Phantasmagoria

Meeting a Beautiful Mirage
Avery nearly collapsed when they finally made it to the city. "Water... water..." he gasped, before finally finding his head in a basin, drinking heavily. It wasn't until he pulled his head out that he realized that the basin was for the camels. He didn't care, and continued drinking nonetheless.

Shephard was too tired to call out Avery for his unbecoming behavior. The dehydration had gotten to her as well, but she still had enough sense to not drink from the camels' basin. "Water..." she mumbled, stumbling around aimlessly.

For some strange reason, Yoichi wasn’t as dehydrated as her crew mates. She glanced at her captain with a disgusted look, but she wasn’t going to judge, he was a weird one, after all.

“So...what’s our next move?” She motioned to her captain. “I guess water is the first thing, and then...” she pointed at the locals. “We should buy some stuff and dress appropriately. Anyone brought some money??”

Avery took his head out of the basin, gasping for air. "That was disgusting." He looked much more refreshed than he had previously. "Of course we brought money, this was a supply run. Set, Shep, you guys go off and buy some supplies. Yoichi and I will go see if we can do any recruiting to make up for our losses."

"Alright," said Shephard. She was still rather dehydrated, but took the cash Avery tossed her with no questions, headed into the city.

Avery rubbed his sleeve over his face, drying it off and removing the dirt that had turned into mud from his sweat and the water. "Alright, Yo, I've got the perfect idea for where we should go try recruiting, the place where all the lowlifes and potential pirates gather, come on!" He grabbed her by the hand, suddenly so much more energetic than before.

The door slammed open. Avery tried to make a grand entrance, but the music was far too loud for the slam, and absolutely no one was looking at the door. They were all focused on the half naked dancers on the stage.

Yoichi squinted her eyes, and forced her hand out of Avery’s own after being dragged all the way through town. She began poking Avery’s forehead in an annoyed fashion. “Oi, Oii! What’s the big idea? You gonna try an recruit some horny bastard?”

She then looked around and noticed the bar. “Well, you do that, while I get a drink and gather information...”

As she was about to turn away, Arukana’s words came flooding through her mind, “Do not leave the captain out of your sight!!”

“Sigh...Avery, let’s go to the bar, we can scan the whole place from there.”

"What's wrong with having horns?" asked Avery, "getting an Oni in the crew would be awesome! Anyways, you watch from the bar, I'll be getting a front row seat." He walked over to a chair, sitting right in front of the stage. He smiled, seeming very comfortable as a woman threw her bra into the audience. Avery looked back towards Yoichi, giving her a thumbs up before turning back to the dancer, who was already prancing offstage.

"I hope you liked her, because we've barely scratched the surface my friends!" the announcer began. "Next up, we've got a real nice belly dancer for you! The one, the only Mirage!"

She came in from behind the curtains. She was absolutely stunning. Dressed in dark purple... attire, and with raven hair going down her back. She left just the right amount to the imagination, including her face, which was covered by a mouth cover. It only helped to accentuate her beautiful eyes.

Her dance was intoxicating, the movement of her hips, moving in such a way one couldn't focus on anything else. And then she moved over to Avery. She was right in front of him. He couldn't help but grin. The other patrons voiced their annoyance at how this newcomer was getting all this attention. She leaned forward, touched his face, and almost immediately recoiled. Avery blinked. The spell was broken. She continued dancing. No one else seemed to have noticed. She moved around the rest of the establishment.

After the dance was over, she went backstage once again. Avery walked over to the bar, sitting next to Yoichi. "We're taking a look backstage. We need to talk to that belly dancer."

Yoichi nodded, but quickly turned back on a small group gathered beside her. “Come on, Yoichi! This is for the win!” Exclaimed one of the girls. Apparently while Avery was watching the show, Yoichi was competing in what she calls “drunken darts”. Each player takes ten liquor shots before playing, then take turns shooting darts, betting money and such.

Of course, Yoichi was a better shot the more drunk she was, as such, she had earned around 50,000 in a short while. “Gimme a sec cap’n!” She was drunk, but as she was still speaking coherently, there was much, much more she could still handle.

Closing her eyes and turning her back to the board, she shot the dart, landing right on the bullseye. “Wooooo!” Those who bet on her were exclaiming and drinking, while those who didn’t walk away brooding.

She got close to Avery and nudged at him with her elbow. “Not bad eh, with that win, I just earned 70,000!” She then drank one last cup before walking in front of Avery, grabbing her bow and arrows which were wrapped up in a cloth. “Okay, who’s the belly dancer we’re gonna kill...”

"What? No, we're just talking to them. Something weird happened when they touched me." He looked her up and down quickly. "How'd you get sloshed so quickly?"

"buuuurp! Sloshed?" Yoichi looked at Avery with a confused stare. "I'm fine!" she exclaimed while hiding a dagger under her kimono. "Okay then...let's meet this enchantress!" She took a bottle of rum with her, and motioned to Avery to lead the way.

“Alright, let’s just go.” The two moves their way past security, unseen by the other patrons on their way. They walked past a few giggling girls and some out of place men. It wasn’t much longer until they found their way to the dressing room labeled “Mirage”.

