Contact Clashing

The streets of Ayan were bustling with trading and activity as yelling filled every last corner of the port town. Fluer Frida crossed her arms across her chest as she entered a bar filled to the brim with drunken men and promiscuous women. Frida leaned against the outer wall of the establishment as she lifted her wrist and revealed her watch; she was exactly on time, but her contact was not. Remaining there for more than ten minutes, Frida grew increasingly annoyed with the absence of her contact, as he should know that her time is extremely precious and failure to obtain goods for her crew was not an option. She utilized her Devil Fruit abilities to sprout a rabbit nose in place of her own, as she walked around sniffing the air for any scent of her contact.

In an Alley nearby

Tabart drove his shoulder into his gut, forcing him onto his knees.

“Have you had enough yet?” Tabart exclaimed, breathing heavily as he awaited his foe’s answer. The man attempted to answer, yet there was a distinct gurgle that substituted the words. “Shit,” Tabart huffed annoyingly, “You got a crushed throat.” There was a distinct pause between his phrases, a space that he had hoped the man would fill with words, yet when he didn’t, his fears were confirmed. “That’s just my luck.”

Tabart approached the gurgling individual, pulling him to his feet. His face was very much distinct from the suave, brunette, lithe man with the cocky smirk that was his bounty. The blood that dripped from his forehead covered up his features, and the broken nose didn’t help much either. Tabart flinched at the sight; he never intended for this to happen, but there wasn’t much choice when someone spontaneously attacks.

“Well, crap man, you better use silent language or something,” Tabart desperately threatened. “Well, come the fuck on!”

Frida rounded corners and trailed down various crowded streets and alleyways as the scent of her contact grew stronger. It'd been twenty minutes since they were supposed to meet, and Frida was certain that something must've happened to him; this only made her job harder, as she now ran the risk of an enemy knowing the locations and shipping routes of her crew's goods. She sighed as two rabbit ears popped out of the top of her head as the noises around her were heavily magnified; in the distance, Frida heard scuffles in the same direction she faintly smelled her contact. She decided she had no time to waste, and transformed rabbit legs before hopping at a shocking speed towards what she hoped to be her contact.

Tabart sighed as the man chuckled arrogantly in response to his demand. “Take me seriously! I done beat you half dead! Answer my question! Where are the slaves?!” In an act of fury, Tabart slammed his foot into the man’s stomach, forcing blood from his abdomen onto the ground. The man collapsed onto his knees simultaneously. Yet, just as suddenly, a figure landed upon the earth behind them, the very strength of their legs creating a crater a few feet wide. Debris and dust blew into the air, providing the perfect cover for the man to attempt an escape, and so he did while Tabart was blinded.

“Don’t,” Tabart started, interrupted by his own cough, “Fucking move!”

By the time the smoke and debris had cleared, Frida had transformed back into her normal self. She squinted her eyes and tilted her head slightly upwards in a menacing manner showing her clearly displeased expression to Tabart. "You've caused an awful lot of trouble... but I suppose you don't even know that sheer scale of events that you've set off by attacking my contact. I'll have so many reports to file after this..." Frida's expression turned less menacing and she placed her hand on her hip before speaking, "He didn't tell you anything, did he? After all, moles are of no use to me."

Tabart's attention shot towards Frida as the contact scampered off, his lips curving into a confident smirk. "Couldn't. Broken throat," Tabart informed. "Though, yours seem to be in perfect condition, so maybe you'll care to tell me exactly what I wish to know." He slid his hands casually into his pockets. "Unless you wish to end up like that guy. Unfortunately though, I happen to be out of time, which means you'll get the question only once. Where are the slaves of the Sakura Kingdom being held? I'm very much aware that they haven't been sold yet, though that doesn't mean they won't be. Hurry, leave no details untold."

"Ufufufu, you're awfully funny. I suppose if you really knew who I was you wouldn't be so foolish as to try and test me... even if you were able to lay a finger on me, I could ruin you with the drop of a pin. But since I've got—" Frida pauses and looks down at her watch. "About ten minutes left, I suppose you can humor me. Maybe you'll even learn a lesson or two about picking fights with strangers whose abilities you may not know of... like a user of a Devil Fruit, perhaps?" Frida's legs once again morphed into those of a rabbit's raising her height almost five whole inches. "With the power of the Usa Usa no Mi, this will be over in no time." Frida ended with a smirk slowly painting itself onto her face.

"I don't have time for this," Tabart announced as he pulled a seed from his pocket and casually tossed up in the air before him. A surge of what seemed to be energy encapsulated the projectile, and when the smoke that poofed into existence around it cleared, what revealed itself to Frida was nothing other than a carrot. Tabart caught it and tossed it over to her. "If I give you a carrot, do you think that then you'll be able to help me out?" He inquired seriously. "I really need to know where these slaves are, and your pride in whoever the fuck you are isn't helping. Honestly, I could care less about what crew you're in, whether you're a marine, a wife, a mother, or whatever else. All I care about is this information, so hurry, and like I mentioned earlier, leave no details untold."

