Chương 131: Martial Art Thief
Cherry spent the night sneaking from school to school, looting their secret stashes for whatever techniques she could find.
Most of the martial artists didn't have much in the way of security, or rather they didn't have any security that could keep Cherry out. Or even catch a glimpse of her for that matter.
'Well this is a real disappointment. I guess I shouldn't have expected the boxers to be the bookish sort…' Cherry said, tossing the so-called martial arts manual back into a drawer.
"Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way. It would have been easier to just challenge all the dojos and absorb their techniques that way. I suppose getting some practice sneaking about doesn't hurt though." Cherry muttered under her breath.
There was still one school to go to though, so she'd finish what she started at least.
The last target was actually a front for some kind of assassin organization. They'd try to recruit whatever talents they found, either by tempting them or through more nefarious means.
From the outside, the dojo looked average in just about every metric one could judge it through appearances. This included the security measures, as one could only see a few guards patrolling around the property.
Of course, the true security was actually the highest of any of the schools, as there were many well hidden individuals tucked away in places the average person wouldn't look. They glowed just as brightly as anyone else in Cherry's Life Sense.
Cherry didn't know how to get into the secret compound without risking giving herself away. So she chose to reveal herself in a controlled manner.
Cherry snuck behind one of the obvious guards and over the wall, making sure that the hidden guards could see her just fine in the moonlight.
As expected, the hidden guards made no moves to stop her, as they were there for the hidden compound, not for the false dojo. They signaled one another and one of them moved to another location and descended underground. Presumably he was going to report the intruder.
Seeing this, Cherry made a show of searching for the martial arts manuals and stealing them. Then she left the dojo the way she came in, all the while making sure she was only seen by those she wished to see her.
Now that they thought she had left with what she came for, she could start with the true infiltration.
This time she kept to the blind spots of every guard, hidden or not, and found her way to the trapdoor beneath a rug. Lifting the trap door ever so gently as to not make any sound, she swiftly descended into the darkness.
Cherry found herself in what appeared to be a secret storage for alcohol. Clever to hide a secret entrance inside an already secret room.
Cherry used her superior senses to examine the room and quickly found that one of the barrels was empty. Taking the lid off and crawling inside, she found that the other end of the barrel could also be opened and found herself inside a stairwell.
Cherry looked at the steps of the stairwell in the pitch black darkness. She could see perfectly well, even in these conditions, so it was quite immediately apparent that the steps were coated in dust, but there were no footprints from the guard who entered earlier.
Seeing that the stairwell was somewhat narrow, she held herself up off the ground by spreading her arms and legs against the walls. She moved in this fashion down the stairwell until she reached the bottom which was closed off by a reinforced door.
The lock on the door looked quite sturdy. It was also untouched, and after poking around the door, Cherry found a false panel which revealed the real lock. Cherry used her devil fruit to bust it open. They'd know something was up when they found it like this, but Cherry would likely be long gone by then.
Slipping into the door and quietly closing it behind her, Cherry moves into the secret training facility.
No one was sleeping down here, all the trainers and trainees were wide awake and honing their skill sets, so Cherry had to be extra careful now.
'Would it kill them to label the doors? How's a thief meant to find their way around the place if you don't clearly mark the doors and have the occasional map of the facility to find your way?' Cherry thought silently.
Cherry found the individual that went down to report her previous intrusion exiting a room with another person within. Thinking this is likely to be a leader of some sort, Cherry decided not to wait it out and decided to simply barge into the room. Sneakily.
Cherry waited until the individual inside diverted their attention and slipped inside the room without a sound, fusing the door shut along the way.
The leader of the assassin training facility looked up thinking he sensed something, but seeing nothing he returned his eyes to his paperwork. He did not lower his guard however, he had been an assassin for too long to completely dismiss a funny feeling that turned up nothing.
Cherry was standing behind the man, having dropped to the floor out of the man's line of sight in front of his desk. Then she skirted around the desk when his attention had focused on the door and slipped behind him.
Cherry read through the paperwork he was working through, it appeared to be a request for additional recruits as a job went really bad and had gotten a lot of their operatives killed. There were no details on the jobs itself, though.
Cherry turned around and poked through some other files that were left out. There were some filing cabinets as well, but she would have a hard time opening them without attracting attention.
Not that she needed to bother with all this nonsense, as the man in here with her was dreadfully weak compared to her. It would be a simple matter to simply knock him out and do as she wished without interference. But where would the fun be in that?
Unfortunately, she didn't find anything interesting in these documents either. This wasn't the main base of this particular group of assassins, only a place to train recruits. Likewise the information here only seemed to pertain to that training.
"*Sigh* How dreadfully dull…" Cherry spoke aloud.
The man spun around, meaning to attack immediately with deadly precision. Unfortunately for him he was outmatched and Cherry knew what he would do before she spoke up.
His throat was grabbed the instant he had turned far enough to face her. He felt his vocal cords get shredded before he could scream or call for help. A rain of blows landed on his body, pulverizing the joints of his bones and thus rendering him almost completely unable to move.
As a last ditch effort to resist in some way, he tried to push himself to fall backwards, in the hopes that he could make some noise that somebody might hear, but Cherry simply caught him and settled him back down into his chair.
Even after all that, the man still had the nerve to glare at her, not an ounce of fear in his eyes.
"Where do you keep your martial arts manuals and anything else in regards to technique, such as poison recipes?" Cherry asked with a soft voice.
'I can't talk, you stupid bitch!' The man spoke coldly in his mind.
"Perhaps not, but you can point with your eyes." Cherry said.
The man wasn't impressed that she seemed to know what he was thinking. It was a pretty predictable thought, after all. He did not cooperate and simply waited for death and prepared to be tortured.
"I'm not going to torture you. It's distasteful and rarely produces good results, especially with your sort. I just thought I'd give you the chance to save me some time. If you cooperate, then I promise not to cripple every single one of your men here. If not, then I have no qualms in doing just that." Cherry threatened.
The man didn't think she was lying, she said it far too casually and after how she took him out in seconds he believed she was capable enough to follow through. He carefully weighed the pros and cons of cooperating, but the choice was clear. She would likely find what she wanted anyways, so it's better to save his men if he could.
The man directed her to a hidden safe and blinked to give her the code.
Cherry dialed the safe and opened the door.
*Poof!*
Cherry received a face full of poisonous gas, she turned to look at the man who was glaring at her with a gloating hate.
Cherry only smiled under her mask and shook her head. Poison of this caliber was useless against her even if she didn't deliberately deal with it with vital energy.
She took out the documents and started to read over them, as the man slowly lost his good mood and grumbled to himself in silence.
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