Lia's POV;

I left Josef's office and made my way outside. He saw Lara's burn mark but only glanced at me and Nojiko before continuing with his work. I'm sure he knows what it is, but didn't ask with Nojiko present.

Today we made a lot of mistakes. First was the fuck up we made with the Admiral. Kizaru must have felt us, so why did he leave? An Admiral is strong enough to beat all of us. And Kizaru would have made flight almost impossible with his speed. We should have stopped the moment I felt someone suppressing his aura. More surveillance would have allowed us to plan and find out who this person is.

Even this fucking arsehole that dared to wound my Lara was dangerous. We should have fought him together. The fight was only this quickly over because neither anticipated the destruction of Lara's Kunai. It would have drawn out far longer, with more wounds, if it wouldn't have been destroyed.

And even then, he didn't look to have been beaten when Lara did wound his arm. No, he still had some cards open, I saw it in his eyes. That is why I got rid of him, that and he hurt my Lara.

I so wish he wouldn't have been an important character. I would have grounded his bones to dust and then cut him open. Keeping him alive to witness and realise the mistake he has done and then at the end crucifying him for every Marine to see the warning.

No one hurts my Lara!

“Sis...sis Lia?”, asked Jonny suddenly from my side. He was pale and sweating.

“Yes?” I asked with some forced calmness. Did he got hurt as well? Josef is busy with Lara, so you will have to man up until she is patched up.

“You look to be angry, is Sis Lara fine?”, he asked while evading my eyes.

“Yes, she will be fine. If you excuse me, I need to fetch something”, I answered curtly and jumped into the air, from where I used my Devil Fruit to fly over to the island. From behind, I hear him asking Yosaku if he too saw the air rippling around me.

The entrance was quickly found. A fire was burning down a guard house and a blast door was caved inwards. Something must have smashed it open. Half a dozen Marine soldiers were lying around, mostly decapitated but also with large gashes on their chests. Or cut off limbs.

Something came through here and I bet it was also the reason for Kizaru's departure. There was nothing of interest out here, only a few cannonballs I put inside my inventory. So I walked inside and crossed another guard post, also smashed to bits and with dead bodies around.

A dead Marine had his stomach cut open and was alive long enough to crawl into a corner. He lost most his intestines on the way. Something quite brutal came through here.

I focused on my Observation Haki but found not a single living soul on the whole island. There were quite a few on the slowly sinking super-sized warship. The sadly not dead arsehole was one of them, he was surrounded by other auras and felt stable enough to not die. A pity.

Still, there is nothing inside the base, strange, but I won't nag where it isn't due. The corridor that followed the guard post was empty except for the occasional dead Marine.

A short walk led me into a destroyed hallway with a large hole in the wall, the hole led through three rooms before ending out in the open. A headless Marine was laying inside the second room, a bath.

Something smashed someone through the walls, and with a lot of force as well. I briefly contemplated to walk out and take a look, but time might be short. So I followed the corridor and found some living rooms.

The corridor went slightly downwards and I found an office. The room was still warm and a computer was active on the desk. It held a halfway written report to Fleet Admiral Sengoku and was about the progress of Project Feather.

The report was short and didn't say much about the actual project. Maybe an attempt at creating something capable of flight?

I skimmed a bit over the data on the computer but didn't find anything of interest. It was a strict working computer with administrative purpose. Food, toiletries, budged and sold. The budget was also named under code names. Project Feather and Three Barrels were the only names that came up in recent history.

I destroyed the computer and walked deeper into the facility. I found another blast door after walking down a staircase. It too was broken.

Behind it I found more dead Marines, this time of higher Rank. There even was one still in a Zoan Devil Fruit form. Some sort of insect type.

The path of destruction kept on for a few dozen metres. Dead Marines, blast doors, scorch marks and bullet holes showed me the clear signs of a heavy fight. And against a single opponent too. The marks on their bodies were the same as those I found outside. There was also not a single dead person not belonging to the Marines.

