Chapter 196

As she sat in her bedroom, combing her hair in front of a mirror, Khalifa stopped what she was doing upon hearing a whooshing sound, a dark shadow appearing behind her.

"Do you need something, Lucci?" Khalifa asked, raising an eyebrow as she put down the hairbrush. "I need to be ready before my target arrives..." she added, faintly smiling as she began applying her lipstick.

"What do you think you're doing, Khalifa?" Lucci flatly asked as he stood behind her, motionless as he spoke. "This is not part of the mission," he added, crossing his arms.

"It isn't. But it won't impede the mission either," Khalifa replied as she finished applying her lipstick, smacking her lips as she looked at her reflection in the mirror.

"I'm going to take the target to Blueno's bar," Khalifa said, shifting in her seat as she began tying her hair in a pun. "I should have him unconscious and ready for capture by the end of the day..." she added, standing up and straightening her black dress.

"This debacle could blow your cover," Lucci stated, unimpressed.

"Hardly anyone knows I'll go out with the target... and even if someone did..." Khalifa replied as she picked up a perfume bottle. "I've been Iceburg's secretary for how many years now?" Khalifa rhetorically asked as she turned to face Lucci, amusement in her tone.

"I'll play the victim and pretend the target tried to assault me," Khalifa added, applying the perfume to her neck. "It'll be my word against whoever says otherwise. Who do you think Iceburg will believe?" she asked, shrugging her shoulders.

"Very well. Do as you please," Lucci said with a frown. "But you're on your own, don't expect any help... We can't afford to blow our covers," he added, shaking his head.

"It won't come to that..." Khalifa said, craftily smiling as she heard a knock on the door. "Now, if you'll excuse me. My date is here," she concluded, picking up her purse and heading towards the door as Lucci disappeared into the shadow.

...

As she opened her eyes, Khalifa groaned, cradling her head as she felt a headache.

"What happened...?" she murmured aloud, looking around and finding herself back in her bedroom. And it was morning already, evidenced by the rays of sunlight worming their way into the room through the curtain gaps.

"You failed," spoke someone in a flat tone, prompting Khalifa to turn to the source of the voice, dazed as she saw Lucci standing in a dark corner of the room, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"What...how...?" Khalifa murmured, clutching her head, the headache growing more intense as memories of last night flooded her brain.

"You tell me," Lucci said in a cold tone, giving her a bemused look. "I've already informed Iceburg you'll be taking a day off," Lucci said as he got off the wall and started walking towards the exit.

"Take the time to think about your failure..." Lucci said as he opened the door. "There won't be a second time, Khalifa," he concluded, walking through the door and closing it behind him.

Khalifa's expression turned somber as Lucci left, anger filling her face as the events of last night came back to her.

Everything seemed to be going well. Johnny arrived at her doorstep with a bouquet of extinct flowers he claimed came from Little Garden, an island with many specimens of extinct flora and fauna still living on its surface, and saying he bought them during his voyage in the past.

It didn't matter either way. She invited Johnny into her house as she placed the flowers into a vase and took the chance to chat him up, trying to gain intel with little success as he gave her half-truths and vague answers.

Johnny was surprisingly careful with his answers, but it was nothing a few drinks and a little cleavage won't fix, or so Khalifa thought as she proceeded to ask him about his plans for their date.

He smiled, telling her he had no plans since he didn't know the city, and came here intending to follow her lead, hoping Khalia would show him around Water Seven as they went about their date.

Khalifa planned to take Johnny to Blueno's bar as soon as possible and have the Blueno spike his drinks with a strong sedative, rendering him unconscious so she could bind him and move him to a secure location.

Showing Johnny around Water Seven before taking him to Blueno's bar would delay her plans, but Khalifa could use that time to get more information about his crewmates, and so she agreed after giving it some thought.

The two of them existed Khalifa's house and boarded the Yagura boat Johnny had rented for the occasion, their first destination being the Aqua Elevator.

Khalifa's house was on Shipbuilding Island, so they needed to take the Aqua elevator to get to the other islands, and so they did, heading towards the Shopping island first.

Khalifa asked him what he thought about the Aqua Elevator, intending to figure out how much he knew about technology to determine whether he had any part in augmenting his body by gouging his reaction to the elevator.

However, to Khalifa's surprise, Johnny merely smiled, stating that it was a clever application of hydraulics in a tone that made her believe he said out of politeness and nothing else, as he didn't seem impressed.

However, what astonished her the most was his comment about nine-year-olds building similar constructs with something he called Minecraft, which could either indicate he came from a technologically advanced island or that he was spouting nonsense.

Either way, Khalifa noted down that remark in her mind, and she will report it to her superiors, as it was not her place to deliberate or do anything about such info.

They toured the Shopping island with Khalifa diligently playing the role of a guide/date as she introduced Johnny to the local cuisine, such as water meat and other local dishes.

Although Johnny proved himself to be a more pleasant company than she had anticipated, with his carefree attitude and the occasional joke that would make her smile despite herself, Khalifa did not forget her objective.

She urged him to talk about his exploits in the sea, claiming she knew little about the world outside of Water Seven, and he didn't hesitate to tell her about some of the places they visited and the enemies he defeated.

And although he didn't let out anything of real value about himself and his crewmates, it was still better than nothing, as she gained intel that the official report about Johnny didn't include.

Time quickly passed as they visited the various parts of Water Seven, until there was not much left to see, so they headed to a restaurant to have dinner.

Khalifa herself had a light meal while Johnny ordered several local dishes. And although he requested too much food for a man his size, he was surprisingly mannered and not messy when eating every bit of it, considering he was a pirate.

He told her more and more about his travels without saying anything about his time before West Blue and his crew's whereabouts recently, and she listened intently, pretending to be ignorant of the world outside Water Seven.

They finished their meal in that manner, and Khalifa suggested they have a couple of drinks to end their night. Johnny agreed without any hesitation, so they made their way towards Blueno's bar after Johnny paid for the meal, leaving a surprisingly generous tip as they left.

Everything went smoothly until this point, but it suddenly went south when they started drinking.

Khalifa was confident in her alcohol tolerance, as resistance to intoxicating and poisonous substances had been a part of her training as a CP9 agent.

She intended to make use of that to get Johnny drunk, and get as much information about his crewmates as possible before signaling Blueno to spike his drink.

But she didn't account for Johnny's inhuman alcohol tolerance, nor his immunity to poison.

She quickly drank herself into a stupor with Johnny seemingly none the worse after enough drinks to render the heaviest drinkers catatonic without gaining any intel.

It was then that Khalifa realized she might have bitten more than she could chew and gave up on getting Johnny drunk as she signaled for Bluno to spike his drink.

Johnny took the drink and downed it in one gulp with no hesitation to no effect, much to her and Blueno's confusion. But she still didn't give up as she kept drinking, hoping the sedative was merely delayed, despite Johnny's efforts to persuade her otherwise.

Khalifa soon had too much to drink, and she was barely holding on to her consciousness when Johnny put her on his shoulder as he paid the bill and prepared to leave.

Khalifa finally began to panic, but she was helpless, so she turned to look at her colleague with an imploring gaze, only to be met with a pair of mocking eyes as Blueno shook his head, much to her shock and dismay.

The trip back to her home felt like an eternity, but they still reached their destination sooner than she would have liked.

Johnny didn't waste any as he took the house's key from her purse, quickly making his toward the bedroom. He threw her onto the bed, his hand reaching towards her.

She closed her eyes, bracing herself. However, what she waited for did not come as Johnny just pulled the bed's covers over her body and left.