Lia's POV;

I knew that look in Lara's eyes. She wants to have this Josef Mengele in our crew. He does indeed seem to have a good head on his shoulders and a real doctor with knowledge of this worlds illnesses will help tremendously. Lara may know how to fix an injury, thanks to the teachings of Tsunade Senju, but that did not mean that she is able to cure a single illness of this world.

“So Mengele”, I began but he stopped me with a raised hand.

“Please, Josef or Jo. Mengele was the name I used when I still was an employee”, he said. I nodded and stayed silent about him not mentioning to whom his employment was. He might tell us later if Lara manages to bring him with us.

“Josef then, you've said that the symptoms of the villagers are similar to the effects of a drug this Treteto has made. Can you tell us about effective ways to take them out?”, I asked.

“Sure, last time it was named Haze 2, it increased the blood flow, the adrenaline production and other hormones, while simultaneously hindering or completely stopping the victim of doing any rational thoughts or higher thought processes. They often fell into rage and attacked anyone that was in their way. Yet there were also those who did nothing and walked around without reacting to anything, just blubbering incoherent words.

The forming of groups is new, must be a change in his formula”, explained Josef. I nodded in understanding and gestured for him to continue, he hasn't yet said how to take them out.

“Oh yes, sorry, how to take them out? Well, the victim is feeling almost no pain, so any attack that is not fatal or hinders the victim from moving will only work with little success. I would advise to knock them out, but that as well bears the risk of killing them.

If you don't know how to knock someone out safely, then do not fight them if you don't want to kill”, he explained and both Jonny and Yosaku frowned. Neither was good enough to do what Josef said.

“But that means that we can't help”, protested Jonny.

“I'm sure you can, the tracks we're going to follow belong most likely to the henchmen of this Treteto. You don't have to hold back when facing them”, assured Lara. Josef nodded in agreement.

“So what's the plan?”, asked Yosaku.

“I wanted to track them down and then take them out one after the other”, said Josef, “but with you being here it might even be possible to face them directly. You don't look to be weak, well you two girls”, he continued and gestured to me and Lara. Both Jonny and Yosaku looked crestfallen when they were dismissed this easily.

“I'm sure you're going to become strong if you train hard”, comforted Lara them with some patting on their back. Yes, and while training them we will get them used to kill. And then we can hunt down pirates and marines.

“Yes Sis Lara, we're going to become the strongest and make you proud. And then we will face Zorro”, declared Jonny with Yosaku nodding rapidly in agreement. A new glint of determination was being sowed in their easy to influence minds.

“So who wants some stew?”, asked Josef suddenly with a grin. It was bunny stew, something that I really like.

“Move over, I think I can refine this a bit more”, I told him and began to add some spices and changed the distance to the fire.

Ten minutes later I deemed the stew ready and we began to eat. Of course, they praised me for the deliciousness. Too bad that there was not enough to make me and Lara full, or the others. Josef did not start his cooking knowing that there will be five more people and using more ingredients out of my inventory would have been too suspicious.

But it was a good snack and a good gesture of him to share.

We packed up and Josef showed us where they found the tracks. A few minutes later we were following them through the thick forest. It was not really hard to follow them, they were by now more like a small path trampled into the forest. These guys must use it for some time now. The trees, mostly of the middle European sort were tall and lush with leaves. It was easy to hide behind them.

The sun was already beginning to set when I told the others to stop. We were now near the small mountain of this island and there was the presence of four people a few dozen metre in front of us.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Another forty or so were behind those and mostly underground.

“There are four people in front of us. They don't seem to have noticed us. How do you want to proceed Lara?”, I asked. Josef looked at me strangely and then a knowing glint came into his eyes. Lara concentrated briefly and then nodded in agreement.

“They are probably not really strong. Why not using this as training for Jonny and Yosaku? Nojiko might also be able to train her marksmanship”, she suggested. The boys agreed easily. They've fought already in a real fight. But Nojiko looked uneasy and not sure of the whole thing.

“It's gonna be okay Nojiko, I will protect you. All you have to do is aim and shoot”, assured Lara. It helped to calm Nojiko down and she nodded before she unholstered her Dial rifle. She has had trained with it during our trip so far and was able to shoot a normal moving target up to fifty meters.

“Hoh, you are really a strange East Blue group”, commented Josef from my side when he recognised the rifle.

“You know of these guns?”, asked Nojiko.

“Of course, they are hard to find, but there are some places on the Grand Line where you can get those. A good choice, they beat the standard rifle by far”, he answered with a nod and pulled two scalpels as his chosen weapons out.

“Good, it will depend on their choice of weapons how we're going to attack. If they use guns then Lia and Nojiko will take them out, while I give them cover.

If they use swords then Jonny, Yosaku, Jo and I will take each one of them. Nojiko can help Jo by distracting his opponent until he is in reach. If she manages to wound or kill him before Jo reaches his target then good, if not it's also not a problem.

Jo will just have to help Jonny or Yosaku. Any questions or other suggestions?”, instructed Lara. I agreed with a nod and prepared three pebbles in case they do use guns.

“What if not all of them use a gun?”, asked Jonny.

“Then Nojiko and Lia will take those out who do and we will team up against the rest”, answered Lara. Jonny grunted in affirmation and we got in position. We sneaked up on the four presences and found four guys sitting around a table, playing cards.

