35: CP9

"What's with you?! Stop this nonsense! Why do you have to fight a duel with your friend?! If you give it a little time, you two will cool down, right?! Usopp, too. He just got flared up because things were moving quickly."-Nami

"Now that we've come this far, we can't go back."-Luffy

Nami was going to say more but alex interrupts

"we may be friends with him Nami, but luffy is our captain. If he does anything that lets Usopp think he can order luffy around he won't be my captain anymore."

After saying her piece she leaves nami and luffy alone and goes to drink in the kitchen where Zoro and Sanji where arguing about why Zoro didn't beat the franky family up more that way they wouldn't have stolen from Usopp leading to this whole mess. Nami comes in and yells at them to stop arguing and chopper comes back from trying to treat Usopp in tears as he was told they are no longer friends.

Alex continued to drink as she listened to them talk about this mess amd if somehting happened to robin on top of this and that nami felt worried the gang was falling apart. Alex watched as luffy left the ship for the duel with the order that they were not allowed to leave the ship. She watched as Luffy and Usopp started to fight each other with Usopp using his special stars that are more annoying that painful, but he was able to use them to effectively stall luffy for a bit until he set a trap with breath dial filled with gas and shit a flame star at it to cause an explosion.

Luffy was caught in the explosion but he stood up after it without problem but was made to dodge multiple explicit stars from Usopp until he hit him with a gum gum pistol. He was going to continue with a bazooka but Usopp caught the attack with an impact dial and sent luffy flying again, but he got back up and sent a gum gum bullet into Usopp's stomach. The duel was over with this punch leaving Usopp to injured to continue, Luffy then walks back the the ship telling Usopp he can do whatever he want with the Merry.

Chopper tries to go and do treatment on Usopp, but Sanji won't let him of the ship as this isn't a game or quarrel.

He explains that he lost the duel, and if he gets pitied on top of that it would make him extremely miserable and make him suffer. Luffy arrives at the ship almost in tears like the rest of the crew saying it hard and Alex and Zoro say it is part of a captain's responsibility to do what he is doing no matter how hard it is. He has to keep strong as of he wavers who are they supposed to trust. Chopper then runs up to Usopp and leaves the medical supplies needed for self treatment before returning and helping the rest of the crew clear out the ship of their belongings.

The crew then left with their belongings and went to a hotel near shipyard 1 where they were going to get iceberg to make them a ship. The next day they gather on the roof of the inn and talk about their plans for the day until Nami burst onto the roof saying iceberg was almost assassinated last night, so luffy and nami went to check how he was doing. Sanji decided to go look for robin, Zoro and Chopper decided to stay at the hotel, and Alex decided she needed more booze so she went to a bar near the train station that a passerby said was the best.

While alex was getting shit faced at the bar she heard a siren about aqua laguna and asked the bartender who started to clean up the place what it was about, he told her it was a storm surge that would happen around 12. He told her that they need to evacuate to the high ground as the rest of town will be submerged under water during the storm, and that was why he was cleaning up everything in the bar.

Deciding that either more piercings or a tattoo is a good idea Alex got directions to a place in the upper area of the city where they won't be affected by aqua laguna and started to slowly stumble her way there. After an embarrassing long time Alex was able to make it to the store and sobered up a little that she could now walk straight without falling over, she still thunks the tattoo piercing idea is great but she is less drunk than before.

Entering the shop she asked the shop keeper to give her an industrial piercing in her left ear, and to pierce her right ear with a row along the helix and tongue piercing. She also got both nipples pierced and got a half sleeve tattoo of a black and blue cat with a crown on its head sitting on a pile of gold and jewels on her right arm. When she finally finished the tattoos and piercings and left the shop everyone aroud]nd started to stare and point at her saying stuff about how the strawhats are responsible for icebergs assassination attempts.

Alex started walking back to the inn they were staying at but spotted robin on her way, looking at her she seemed super depressed and uncomfortable with the person next to her so she decided to follow them. Alex asked a passer by to deliver a note to the room they were staying at without saying the strawhats stayed there and jumped into a passing shadow and followed along with robin and the masked dude. As robin passed under a bridge with the guy alex went into her shadow to make it easier to follow robin around as she just has to stay in her shadow rather than travel from multiple shadows trying to keep up.

She followed robin to a building where she met with two others who thanked her for shooting iceberg for them, he them says ablut how they will infiltrate icebergs house again tonight as they were still looking for something if worse comes to worse they will eliminate all evidence. They also mentioned that what they want was originally with a guy named tom who then passed it on to one of his two disciples, either iceberg or cutty flam. The only living disciple of tom is iceberg therefore he must have the item, and as cp9 they will retrieve it tonight at all costs.

Alex wasn't able to see who it was speaking as he was wearing a cloak covering his face, so she tried to recognize his voice in case she meets him later somewhere else. Alex decides to stick with robin until she gets a chance to wither kidnap robin or interfere with what she is doing.

Alex watched as robin ran into chopper and sanji and tells them she is leaving the crew, and about how she will endsnger the crew by staying, she also mentioned about how she did attack iceberg. Alex quickly writes about the attack tonight and that robin is being forced on a piece of paper she wrapped part of her shirt around and tied to a dagger and waited for a chance to slip the paper to Sanji or Chopper. As robin turned around to walk away Alex used the motion to whip the dagger out of the shadow and into the wall near chopper, this caused robin to think she just saw it as when turning the world behind kinda blurs so she thought it was part if the building

moving with her head rather than a knife being thrown.

As followed robin as she went with the masked guy to icebergs house and listened as a female contacted them about being ready to do their mission after she make a diversion. Alex stayed in her shadow during her dash and battles while invading icebergs house, and while the guy used a door he made into the wall in order to enter the residence, she struggles with that one as the shadow almost disappeared on her. She watched as they entered icebergs room through the same method they did his house, and the guy explains to iceberg that his power is the door door fruit, which allows anything he touches to become a door. Alex found out through iceberg that the group forcing robin was cp9 and how they kept him alive the first time so they could pin the blame on the strawhats, while they get away with the item.

He explained how the item is passed down from master to disciple and if iceberg feels his life is in danger he would give it to someone else in this case paulie, and how his fellow members are already taking care of paulie as they speak.