the ship off the dock. if you miss the timing we're probably gonna die so try not to screw up." she called over to Oberon, with a sudden sweep of her arms she brought the ship to a grinding halt, and with a broad graceful swirling of her arms the sea around the ship began to spiral, slowly at first but notably gaining speed...

Oberon looked at Hanako and nodded as he kicked his cannon into place and prepared for whatever signal he had waiting for him. He did notice the pack of sea kings heading their way and only gave a small smirk. She knew what she wanted him to do. He will be ready for when she needed him to fire the cannon.

He kept an eye on Karin though in case she ended up needing help from either him or Hanako. "Karin, be careful! We need you to be ready we might do something that might be insane yet totally awesome!" He shouted towards her.

Karin was disappointed that she wasn't doing sufficeint damage to the sea king. It would seem that without adequate rest, she couldn'n't operate at close to enough strength to fight even a sea king. However it seemed that the pirate and the bounty hunter had some sort of plan brewing up. Sighing, she disengaged from the sea king and leapt back onto the ship. Karin would need to place her faith in those two now.

Without Karin distracting them the sea kings were now closing in, and less than happy about the intrusion into their territory, but that wasn't a problem now, Hanako had gotten enough time to focus what she needed, and it was quite clear just what it was, at least on the surface, as a massive whirlpool raged around the ship, so violently that only the largest of the sea kings were managing to keep from being sucked under, "Alright get ready no-beard! this is gonna be big!" she yelled above the roar of the spiraling currents around them, she abrubtly stopped the twirling of her arms, and with a dramatic flourish, swung both arms up and slammed both fists down into the deck, "Water Art: Whirlpool Hammer!" she cried, the waves seemed to slow, the sudden slowing made it seem for just a moment as if everything was slowing down, and an instant later, the entire area Hanako's whirlpool encompassed suddenly rushed downward, as thousands of gallons of water beneath the ship was near instantly compressed all at once, the water turned red from many of the sea kings being crushed to a pulp, and just as it seemed the surrounding waves would crash down over the ship, the compressed water released violently, the trio, ship and all, was launched like a missile high into the air, well out of reach of the creatures below, "NOW!" Hanako called to Oberon, doing her best to brace herself against the deck, but the sweat dripping down her face and her heavy breathing made it clear just how exhausting it had been to use that technique.

The Moment Karin got back on the ship Oberon looked at her with a stressed focus as he focused his sailing for the wind to blow on his sails. "Hold on to something!!" He shouted as he prepared his cannon to fire when Hanako signaled it. He then saw her cause a massive whirlpool and then cause it to cause a cascade of water to hurl them into the hair. He knew what she was planning then.

He the. At the moment she shouted said in a clear loud voice "Fire now!" The cannon launched a cannonball, the resulting force doing a smiliar launch as it did the port causing it to sail in the air. It then did several hops, skips and jumps across the water before settling back down on the water. Oberon fell backwards, almost in total exhaustion.

"I nearly had a heart attack there. Everyone okay?" He asked, breathing almost close to out of breath. "I'm out of breath."

Karin was very surprised by the plan that Hanako had; in fact she was so surprised, she didn't even have time to start swearing at Hanako when the ship launched through the air and then plummeted back onto the ocean. Oberon had said something, but Karin was too busy leaning over the side of the ship and emptying her stomach. Groaning, she looked up and saw their destination in the distance. Thank goodness for small mercies; soon she could be of of this death trap. A curious navy ship started approaching them and she sighed. There would be quite a bit of explaining to do to get them past this one.

Hanako awoke slowly, rubbing her head, still nursing a rather serious headache, backlash from overusing her powers days before to propel their small ship past the calm belt, but once safely out of the danger of sea kings she let herself rest. "man... been a long time since i went that hard... my own fault i guess for deciding to cut through the damn calm belt..." she mutters to herself, pulling herself out of the bed and slowly dragging her feet as she made her way out onto the deck.

She flipped on her sunglasses as she steps into the sunlight, glancing around at the empty open ocean, she's not exactly an expert navigator, but by her estimation of the feel of the currents around them, if her memory is up to par, it shouldn't be more than a day left to reach their destination, the Sabaody Archipelago. Hanako let's out a heavy sigh, she's been there a few times, lots of growing bounties end up there, but she knows full well the potential dangers of an island frequented by countless pirates, bounty hunters, Marines, and worst of all, World Nobles. "wonder if i should bother with a disguise... suppose if i have to i can melt into a puddle to hide but it's such a pain..." she mumbles lazily.

