'Excalibur'

For anyone who doesn't know, this is a rewrite of my previous story 'Faith' to make it more interesting, realistic, and, well, generally better overall~

WARNING: There will be some spoilers so read at your own risk!

Enjoy~~

Prologue

Before dawn was my favourite time to hunt. The morning fog of the ocean made for easy captures and also served as a good invisible cloak. It was particularly heavy today, settling around the ship and parting like curtains as we slowly made our way through.

In the distance, about fifty metres away, a dark shadow disrupted the fog. I stiffened, my hand going automatically to my sword secured vertically along my spine. I paused.

"Is that it?" I asked in a low voice. In the silent fog, it seemed much louder. The ship was thirty metres away now. They probably already spotted us at least.

"No doubt," said a man from the crow's nest. He leaned down and nodded once at me; my cue to go.

I wasted no time, stepping on the rail of our ship and leaping to the other, catching the splintered wood and swinging myself over, landing relatively quietly.

To my left, a gun loaded.

I ducked, narrowly missing the bullet and ran forward, unsheathing my sword.

The man was down in less than five seconds. I covered his mouth with my hand.

"Quiet now," I said, waiting until he was unconscious and dragged him to the front of the deck, "The rest of your crew are here anyway."

I spun, raising my sword and blocking a large mace wielded by a large muscled man. Grunting, I pushed him off balance and made a cut across his chest, immediately moving onto the next one.

Next. Right. Left. Block. Strike. The words drilled into me kept repeating as each member fell.

A strangled cry escaped the last member, a woman, as she fell on top of her defeated crew. I checked the deck, listened for any sounds and sheathed my sword. Then I leaned against the railing and got out my Den Den Mushi.

"It's done. Come get them," I said after the Vice Admiral picked up.

"Did you get all of the ones on the Wanted list?"

"Yes."

"List them."

I poked around the group, naming the few I recognised.

"'Knife' Ren, 22, 000, 000 Beli, Abe the Warrior, 27, 000, 000 Beli, 'Hawkeye' Wren, 33, 000, 000 Beli."

"Is that it?"

"There may be more, I can't remember them all."

The ship finally arrived and men started moving the pirates onto the deck and tying them with rope.

"We're going back to headquarters for now. Good work today," the Vice Admiral said to me. He moved on and yelled orders to guard the pirates and take their ship, supplies and weapons. I sat down at the front of the ship, leaning against the railing and propped my sword up beside me, watching the pirates.

It was strange; the pirates looked so peaceful asleep and defenceless. Each of their faces was shallow and somewhat pale; probably living on little food. It wasn't uncommon this far into the Grand Line but it was interesting. I'd seen starving faces, fat faces, evil faces, innocent faces, child faces, but every one of them looked the same in fear.

In the end, everyone is the same when they're afraid, I thought, looking at the pirates' faces, thinking of their fear right before I sliced them down.

The pirates ended up being worth a fair bit put together. After I received my share, higher-ranked soldiers escorted me through the winding corridors; a muscled one in front and a lean, slightly tense one taking up the rear.

"It's good you got back," the muscled one finally spoke, breaking the silence, "Sir was getting impatient. He seems… particularly frantic about killing this group. Sir requested specifically for you to take the job."

I raised an eyebrow, "Where are the others?" Apart from me, there were around thirty or so others that bore the same mark I did. Though it was hard to keep track of them; we didn't know each other's identities even amongst ourselves.

"Out on missions," said the lean one behind me, "There are only so many of you to fulfil every one of their death sentences. More notorious pirates are appearing every day."

I stayed silent; after all, I couldn't argue.

Soon, after walking through unending halls that seemed to resemble more of a maze, the muscled man stopped in front of large, elegant double doors. They were several metres taller than us, encrusted with glistening red jewels and adorned with large pure-gold door knockers. I looked at it and couldn't help but think that a thousand people could live comfortably for the rest of their lives from one door alone.

Ten guards stood on duty, five on each side. When we approached, a huge man stepped forward.

"Who are you and what business do you have?"