On the inside, Frida was extremely furious at Tabart's disregard for her and grew only angrier when he offered her the carrot. She was disrespected and didn't plan on allowing the man to slip away without punishment. "I don't recall a moment where I ever thought of telling you anything... I do recall however, the strong urge to beat you into the ground." Frida spat with a look of wrath spread across her face. She pressed her rabbit foot on the ground before launching herself into the air and creating a small crater in the stone where she had been propelled, before she transformed her hands into paws with razor-sharp claws, intending to swipe at that man who tried her patience.

Tabart immediately thrust upwards onto the roof of a building that stood tall over the dark alley, gaining some distance between Frida and himself, but most importantly from the carrot that he had tossed earlier. Upon landing, he slammed his hands together, commanding the very vegetable that he had created to transform, and, like all plants of the world, it followed his command. The carrot exploded lesser green seeds, which upon making contact the ground, or any other inanimate object, combusted into a maelstrom of flames that consumed the alley below in an ocean of heat. "That would've been a lot easier if she just ate the damn thing," Tabart sighed under his breath, stepping back from the edge of the building, almost as if he expected her to leap towards him through his attack.

Alas, nothing and no-one leaped from the inferno, and Tabart looked up with a sense of pride. Much to his shock, when he looked up he was met with the cold eyes of Frida, who stood with a blank look on her face on the roof ledge of the opposite building. Suddenly, Frida's mouth slowly turned into a sly smirk before she broke into a faint giggle. "Ufufufu~ you're cute. Your magical beans won't suffice in defeating me, however. I don't have time for idle chat however, so how about we continue?" With that, Frida drop-kicked the concrete roof, which sent a large piece of cement flying upwards into the air. Frida then rounded her body and kicked the concrete boulder toward Tabart as if were nothing but a soccer ball.

"Dammit, that didn't work either," Tabart panicked as the concrete board swung towards him. He jumped backwards, simultaneously pulling a seed from his pocket, and within seconds he had pitched the seed towards the slab of rock. Moments before making contact, the seed materialized into what seemed to be a trampoline. The construct bent inwards as the boulder flung into it, stretching the fibers that supplied its strength to its breaking point, but suddenly it snapped forward, sending her own attack surging through the air towards her with a power that she provided.

Frida jumped high into the air as the boulder headed towards her as she waited for the moment where it was directly underneath her; when this moment came she planted her foot on the side of the boulder as she descended, before pushing off and sending both her and the boulder flying in opposite directions. The boulder soared across multiple rooftops before colliding with a house, which then erupted in flames as screams were heard in the distance and Frida landed gently on the rooftop that Tabart was on. She briefly looked back and whistled lightly before turning back to Tabart and transforming both of her hands into paws with razor-sharp claws and swiping at him.

"Shit," Tabart muttered, glancing towards the explosion that encapsulated the neighborhood. His glare steadied towards Frida as she charged him almost immediately after. He ducked under the first swipe, leapt backwards from the second, and barely dodged the third as the very end of the claw made contact against his naked flesh, leaving a slice that dripped blood upon the roof. Tabart flinched, leaving him open briefly, to which Frida capitalized on.

She slammed her foot into his gut, forcing up saliva as he quaked in pain, while simultaneously sending him soaring into a nearby building. "Man that hurt," Tabart groaned as he pulled himself from someone's wall. His eyes met the family's own, a small child, and a mother who stood on the other side of the room, trembling in a fear that he too would claim if some random guy just suddenly was slammed into his own home. "Sorry about this," Tabart apologized, leaping from their house back onto the roof that Frida occupied.

"Listen, let's take this somewhere else," Tabart spoke gravely, "We're destroying innocent people's homes. It's not right."

"Hmph, fair enough. Please, allow me to escort you to a better suited place." Frida smirked before speeding towards Tabart and at the last second spinning around before using her rabbit leg to deliver a powerful kick that connected directly on Tabart's chest, which sent him catapulting off of the roof and into the air. Lucky for him however, the rooftop they were on were on the outskirts, and the location where Tabart landed just so happened to be one of the large trees that dotted the perimeter of the town, which more or less cushioned his fall. Not long after, Frida propelled herself in the same way as Tabart, but landed on her feet several feet in front of him.

Tabart fell from the tree as the branched collapsed beneath him. His bones ached and cracked as he forced himself to his feet. "That's...not what I entirely meant, rabbit girl," Tabart spat, dusting his clothes confidently. He pulled a bean from his pocket, and from it grew a handful of what appeared to be spinach. "Though, now that we're far away from people, I can go all out." With haste, Tabart stuffed the spinach down his mouth, and within moments his body became almost irregularly bloated with muscle.

