Nezumi was terrified, horrified, petrified, and every other word describing a fearful state all at once. There was no one word to describe the soul quaking sense of doom that the old woman had inspired within him.
Here he was, his arms and legs bound in rusty chains and his stomach bared at the rcy of this mad woman. She openly pondered about the best way to use his entrails, or if it was better to turn him into a zombie. At least she discarded the idea of sacrificing him to whatever dark god she worshiped.
The flas of his hope sparked and sputtered back to life when soone interrupted her deranged thoughts. Even what little he could see of the man in the gloom of this sewer didn’t give him much confidence, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. After listening to the old woman talk to him, it was clear that the man wasn’t any ally of hers. He just wished they weren’t as helpless to the flute as he had been.
Nezumi conjured up so courage and shouted, "Help! I’ll give you as much money as you want, just get away from this crazy bitch!"
"Shush you! Can’t you see Granny is trying to get so action?" the crazy old bat hissed at him.
That was all the newcor needed, though, as he lunged forward with a drawn short blade. Nezumi was so sure that it was over that he sagged in relief. What few doubts still rested in his heart vanished the mont the blade bit into the wrinkled flesh of the old woman’s neck.
"Hurry up and get out of these chains! I’m already going to need a tetanus shot for this-!" Nezumi choked on the words, because the other man wasn’t listening.
No, the other man was still on guard, for the old woman was still standing, even with her throat gushing blood.
"Naughty," the old woman chuckled, raising that wretched flute to her lips.
The stranger broke free from his own surprise and aid a blow for the flute, but the old woman almost casually side stepped the attack. After that, it was too late. The music began once again, and the stranger was caught in the spider’s web.
...
’This isn’t ideal,’ Daud thought, as he was being bound in much the sa way as his target had been. ’I suppose it could be worse, though...’
People who weren’t familiar with him would probably question how that could be. He wouldn’t answer them, but if he were to do so, then he’d say "At least she isn’t Cheapshot."
Dood was still dood, of course, but he wasn’t really dood here. It was just his duplicate that was captured by the Granny Rags. Cheapshot would have known the difference, unlike the old witch, so he still had so options.
How was he going to play this, though? He’d already plugged his ears as best as he could, but he wasn’t totally sure that would actually work, so he needed a better plan of action than just ’Charge in and hope for the best.’ Not that he usually did things that way regardless.
He’ll have to incapacitate her sohow. She wasn’t a logia fruit user, he was fairly certain of that, which ans she survived her cut throat by so other ans. A ans that may protect her from other similarly lethal wounds. Hm.
For now, he’ll distract her from the target. Can’t have the captain getting gutted whilst he was still brainstorming.
...
"Does the offer to jump in your bed still stand?" the stranger asked just as the mad woman was approaching Nezumi again with the knife.
Nezumi was greatly relieved that the other man had drawn her attention away from vivisecting him, but he’d be lying if he didn’t say he was baffled by the question. Nezumi would honestly rather die than do that with her.
"Had a change of heart, did you?" she asked in turn. "Want to rattle these old bones, hm?"
Nezumi suppressed the urge to gag.
"I’m afraid it is a little too late for that. You’ve gone and got blood all over my favorite blouse, and blood stains are so very difficult to get out," she shook her head and tutted. "I’m rather upset about that. Maybe you can make it up to another way, perhaps?"
"I’m listening," the stranger said.
She smiled, "Well, it won’t matter if there are blood stains, if I dye the whole thing in blood, no? And it looks like you’d got plenty enough to get the job done."
Nezumi expected her to cackle, but she made no such noise. She did laugh, but it was such a normal old lady laugh that that itself was unnerving, given how abnormal the owner of the laugh actually was.
Out of the corner of his eye, Nezumi saw sothing move. He didn’t dare to look, not even with just his eyes. Whatever or whoever it was, if they were here to help, then it was in his best interest to ignore them. The stranger seed to have the sa idea, because despite having a better line of sight on the newcor, he didn’t look their way either.
Or maybe Nezumi was having a fear induced hallucination. He sure hoped not.
...
Daud managed to slip beneath Granny Rags notice into a room off to the side of the cistern she called ho. His duplicate had spotted it, and while there were no guarantees of anything of use being in there, he was willing to take the chance.
Inside, the thing that stood out most prominently to him was a sizable portrait of a woman. Instantly, Daud could see the resemblance between the subject of the painting and Granny Rags. Perhaps it was Granny Rags herself in the past, or soone related to her.
Probably the forr, now that he could see Sokolov’s signature near the bottom. Granny Rags was likely from the sa generation as the artist, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he’d painted it in their youth, when he wasn’t so picky.
Daud ignored it for now, choosing instead to rifle through the drawers in the room as quickly and quietly as he could. Any sort of leverage he could hold over her would...
Would that work? Daud studied the painting once more. Unlike everything else in here which was covered in so amount of gri, the painting was pristine. No small amount of effort had to go into keeping it this way.
Daud made up his mind, prying the painting off the way and moving into the cistern once more.
...
"Granny Rags," the newcor announced his presence. Nezumi couldn’t help but to look now, but then it hardly mattered since the man had revealed himself already.
Nezumi was prepared to curse the newcor out for doing exactly that, abandoning his advantage. However, the appearance of the man caught him completely off guard.
He was identical to the first man, only... the first man vanished. There had never been two n to begin with, huh? That lifted Nezumi’s spirits, for it ant the stranger was not so inept as he’d thought!
"You-!" the hag screeched.
"Ah-ah-ah," the stranger placed his blade against the throat of... a painting. A painting? What the fuck was going on? Nezumi was so, so lost. "Don’t move a muscle, Rags. Or the painting gets it."
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