There were four swords placed next to their chairs and bottles of alcohol stood empty on the table. This will be easy.

“Don't shoot, we might be able to take them out without too much noise”, warned Lara. Nojiko nodded again but aimed with her rifle nonetheless, just in case. I remained still and watched how the other four sneaked closer.

They managed to get as close as ten meters before one of the four guys noticed them. He jumped up from his chair and promptly fell on his ass, much to the amusement of his three friends.

It was the signal for Lara that they were spotted and she gestured to the other three to attack. They all began to sprint forward. Jonny and Yosaku had both their swords raised, while Josef had one of his scalpel ready to throw. Lara was only running as fast as the other three so that she would reach the goons at the same time. She did not draw her sword but had one of her fingers ready for a finger Rankyaku. It's harder than the normal leg one and with limited reach, but can be used with more precision.

Yosaku and Jonny were only two meters away when the other three goons noticed that it was not just a ghost their friend has had seen. They did try to jump up, but the heavy drunkenness was not helping and they too stumbled.

They were not even able to reach for their swords when the scalpel of Josef hit the first goon right between his ribs on the left side of his chest. It must be a heart puncture. The goon looked down at the metal that was sticking out of him. He grabbed the blade and yanked it out before falling down.

The idiot was even too drunk to notice the danger from such a wound.

Lara's goon was already headless so I looked at Yosaku and Jonny. It was Jonnie's goon that spotted us. The guy was not even fully standing when Jonny sliced his machete down and cut deep into the back of the goon. With a pained cry, the drunkard dropped down again and began to groan in pain.

The last one raised a fist at Yosaku, but his fingers meet a blade and were cut off. This was not the intention of Yosaku and he stopped for a moment in shock. It could have been deadly in other situations. Now, however, was not such a case, yet Lara still quickly killed the one handed guy by breaking his neck.

“Come”, I said to Nojiko and jogged over to the other four. We reached them just in time to hear the crack of the neck of the last remaining goon, it was the guy Jonny has fought. Lara had broken it as well.

“Why did you kill him?”, asked Jonny with a slightly pale face.

“Because he would have suffered from the wound and died anyway. We have no time to help them and no reason to. They are the cause of the death of innocent villagers and would not have hesitated if it was you on the receiving end of a blade”, explained Lara. I nodded in agreement.

Josef nodded did too, “Yes, he had a cut spine, even if I would have been able to help him, he wouldn't have been able to walk for the rest of his life”.

“You three have to realise that it is necessary to kill sometimes. A fight on the Grand Line is dangerous and any chance you give your enemy might be your or your friend's death. The guy Yosaku faced would have screamed, which would have alerted the others.

But there is more, do you know what you did wrong Yosaku?”, she continued with a nod to Josef's statement.

“I hesitated?”, he asked while looking at the dead body.

“Yes, having your hand or finger cut off is not deadly. Many pirates or marines of the Grand Line would continue to fight. Your cut was clean, they would have been able to reattach the lost part. I in his position would have used your step back to kick you in your groins”. Yosaku, Jonny and Josef went pale from the thought and unconsciously grabbed their groin in protection.

“Keep in mind that hesitation means death, we are lucky that these guys are drunk and incompetent. We'll need to fight some weaker pirates or marines to get you three used to fight for survival”, she added and turned towards the entrance of a cave. There was a closed metal door that was separating us from the cave.

Lara searched and looked around for a moment before she found a key for the door on the table of the goons. She also took the few hundred Berry that was on it.

“It's always good to have more money”, she said when Nojiko looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“I haven't said anything, you know my sister”, replied Nojiko with a smile. Lara then opened the door and we stepped inside a passage. The floor was smooth stone and the walls were also cut even. This was no normal cave, it was man made.

“I can feel one strong presence inside, it belongs to a male and is almost in the middle of the mountain and under the ground. The remaining forty or so presences are weak. Maybe on the same level as normal Marine”, I informed the group.

“Stronger than us?”, asked Lara with a frown.

“I don't think so, he should not be able to kill either of us. Still, he's stronger than Smoker. Whatever someone like him is doing here is way beyond the normal East Blue strength”, I answered. Yosaku and Jonny looked at each other worried.

“What does that mean?”, asked Nojiko.

“It means that whatever Treteto does here is not something of his own. Someone else is behind this, Treteto wouldn't have been able to get someone such strong as his guard”, clarified Josef.

“It also means that if it comes to a fight you four will not stay. Lia and I will take him on. You can fight the others”, added Lara.

“We're going to fight forty guys?”, asked Nojiko fearfully.

“Yes and no, they won't come at once, probably. And I'm sure that they are weaker than you. Just use the narrow hall to your advantage. Jonny, Yosaku and Jo will block them while you will snipe them from behind. And until this strong guy shows up Lia and I will also be here to help you”, replied Lara with a smile. I nodded from the side. It wouldn't be good for our reputation if some of our crew die in the first real fight.

“Good, now the plan. We will continue to sneak in while trying to take as many of them out as possible. But remember, the longer we stay quiet the longer we won't have to fight against higher numbers and prepared enemies.

We also have Lia with us, who can help in locating them”. Lara's plan was accepted without any protest and our group sneaked inside the complex.