The corridor ultimately led me to two more doors. These two were not made out of steel, but out of sea stone. They must have cost a fortune and I'm fairly sure that there were few people in the world that could destroy them.

The facility designer, however, forgot to think about the endurance of the wall the door was embedded into. As was proven by the smallish hole right next to both doors. The hole wasn't larger than a football.

Was the attacker really this tiny?

I shrugged and touched the door to my left, there were no numbers or other inscriptions, and then put the whole thing in my inventory. The door vanished and left a two-metre thick hole that opened a large room.

The inside was lit alight, more dead people were lying around, this time scientists and most likely engineers. They were all huddled together in a corner and killed with a single attack that cut through their bodies like a Rankyaku or also known as tempest kick, was shot at them.

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There were work benches with half-finished barrels and other small materials. And further inside I found a shooting range with a cannon. It looked nothing like any standard cannon. This one had three barrels, most likely the result of the Three Barrel project.

The targets all held holes with scorch marks and I found a stack of small cannonballs lined up next to the cannon. Their attempt at a Gatling Gun in cannon form? We will need an engineer to maintain this, yet not taking it would be stupid.

Still, this can't important enough to warrant the visit of an Admiral. I know from the manga that there were Gatling Guns in One Piece. Does the ammunition make the difference?

I shrugged, put the weapon in my inventory, grabbed the documents and copied the research data before deleting it from the computer and then destroying the whole room.

I walked back and put the other sea stone door inside my inventory. The noise of keyboard tapping alerted me instantly of someone else being present.

“Bough?”, clucked the known voice of Mrs Chicken Wing.

While wondering what she was doing here, I walked further inside and found tubes with three chickens inside. They were apparently dead and floating inside a clear, slightly blue, liquid.

I stepped around the tubes and found Mrs Chicken Wing standing on a table, watching me. She was directly next to the keyboard.

“Mrs Chicken Wing, did you kill the Marines?”, I asked fully serious. We've long learned that this bird is at least as intelligent as a human.

“Bough bug!”, confirmed the hen. She sounded seriously angry. I wanted to ask something, but she had already turned back and was using one of her claws to tap rapidly on the keyboard.

I walked up to her and read what she was doing. She was calling research data up and deleting it. I could only take a brief glimpse, she was deleting them too fast.

So I walked over to a nearby table with some papers and found a research journal.

Project Feather:

Day 1;

We received the order for a new project, it will run

simultaneously to project Three Barrels.

The task is to find a possible counter

to objects that are easy to infuse with Haki.

Week 2, Day 3;

Samples arrived. A full cage with Kuja Snakes.

They are naturally absorbing Haki.

Tests will show if it is a result of their food

or genetically.

Week 17, Day 1;

We found out that the Kuja Snakes are using Armament Haki

to enhance their muscles and not only their body.

If used on a human this would make the Haki coating

a magnitude stronger than a simple skin coating.

Week 21, Day 3;

We got order to receive new tests subjects.

The Kuja Snakes were interesting but I don't think

they are the real reason for this project.

Week 21, Day 5;

We got chickens, a fleet of five warships

was escorting a sea stone cage with three chicken!

The documents tell me little about their origin,

tests will show me why they are this guarded.

Week 23, Day 4;

The feathers of these chicken are

extremely susceptible to any form

of Haki. And so is their flesh.

We think that each of them is able

to use at least Armament Haki.

Week 24, Day 2;

Fins, a Commodore was ordered to fight one of them,

at first we snickered about the absurdity,

but then the fight started.

The Commodore is now inside the

hospital wing and we had to flood the

arena with sleeping gas before gaining access to him.

The chicken almost breached the blast door

with its Armament Haki enhanced wings.

We also think it is able to use Observation Haki.

What are these chickens?

Week 30, Day 5;

We decided we have found everything

noteworthy on the living chickens.

We will now proceed with the autopsy.

Week 36, Day 7;

We think there is something in their

DNA that makes these chickens

so intelligent and into such

strong Haki user. Some kind of hormone

is produced whenever they activate Haki.

