Lia's POV;

Yosaku and Jonny were walking at the front, with Nojiko and me following a few meter behind. All three of them became tenser since we split up. Nojiko was gripping her rifle harder, Jonny was glancing every so often back at me and Yosaku kept staring ahead.

“There is nothing to fear. The people I can feel are all weaker than both Jonny and Yosaku. And most are even weaker than Nojiko”, I assured them. It might calm them down a bit. I'm not good with this.

Why can't we, Lara and I, not stay a two person crew? That would be so much easier. Okay, I understand that we then have to learn everything that a crew needs, but I wouldn't be forced to speak with people. Curse you Lara, you and your magical tongue and cute pout!

“Sis Lia? Do you have any tips for us?”, asked Jonny suddenly. I looked at him and thought for a moment.

“Lara is more usually the one who fights up close, so I don't know for sure. Just try to stay aware of everything around you. It helps to know where who is and what they are doing. And if you aren't able to then try to take some distance and refocus.

Knowing how to do this will come with time, I'm here to help you if something happens. But I won't win all your fights”, I advised and nodded at my words. I also gave him one of my best smiles, Lara always tells me that smiling while showing all your teeth is good.

“Y..yes, thank you”. His face is suddenly pale, did it not work?

“Bloodthirsty smile...,” muttered an also slightly pale Nojiko from my side. So it was my smile? But Lara said they are beautiful. They must not understand what beauty is.

“There is a door”, informed Yosaku suddenly and we stopped for a moment. And indeed, maybe a dozen meter in front of us was a large double door. It was made out of metal and was closed.

“And now? It does not look like we can open it silently and Lara isn't here to damper the sound”, questioned Nojiko. She was already pointing her rifle at the door. It's good that she does things like this already.

I closed my eyes and focused on my Observation Haki, now that we are closer I might be able to sense more about these presences. A minute or so of complete silence I was finally able to feel some emotions and not only their presence.

Most of them were afraid and weak. They were together in one large group. Only five people were outside of this group. These five were bored. A group that is fearing something makes no sense here, except if this group is not here at their own will. Prisoners?

“I think my first assumption of there being close to forty enemies was wrong”. I opened my eyes and continued when they looked at me not understanding what I meant. “There are only five more, the rest are most likely prisoners”.

“Oh, that makes it easier. We can handle five”, boasted Jonny. He was now grinning with a victorious smile. He was quickly whacked over the head by Yosaku.

“Don't be arrogant. Sis Lara told us just an hour ago that even weak guys can kill you.”

Yosaku's admonition calmed Jonny down, “right, sorry. So what's the plan?”

They all looked at me, but I am not the planner. I would simply push the door inwards and then give each of the five a new breathing hole between their eyes.

I first wanted to just shrug but then came up with an idea. “Why don't you three come up with something.” Great, this way I can claim that I thought them something.

“Eh, good. Then what are we gonna do?”, repeated Yosaku.

“How about we open the door and rush them? Sis Lia can tell us where they stand. Nojiko can shoot one of them and we might be able to surprise the other four enough to take two more out before it really comes to a fight”, suggested Jonny.

“But what if they are prepared?”, questioned Nojiko.

“Then it doesn't matter how we attack, they will be ready for us”, answered Yosaku with a proud nod. “Idiots”, muttered Nojiko, but she did not tell them to come up with something different.

“They are sitting around something. It could be that they too are playing cards. They are approximately two meters inside the room and somewhere at 10 a clock”, I informed them and also pulled five pebbles out of my pouch.

“Thanks, so who is going to open the door?” Yosaku was asking this while looking at Jonny. Seems like they did not include my Devil Fruit in their plan.

“I can do that, just get into position”, I offered and the three got ready. Nojiko was standing a meter behind Jonny who was on the left. Yosaku took the right side and I stood in the middle.