Avery knocked on the door. “Coming!” she called. When she answered, almost all the pigment in her skin instantly vanished. She tried to close the door, but Avery stuck his foot in the way.

“We just want to talk.”

Hidden by a scarf she placed around her head, Yoichi's menacing eyes glared on the strange woman. Her body was tense and ready to strike, yet it was visibly subtle and her killing intent was barely noticeable.

She leaned closer and asserted to her captain's demands, nodding her head and assuring the woman their intentions were "peaceful", before quickly turning her head and staring at the drunks nearby, with her guard up in case something unexpected comes their way.

“What did you want to talk about?” asked the dancer.

“Why you jumped away from me earlier.”

The woman mumbled something under her breath, likely a swear. “Come in. It’s best we do this away from prying eyes.” She opened the door the rest of the way.

Avery nodded, smiling, and motioned for Yoichi to go in ahead of him.

Yoichi stepped in, looking around the room for anything suspicious. She removed the scarf over her head and leaned against a wall. She scoffed and glared at Aver. "Dude, if you're going to have sex, you don't need me to chaperone you, you know? Even Aru wouldn't do that..."

She was joking, maybe partially, but her eyes were set on the mysterious woman. All she needs is one red flag that something isn't right, and in the blink of an eye she'd have an arrow on her head. Those were the thoughts on her mind.

"Yo, we've been over this, I don't know what sex is." He sat down in a chair, Yoichi by his side, while the Mirage sat across from him on a stool. "So, Mirage..."

"Please, my name is Kabir," she said.

"Alright, Kabir, you're a Devil Fruit user, aren't you?"

"I'm not certain what a Devil Fruit is, but I do have a power given to me by the gods."

"Hold up, gods?"

"Yes. Not many people have their strength. The only ones in the kingdom that do are the gods in the capital. Most of them can turn into animals."

Avery leaned forward. "Gods, huh. So, what can you do?"

"I can see things... people's pasts, and those of objects, when I touch them."

"And why'd you jump back when you touched me?"

"Because I saw that you too, were a god."

Avery raised an eyebrow. "God, not quite, aspiring king, definitely. If you really have this power, tell me something that only I know."

"You idolize Monkey D. Luffy as the Pirate King, and it's your goal to achieve that dream. You act like it's simply for the freedom, but truly you just want the power to protect your homeland from invasion. Your older brother is in the marines, and his name is Benjamin. You're adopted, and your birth name is..."

"Alright, that's enough!" he shouted. "Givin' me the creeps."

Yoichi looked at Avery, and then back at Kabir. "Gods eh?" She leaned forward. Mischievous thoughts were roaming her mind. She looked to the side, and saw a glass cup. She whispered in that direction, sending vibrations through the air until it reached the cup, bursting it into pieces and the table it sat upon. "Guess I'm a goddess too...And that's me forcing control over myself." She leaned even closer to Kabir. "If I even speak a little louder, I can make your vision get all wonky, a little louder and you start having trouble breathing and your bones start shaking, a bit more and your joints begin to ache and you star vomiting uncontrollably...and at this distance, it would only require a little, tiny bit more of effort to literally make your head explode...so tell me, miss, am I a goddess too?"

Yoichi leaned back unto the chair, looking at Avery. "What?...I can have some fun too and say cool stuff!"

“We only need one creepy woman in this room right now, Yo, no need to add it to two.”

Kabir was obviously mortified by Yoichi’s threat, as well as her power itself. “I had seen your power within Avery’s memories, but I never imagined they could be that heinous.”

“Hey! How’d you know... oh right. Anyways Kabir, someone with your type of ability might be helpful when it comes to finding crew mates, see who wants to set it to sea. I can buy you something nice in return.”

She looked back and forth between Avery and Yoichi, eyes darting between them. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not so much that I can’t, but that it won’t do you any good.”

Yoichi was shaking her leg anxiously. “Oh for the love of-“ She stomped her foot furiously on the ground. She wasn’t completely drunk, but still, she was cranky, which was a sign she had extensive amounts of alcohol in her system, given her more calm, usual demeanor.

“Stop with the mystery and tell us, woman! I’m getting sober here!”

“Cairo may be affiliated with the world government, but it is an isolationist country. Other than the marine base on the coast, we have almost no contact with the world outside of Cairo. We’re even forbidden from ever headed to the Marine base.”

“Well, at least we won’t have to worry about marines while we’re here.”

“No, but the queen’s army is arguably worse.”

“Army?”

There was a loud banging on the door. “Kabir!”

“Hm?” Yoichi turned her head to the door, while keeping herself relaxed and confident. She wasn’t at all worried at the mention of Marines nor an Army.

“Hey Avery, you want me to take care of that or?...” she said while casually pointing her thumb at the door.

"Nah, I've got a better idea," he said. "You can go ahead and answer that."

Kabir warily got to her feet, heading over to the door. On the other side were a group of soldiers, dressed in standard Cairo military attire.

"We need to speak with you about a certain issue."

"I'm sorry, but as you can see, I have..." she turned around, with Avery and Yoichi nowhere to be seen. "...Never mind... Have a seat."

Despite their speedy movements, the two pirates were in fact still in the room. Up in the rafters, Avery giggled to himself, covering his mouth to stifle the laughter. "Good plan, right?" he whispered.