If we can reproduce this hormone

we might be able to help our troops

in learning Haki quicker and also

let them develop a stronger version of Haki.

Admiral Kizaru informed us about

his arrival tomorrow, he will be

pleased with our current results.

I would put this off as a joke, if I didn't know from Lara that such a thing is possible. She once told me about flying piglets that could shoot rainbow lasers out of their eyes. I even saw the memory, nasty buggers.

So Mrs Chicken Wing is one of these strange Haki super powered chickens? It certainly explains her skills in it. “Bough?”, clucked Mrs Chicken Wing suddenly from right next to me.

I turned around and found her staring at me. Her intelligent eyes watching me closely. “So you are a super chicken?”, I asked half jokingly.

She tapped with her claw on a data pat and began to write. This is strange beyond anything.

'Yes, no ones is to know about this. You may tell the Failed Hunter, but no one else.'

“You know, I always wondered from where you are, mind telling me?”, I then asked. It was rare for us to speak with her this clearly. We just never saw the need to buy something with which she could write easily.

'An island beyond Paradise, inside the calm belt, we are a proud clan of birds and the World Government is trying to contain us on it. My husband was overwhelmed during a raid on their ships and captured.

I travelled out to find him and found by you Corn Supplier. On my travels I learned about pirates and came to the conclusion that an alliance will help me finding him. Once I am reunited with him we will brake the blockade and seek vengeance!' Who would have guessed that, an island full of super powered, suppressed chicken that want the downfall of the World Government.

“Say, what is your real name? I mean, we are calling you Mrs Chicken Wing and you me Corn Supplier, while I really am called Lia”, I then asked.

'Nicknames are given to friends in our society. Only while speaking to strangers or formally are we using our given names. My name, Corn Supplier, is Batilda, the third of Poultry.' Is she a noble? A noble chicken.

“We might want to inform Lara about this, you might have noticed her fixation on chicken”, I said with a wry grin. A whole island of these chickens. Lara will freak out and might even nuke them. She is annoyed enough with Mrs Chicken Wing and only recently accepted her as more than food.

'I have noticed, however, the consumption of our lesser stupid brethren is of no concern to us of Poultry. We deem them as not intelligent enough to think. I think it is similar to your view on apes, or your own specific view, Corn Supplier, of humans.

I have noticed your strange behaviour and knowledge about the world, knowledge that is not possible for you two to have. Tell me, do you know anything about Basilisk? It would be greatly appreciated.' So she knows that we are not normal, fine with me, she isn't as well.

“I would, if there is something. Neither Lara nor I have heard anything about someone called Basilisk. Nor have we even heard about chickens or birds such as you. We are kinda world travellers and the world we have knowledge of does not include you. It must be an alternate universe,” I apologised. She stared at me for a moment and then did something that sounded remarkable like an disappointed sigh.

'So be it, I implore you to keep your ears open. In return I will help you like I did today. Would you now help me in the destruction of this disgusting facility?' I nodded, eager to get back and tell Lara about all this. Our resident chicken is apparently strong enough to send an Admiral flying. This is exactly one of the strange things I want to find in our adventure.

“I can place a pressure bomb inside this room, it might be enough to destroy the whole complex”, I offered. Mrs Chicken Wing nodded and waited for me at the door.

I concentrated and produced the strongest pressure bomb I have ever done. The white glowing sphere was left hovering over the tubes when we left. Once outside Mrs Chicken Wing flew back to the Shadow, with me close behind. I even took the three barrelled cannon out of my inventory and carried it.

The moment we touched down I stopped my control over the pressure bomb and a loud rumbled soon reached us. It was not possible to see the result, thanks to the darkness of the night, but it is sure to have destroyed at least the Feather Project laboratory.

“Found anything interesting?”, asked Noa, while eyeing the cannon.

“Only this weapon, I will place it in our storage room for now, we need an engineer before using it”, I replied and looked over to Lara. She had her arm in a sling and asked me the same with her eyes. I mouthed later and she nodded.

What a fucked up and strange day this was.