I flicked a pebble at the door and increased the impact over the whole door. With a loud bang, the door got ripped out of its hinges and flew inside the room. It crashed into the wall on the other side and stayed there. Yosaku and Jonny were sprinting inside and Nojiko took aim at something before she fired once.

The pained cry and wet sound of someone getting hit came from inside. I used a Soru to get at the opposite of the room, next to the door and saw how each Yosaku and Jonny were able to take one more out. Their machete was quite good for beheading people.

The remaining two men were now standing. One of them had a dagger in his hands, while the other used a bottle as his weapon. I spotted their normal weapons on a table near the entrance. The guy with the dagger tried to stab Yosaku but got shot by Nojiko in the shoulder. He was then cut down by Yosaku's machete.

Jonny's enemy was faring better. He evaded the wide swings of Jonny, yet was not able to land a blow. Again, it was Nojiko who helped out. She shot again and this time the bullet hit the chest of the man. He gurgled something and then fell forward.

The guy was still alive and would quickly drown from his blood filled lung. However, Yosaku has taken notes from Lara and killed the guy quickly.

Nojiko was now coming inside as well. Her face a little pale and her hands shaking. This was her first kill other than Arlong. And he didn't count, hate made it easy for her.

“I will go back and call Josef, these guys need medical attention”, informed Jonny me. He then runs out of the room. Oh right, there still were prisoners. They were not important, so I ignored them until now.

I turned around and looked at the two dozen villagers that were being freed by Yosaku. One after the other was coming out of a large prison cell. It spanned over half of the room and looked to have been used for a few days now. At least there was no human waste. They had a toilet, even if the said toilet wasn't separated from the group.

“Urgh”, groaned suddenly Nojiko's second victim. It was the guy that got shot at the start. He got a bullet in his left shoulder. Not deadly, but I don't want any survivors. I looked at Nojiko, who was starring at the lying man. She just kept looking at him.

“I know that we should kill him, but I don't think I can do it. He is no longer a threat to me”, she said silently.

I shrugged. “He is not a threat now, but his knowledge of you is. If he survives he will tell his superiors what happened and how you look like.

Sure, you will get a bounty at some time anyway, but this will make it quicker. But what also might be important is that he was part in what happened in the village. He is one of the men that made children into crazed murderers.” I personally did not care about the last thing, but Nojiko might.

“I know, but we can hand him over to the authorities”, she countered.

“Who would kill him”, came suddenly from the door. There stood Josef with Jonny.

“What do you mean? Shouldn't the Marines bring him to a prison?”, asked Nojiko.

“No, this was a mission approved by the Marines. A black ops organisation named Unit 731 is responsible for what happened here. They will act as if they would take him away, but then they would interrogate him about what happened and then kill him once they know enough”, explained Josef. He walked over to the man and inspected him briefly.

“Not that it will help him anyway, you hit a large artery. He will bleed to death in half an hour”. With that said he stood back up and walked over to a man from the village who had a broken arm.

“So what will you do now?”, I asked again.

“Can you kill him? I don't want to kill someone who is not able to fight back, it reminds me of Arlong”, she asked.

I did not understand what she meant but killed the guy anyway. If she does nothing while I kill him, then isn't she killing him by doing nothing? Just because she is not doing it personally does not mean that she is not the reason for his death.

Well, who am I to care. More importantly, if Josef's is here it means that Lara also won her fight and is not wounded. Otherwise, Josef would treat her first. I can also feel her, she is not happy, but also not in pain.

“Take care of the villagers, I have to speak with Lara”, I informed the others and walked into the hallway. Halfway back I found Lara. She had no blood on her and there was no visible wound.

“And?”, I asked while giving her a hug.

“Some guy that could transform into a bear. He was physically strong but pretty slow. I pulverised his organs with an internal attack”. I hummed in acceptance of her explanation and stepped back. A man was passing us, but he looked like one of the villagers, so I said nothing.

“And?” I asked again, there is still something that annoys her.