I stepped around my muscled escort and lifted the hood off my head, my tumble of navy hair falling carefully in place over the space between my shoulder blades. I looked the guard in the eye, "Saint Charloss' 1st Assassin. I was told to report here."

I turned and lifted my hair over one shoulder, baring my mark to him. It was the mark of the World Noble, but slightly different so it distinguished us from the slaves. Sharp vines wrapped around each claw of the 'hoof' which was supposed to signify us being permanently bound to the World Nobles.

The guard looked at it for a second and nodded, "It's real." He turned and signalled with his arm. The other guards began opening the doors, only large enough for one person to go through. I nodded thanks and slipped through. The doors shut immediately behind me.

"There you are!" a loud voice filled the room almost as quickly as the door shut, "Why have you kept me waiting so long?"

I looked up and flinched.

Saint Charloss sat at the head of a large glass table, hugely swollen, bruised face and all. His family members sat on the left side and, rarely, all three Admirals on the right. An empty seat was at the end of the table; for me I supposed, so I sat down and received a glare from Akainu. I brushed him off, "Good afternoon."

"It most definitely is not!" screamed Saint Charloss, "D' you see what happens when you leave for a mere day?" I assumed he meant his swollen face.

"I couldn't help it, Sir, you ordered me to capture the pirate crew," I said, "We couldn't have gotten back any quicker than now."

"An insolent child!" exclaimed Saint Shalulia, "Does she not know her place?"

"I'm sure she does," said Admiral Aokiji, surprisingly speaking up but he gave me a look, "And I'm sure she knows she can just as easily be replaced."

Admiral Kizaru actually laughed, "I think you're wrong there, Kuzan."

Akainu scoffed.

"How about we get back to the issue at hand?" Saint Roswald said, sounding irritated. Saint Shalulia glared at everyone sitting opposite her in agreement.

"Fine," I said. I placed my sword on the table and sat properly, since I was curious too, "What happened when I left?"

"You remember the Enies Lobby incident," Aokiji said it as a statement.

"Of course," I said. I wasn't there since it happened so suddenly but news had drifted to Sabaody Archipelago of a small pirate crew that broke into the place and defied the World Government, defeated the CP9 and even managed to escape, something that was unheard of before.

"Their bounties rose significantly since then, the Straw Hat Pirates…" I murmured, watching my reflection in the shiny, flawless glass deep in thought.

"With their strength, it was no surprise that they made it here," said Kizaru.

I frowned, "Yesterday?"

Aokiji nodded, "They arrived yesterday and also brought a mermaid with them."

"A mermaid?" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, though who knows how they got one what with almost half of them not being able to swim," said Akainu. He glared at Aokiji, "Just hurry up with the story, Kuzan."

"In short, the mermaid was captured and was prepared to be auctioned off at the Auction House. Saint Charloss bid 500, 000, 000 Beli on her and Straw Hat Luffy, Pirate Hunter Zoro—"

I flinched.

"—and a fishman all burst into the house according to witnesses. Saint Charloss then shot the fishman, Straw Hat punched Saint Charloss and… well, the rest is self-explanatory."

"Punched him?" I looked at Saint Charloss' face out of pure disbelief. It made perfect sense but it was unheard of. Then again, the Straw Hat Pirates were also a crew that was completely in a league of their own… Suddenly it hit me what I was called here for.

"This is why all of you assembled," I said, looking at the three Admirals. Usually only one was present whenever a Noble had a job for me.

"This was an emergency situation," shrugged Aokiji, "And one that we must take care of quickly."

Saint Charloss spoke calmly but it was scarier than if he'd shouted it. The room was dead quiet.

"1st Assassin, Excalibur, I order you to murder the Straw Hat Pirates."

I couldn't look at his face when he said that; I could only stare at my reflection.

I knew it was true then, what I'd thought about on the marine ship just a day earlier and now sitting in some fancy room in Mariejois.

Everyone's face, no matter whether a pirate, marine, Noble, or an assassin like me, looked exactly the same in fear.

So, new story~ :D

I'm going to change things up a bit from the original so I'll put little notes before each chapter~

Hope you enjoyed~