Ch 37 - Bloody Message
As we approach the large moving forest I ask Carina, who is surprisingly keeping up with me, even though we are running at a pretty decent pace, I guess those are just the benefits of a Mythical Zoan, "Hey Carina, how were you able to control the plants to your whim so easily? Even prodigies in Devil fruit development would have trouble doing that right after they ate their fruit."
She smiles and replies, "Yeah it was pretty amazing how it happened, apparently those historical records weren't fully accurate on the fruit. It's not that I control the plants, at least not yet, but they simply do it because I ask."
"Ask? As in you can communicate with plants?" I question.
"Mhmm, yeah, I can talk to plants, and I think even animals, when those grey wearing bastards were chasing me, I simply asked for help in stopping them, and they responded, by surrounding them and keeping them locked in place…Unfortunately, that Mantis guy was too fast and clever for the plants, so I had to run and leave behind the plants to do their thing, apparently, they did a good job if you got to see them," She responds back with a soft smile.
"Yeah, it was amazing, it's great that you can do that now, right off the bat I can think of many possibilities for that ability, Mythical Zoans sure are amazing, every single one of them I know about are rare and powerful, not a one, weak," I respond back with an awestruck face.
With that we continue speeding our way back, talking a bit more on what happened and her new abilities, including on how she healed me.
Apparently, the plants don't just follow her orders, but they can even allow her to see and hear things through their senses, something that I didn't know plants have, but I guess this is the One-Piece world, so meh.
Anyways she was apparently curious on how our situations were when she had a bit of free time, from hiding from the Mantis, and she asked the plants near her if they could locate us and tell her what they see.
They simply responded by letting her see through their eyes, and what she saw surprised me, apparently, she not only saw me, when I was performing the compression attack, something that I've got to rename; but she also saw Porche-chan battling some gigantic rat a few miles away from where we started.
I was again gob smacked by this revelation, a giant rat? I had guessed that she was fighting an opponent, but a rat? And by the number I've counted of the agents, including the one that was killed at the edge of my vision, this rat should either be a hidden cp agent, or a fourth party.
I wonder which one it would be? Well, there's no point in dwelling on the thought, we'll find out soon enough when we ask her.
By the time she's done explaining a bit about her own situation, we arrive at the forest area, and we are greeted by something that we didn't expect.
Every single tree and plant in the area was sliced in two.
These plants, that could take and give back attacks from those two cp agents, are now all laying on the ground, dead, and cut into pieces.
Yet this is not the most amazing thing, the most amazing thing is that every single part of this huge forest seems to be dripping in a wet substance, and from the innards that I can see scattered over a few places, it all seems to be blood.
…
*drip* *drip*
*squish* *squash*
"Yuck! This is disgusting! Cade, why the heck do we have to walk through all this? Can't we simply go around?" Carina whines to me…as she steps on a disfigured eyeball.
"*Groan*… Again, for the who knows how many times, we can't go around the forest, not only is it the quickest way but we have to find out what the heck happened here. Last time I noticed there were only two agents stuck here, not whatever happened to cause this mess." I groan back.
I mean does she think I want to walk through this? I'm a fucking city boy for fucks sake, I don't want to walk through a forest covered in blood and innards. I know it sounds hypocritical coming from someone that just butchered another person with his fists, but the two situations are completely different.
That was one individual, and it wasn't thaat messy in the end, it was only brain matter and blood, not everything in the body, and again, this is a forest covered in blood and guts!
This shit is disgusting, seeing how blood and pieces of stomach and liver and who knows what else slips and slides all over these plants and shit.
Disgusting, not to mention creepy as heck!
Anyways, before we entered here, I once again used Limitless on myself, and told Carina to stay close to me, because even though she clearly got stronger, she didn't get thaat much stronger, and I highly doubt that even with her speed she could outrun whatever did this to those two guys, who clearly knew shave…so yeah.
Anyways as we walk a few more minutes, careful not to step onto anymore body parts, we come to the clearing where those two men were trapped.
And just as the rest of the forest, this area is ruined as well, covered in fallen trees and destroyed grass, as well as covered in blood and guts, but there was something much more horrific as well.
Two large wooden spikes are placed in the center of the clearing, and on these spikes are the heads of the agents, one appears to be a white tiger head, that is slowly reverting back to its human form, and the other is of one of the masked agents, they are both bloody and sliced at the neck.
However, something else catches our attention once we leave our daze like state, there, on the rock at the center of the clearing, is a message and it's written in red gleaming blood.
I hesitate for a second, and finally sigh, I need to read whatever that says, so I take a big gulp of air, not wanting to smell what the epicenter of this massacre smells like and walk forward.
And due to my great vision, I start to read the letters from a few meters away, and what it reads makes me clench my fists till they crack and grit my teeth in anger.
"I GOT HER, IF YOU WANT HER BACK, 1 WEEK"
With a map of West Blue pinned to the rock below the bloody message, seemingly indicating a location…by one of Porsche-chans flower shurikens.