She turns to her partner, and she uses the term loosely, given she had no choice in joining the marine woman, as after her drunken rampage she'd gone and gotten herself caught and would've faced Impel Down otherwise. "Yo miss big hand!" she calls, referencing Karin's gauntlet, "i suggest you get anything you can't carry on you and stick it in my chest over there" she says, pointing behind her to her chest she's stuck in the back of the ship, "Can't leave anything out at this place and we'll be there soon, well sorta soon but you get it." she says, after all with only the two of them they won't have anyone to watch after the boat, let alone whatever is on it.

Karin threw an ugly glare at Hanako. This bounty hunter was the reason she was forced to run around on her meager vacation time, and now she was using stupid names like "big hand". " Either call me Officer Seiryuu or Karin. Don't go around making up nicknames for me." She glanced at her gauntlet and thought to herself, "Is it really that big?"

" You know, I'm not sure that chest will protect our valuables from some very determined to take them, so I'll just keep my belongings with me. We might want to sell our late-friend Redbeards possessions through. A damn shame he fell overboard. I guess you could collect his bounty if I vouch for you."

After making sure her possessions were stored neatly in her bag, she slung the bag and her sword over her shoulder. " Oh, you know the general rules of the place right? Don't get into fights, don't travel by yourself if you dont want to get into said fights, and most of all, don't get in the way of any World Nobles. I can protect you from the Marines, but not a filt--an esteemed World Noble. Anyways, we'll be going to some doctor friends of mine first. Any questions? Oh , and try not to get drunk here."

Hanako rolled her eyes at the suggestion her precious chest wasn't safe enough. "Hey I'll have you know i spent several million beli on that chest thank you, that thing is basically indestructible, the outer and inner layers are solid steel and there's a coating of seastone between em! A marine admiral couldn't crack that baby" she explains, holding her head up proudly, "Heck only a logia user like me can open it too" she says, "unless... well unless there's some devil fruit that let's you turn really really tiny..." she mutters before shaking her head at the thought, focusing back on the issue at hand.

"anyway don't worry about it, it'll be fine, believe it or not i do know what i'm doing" she says with a more serious tone, after all she's been a bounty hunter since she ate the Mizu Mizu Fruit when she was a teenager. Feeling a bit thirsty, she headed down briefly into the cabin again and coming back out with a freshly opened bottle of sake, sipping it lightly, "hm... i think i like the other brand better..." she mutters softly. "But suit yourself i guess, you might wanna ditch your stuff with the marine logo on em though, people are usually careful here but there's a LOT more pirates than marines there and fights happen a ton." she warns.

"And don't act all high and mighty over my drinking, do you have any idea how much booze it takes to get me drunk?" she questions with a raised eyebrow, holding out her arm and shifting it into liquid for a moment before letting it go back to normal. "I'm literally made of water, it takes like a barrel's worth to get me drunk, three bottles for me is like a few sips to you." Hanako explains

Karin frowned at both Hanako's insistence that the chest would be save from any thieves, and her continued insistence at drinking. They seemed to be some fairly flaws logic at work. " I'm more concerned with someone just running off with the chest, not that it'd be broken open. We'll be far away from this ship for a while, and we won't be able to make sure no one comes here unless we assign a guard, and that would make it far too conspicuous. Also, even if you don't get drunk, all that alcohol is going to your brain and will probably ruin your liver. But do as you will."

Hanako's advice on ditching the marine gear did make sense however. At the same time, having markings of a marine would allow Karin to pass around most parts with little trouble; most pirates would back off, and most marines would only salute her or ignore her. Then again, she wasn't going to most parts of the archipelago. She returned to the cabins of the ship and rummaged around until she could find something to replace her marine uniform. Karin found little more than a black top and a skirt, but it was better than nothing. After changing and checking that most of her back wasn't visible, she walked back above deck and threw her fists into her satchel as well. " This better? We'll need to depend on our own skill if we don't want to die now. Marine's will be checking us too now."