"Now, come with haste, Bunny girl."

Frida's eyebrows furrowed and she moved her lips to create a disapproving pout, showing her disdain for Tabart rather visibly. She blew a strand of hair out of her face and fully transformed her entire body into a lupine form, appearing similarly to a humanoid rabbit; she replaced her legs with the strong haunches of a rabbit and her arms with large paws that revealed even larger claws. She then propelled herself off of the ground, leaving a small crater in her wake as she closed the distance between Tabart and herself by hopping across the ground at dizzying speeds. As she was about a foot from him, she jumped into the air above Tabart and began to descend on him with the intent of delivering a deadly kick to his head.

Tabart's eyes followed Frida's entire actions, his latest transformation showing some tremendous increase in reflexes. He waited, bided his time until she sat above him, and he unleashed a blazing punch of his own towards her leg in attempt to intercept it. The clash between their blow created a shockwave of energy that enthralled the surrounding areas in its might, churning the very tree that Tabart landed upon into a cyclone of wind that spawned in response to the shockwave's clash between the winds. Yet, in the middle of this herculean interaction, Tabart took another punch with his other hand towards the same leg as a means of overpowering it with both arms, as opposed to one.

As the punch connected with Frida's leg, she yelled out and fell from Tabart's grasp as she hit the ground with a thud, dust rising up into the air. She reverted back to her human form to see her leg bleeding profusely and seemingly broken, as it pained her heavily when a shooting pain greeted her as she tried to move it. Her face formed an expression of disgust towards Tabart as she used her good leg to push herself back from the man, slowly scooting backwards on the ground. A few seconds past as Tabart simply looked at her, before Frida finally spoke. "What? What are you waiting for? Aren't you gonna brutalize me while I'm hurt, like you did him?" she spat.

Tabart's eyes fell upon Frida's abdomen as her clothes, being slightly torn in the process, revealed a mark that he had come to grasp the nature of.

"You were a slave before," Tabart outwardly addressed, pulling a seed from his pocket and pushing it into his mouth. His muscle bloated figure dissipated, revealing his lithe, but rather developed, physique.

"That means you can't possibly know where the slaves are," Tabart expressed disappointedly. "Looks like I failed in my mission letting the other guy go then....and in hurting an innocent woman."

Tabart started approaching Frida cautiously as a means to not startle her. "I'm a doctor, let me help, please."

Frida's mouth twitched in disgust as she covered her abdomen with her hand. "H-how dare you infer such a thing! It's j-just a tattoo! You assuming that I don't know where the slaves are is a foolish decision, as I'm one of the few that does! But I-I'll never tell you." Frida leaned backwards as though she was going to scoot further, but she then stopped as she reluctantly allowed Tabart to begin his work.

Tabart smiled and shook his head as he kneeled down towards her leg, inspecting it. "You don't need to cover it up. If there is anyone that know the pains of slavery, it's me. My father was a slave, then my mother and I, and then after escaping, I was enslaved again. It's why my entire purpose is to break people away from those shackles that hold them," he continued, carefully grabbing Frida's leg to examine it in greater detail.

"So, if you know where these slaves, I really need you to tell me."

"You're a fool if you believe I'll ever tell you. It'd ruin me and my reputation... so you'll just have to give up!" Frida spat and she winced when Tabart grabbed her leg. "I don't need your sob stories either; I have no sympathy for slaves, life is only as great as the amount of wealth that you have. And slavery just so happens to be a rather profitable source of it."

Tabart wore a tranquil smile as he stood up. "Is that so?" Within an instant, he slammed his foot onto her broken leg, twisting his boots on her bruised flesh. "I only need your mouth for this endeavor. I don't actually care if you end up losing a leg." Without changing facial expressions, Tabart stomped on her leg again, tremendously harder than the first.

"You're going to tell me where the slaves are, or I'm going to rip every limb of your body. Understand?"

Frida released a blood-curdling scream that caused birds to fly out of the trees and away from the battle. After Tabart had stomped on her leg for a second time, she screamed again... although, the scream seemingly turned into... laughing. Seconds later, Frida was laughing maniacally almost as loud as she had screamed. She slowly stood up as well as she could with her mangled leg, laughing all the while; slowly, the laughing trailed off when she stood up fully. Then, she whispered, "Route... de la Lune..." With this utterance of words, Frida's body began to contort and shake as her torso grew massive and became engulfed in masses of white fur with red stripes. Her limbs shot out from her body as she grew several times larger than Tabart, with her arms being nearly as long as her entire body. Massive claws that appeared to be so sharp they seemed to cut the air sprouted from her hands, and her eyes became large and blood-red as teeth like shards of glass sprouted from her gaping maw. As her transformation was complete, she roared and shook the ground with her strength.