“He managed to hit me twice, once because I wanted to see how much damage he can make and then because I got careless. It's strange not being so strong that you can play around all you want”, she explained with a deep sigh. Yes, being weaker than someone is hard to stomach.

“Do you want me to fetch a copy of the research data?”, I then asked to change the topic. Whatever they have done here should not be wasted just because someone has unimportant ethical opinions.

“Do that, it might come in handy. This doctor said he was almost finished with his drug. Even his unfinished version can be useful. Find out if there is an antidote and then delete anything afterwards.” Lara gave me a large smile and then followed the man back to the rest of the group.

A Soru was all I needed to reach the other room. The headless corpse of a bear-man was lying in the middle of the room and another dead man was next to a table.

I spotted a computer in the corner of the room and walked over. The data was neatly ordered and I soon had downloaded everything on a neat little USB device. There was one lying on the table. Must have been the doctor's so that he could continue his work in his quarters.

I then searched for an antidote or the time this drug needs to get cleaned from the system. Thanks to the ordered documents I found it with little problem and learned that there indeed were a dozen syringes with an antidote.

It will not help us with the village, but having them will come in handy. It was also said that the drug normally takes four hours to get out of the system. But why are the villagers then still aggressive?

A quick search for the side effects told me that the subject has reduced mental faculties, is more aggressive, hyper sensitive to sound, feel almost no pain, and gets unnatural thirsty.

So the drugged well is supplying the villages with a new dose every time they get there to drink something. And they drink because the drug is forcing them. Neat way to keep them high.

After that, I deleted everything and even destroyed the computer. I also burned the papers and emptied the chemicals. All of them separately, I don't know what fumes might come if I combine strange things. The antidoted were put in my inventory.

Ten minutes later and I was on my way back to Lara. She, as well as the others, were still inside the room with the cell. Josef was now helping a woman with a large bruise on her stomach and a man was talking with Lara in the corner, so I walked over.

“We can't thank you enough for helping us. Are you sure that they were Marines? I mean they could also be a rogue group”, questioned the man. He did not look very convinced about the whole 'it was the Marines fault' thing.

“Jo says so. But it would be best if you tell everyone that it really was a rogue group. It will work with what the Marines that will come to investigate tell you. Anyway, you can't get back to the village yet, the people there are still drugged”, shrugged Lara. She then spotted me. “Have you found something Lia?”

“Yes, the drug takes four hours to get out of the system and forces the subject to drink.” I don't have to say anything else. Lara will know what I mean, but the man was not.

“And the well is drugged, so the villagers are fixing themselves without knowing it,” she elaborated for the man.

A look of understanding passed his face before he looked worried again. “But what are we going to do then? We can't simply destroy our only well. We need it for fresh water.”

“Did the data tell you how long the drug will stay effective inside the well? They must have tested it out before they started”, asked Lara after a moment.

Hmm, I haven't searched for it explicitly but I think there was something. “I think they have to put Haze inside the well after every second day.”

Josef, who must've heard what I had said, came over to us, “That would mean that we only need to wait for another day. They didn't do it yesterday.”

“Thank god, I do not want to think what would happen if it takes longer”, breathed the man out in relieve.

Waiting a whole day? That's boring, can't we just go to our ship and leave? I looked at Lara with a pleading gaze. She thought for a moment and then nodded.

“It would be best for my crew to leave before that, we have to get to Loguetown soon. We have some unfinished business there and we want to hit the Grand Line as fast as possible”. Yes, that's a good excuse.

“But what if the people need help?”, asked Josef, dammit. Why is someone with such a name so keen on helping people?

“Fine, we can spare another day, but no longer”, relented Lara with an apologetic glance to me. She will have to make it up to me. I think she has to train fine tuning her vibration skills again. This is best done by using the tongue on something sensitive....

“Then Lara and I will go find a room to sleep, I'm tired from the day. See you tomorrow”, I said quickly and grabbed Lara before leaving the room. I think Treteto's room was the third to the left.