Honora sighed, loudly. She did little to mask the exasperation she was feeling with the arrival of more trouble. Lazily, she shifted her gaze from the newly named Raphael to the marines, particularly the one who dared aim his rifle at her. Her left eye twitched slightly, her irritation building, but she didn’t make a move that would cause the man to shoot at her. Sure, she could dodge, but she rather not be shot at right now. Not if she could somehow talk herself out of this situation which wouldn’t be possible with the actions of the blue-haired boy. Raphael’s chuckle did nothing to help the situation, but at least he hadn’t launched an attack at the rifle wielding marine or the one who seemed to be the commanding officer.

Another sigh came from the woman as the blue-haired boy vanished, the teen taking that time to massage the bridge of her nose. As the boy reappeared, delivering a kick that was sure to knock the poor marine unconscious, she once again withdrew her halberd. She noted that she has been using her halberd more since coming to Yotsuba and, briefly, she wondered if she was cursed to fight until she left the island before turning her attention back to the situation.

Her eyes were on Tai Zao, who seemed unfazed by the fact his partner had just been sent flying. She watched, as she moved, as the man quickly retaliated against the blue-haired boy, a kick posed to strike the boy in one of two regions - his head or his chest. Not one to just allow little boys to be struck by men at least twice their age in vain, Honora sprung into action. She was simply going to strike whilst the man was distracted, fully aware that attempting to intercept the man would be futile. Her halberd came down upon Tai Zao like an axe, though a simple shift of his body would move him out of harms way.

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Honora’s eyes narrowed out of irritation more than anything else as she abruptly halted her advances. She felt her left eye twitch just slightly as she stared a hole into the face of the marine who dared to shoot at her. At that moment she wished a certain eccentric huntress amongst them right now for she would’ve been satisfied seeing an arrow in his throat with blood spewing from the wound right about now. Which was actually scary now that she thought about it, her violent thoughts, that is. Yotsuba was definitely eating away at whatever prevented people from killing people with each passing day and it would probably be best to leave town as soon as possible before she became someone who killed without a second thought. But, she would think about discussing that with her group later, right now really wasn’t the time to examine her character. Especially not with two marines bent on arresting her and the two males she found herself about to fight with.

Of course, Honora could high tail it out of that situation right now if she wanted to, leaving the two males to combat the two marines all by themselves, but that was cowardly. Now, she wasn’t above doing that, retreating to fight another day, but not when the odds were in her favor. It was a three versus two type of battle and so long as they got up in personal with the sniper or get rid of him altogether, the trio could gang up on Tai Zao. The only problem was that the two were focused on the one without the gun and if the marine wanted to, he could most definitely move away from the obvious hand to hand fighter and shoot them down.

Sure, he could hit Tai Zao and that would be beneficial, but Honora rather not take the chance of the rifle wielding marine being a lousy shot. So, she decided that she would focus on attention on him whilst the boys handled the other marine. Her attention must’ve been obvious for the marine fired another warning shot and demanded she remain where she was or the next would be finding a home in her abdomen, but she would ignore him. It was an empty threat and even if it were real, he’d probably be too concern with getting out of the way of her halberd to consider taking a shot at her.

Now that she thought about it, he wasn’t too smart. If he was, he would’ve been the hidden surprise, keeping his distance from the trio, but instead he had arrived with his boss thus putting himself in unnecessary danger. He was foolish to have thought that the trio would go quietly and Honora would ensure he paid for that foolishness without taking his life, if possible.

So, while the blue-haired boy performed his technique and Raphael kept Tai Zao busy, Honora would close the distance between herself and the rifle marine, running in a zig-zag like manner so he couldn’t get an accurate shot, and swung her halberd with all her might. If things went her way, which was usually a fifty-fifty chance, she would hear a satisfying thwack and the sound of the marine crashing into the nearest building.

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Honora frowned. She knew it was unladylike, her mother sort of hammered that into her head, but she just couldn’t help herself. Removing the air from the marine’s sails, sending him crashing into a wall, and possibly knocking the poor man into next week wasn’t nearly as satisfying as she had hoped. Yes, she was gratified, but not nearly as much as she thought she would be. A smile did not grace her lips. Oh no, she simply stood there, examining the down marine for any signs of movement before finally, finally, turning her attention to Raphael and the blue-haired boy.

She sighed, deeply, the duo still in the process of taking down Tai Zao, but she wasn’t about to interfere. They seemed to be well on their way to being done and she didn’t wish to get in the middle of things. Not with the possibility of having to run from more marines since there was simply no way Tai Zao had come without calling back up. If he had confronted them without informing several other marines within the vicinity then there was no doubt the people in the area would’ve reported the disturbance by now.

Of course, there was the possibility that everyone decided to do nothing about the brawl in the street, but Honora simply couldn’t fathom something like this just being ignored. Especially not in a place crawling with marines though just about every island was crawling with marines - the islands were sort of their domain. So, she would definitely be surprised if they weren’t surrounded by some awfully pissed marines aiming to arrest them by force instead of asking nicely. Even more so now that their leader, Tai Zao, was down for the count, though there was the possibility that he would spring back into action and give chase.

Either way, remaining at their current location like a trio of sitting ducks really wasn’t in their best interest.

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Verbal confirmation, or agreement in this case, was unnecessary. A simple nod of the head was enough to communicate that one agreed. So, that was what Honora did. She nodded her head as she secured her halberd and then, followed Raphael. She was sure to stay behind the dark-skinned man since she wasn’t entirely sure where he was going, but she had a feeling he was just running as far from the scene of the struggle as possible. The more distance they made the better and she wasn’t against that. The only problem was the blue-haired boy, who was visibly tired but understandably so. He was young and just got done with a fight. So, eventually, the trio would have to stop, so that he could rest up.

A suggestion was soon made, courtesy of the young teen boy. An alley way nearby had been the proposed hiding spot and Honora saw nothing wrong with that specific suggestion. Regardless if Raphael wishes, the game would shift from chase to hide-n-seek. She turned into the suggested alley way with the boy in tow. She’d position them on the side of a trashcan, so that they would go unseen by nosey marines.

She took a deep breath before looking at the boy. She hadn’t really gotten his name since they had been interrupted. And now that they were hiding, this was the best time to get it before she forgot or they were confronted once again.

“Er. Ya never gave ya name.”

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Honora raised an eyebrow at the odd name the boy had presented to her. Trently wasn’t exactly a name she had heard before, and she had travelled a lot throughout her youth, so she was inclined to believe it was fake. Yet, the boy’s words told her that he wasn’t kidding and, out of curiosity, she made a mental note to scour any records she got her hands on. If he wished to remain unknown, he should’ve only dropped his name and said no more than that. Instead, he had added that ‘may or may not know of him’ which naturally resulted in Honora needing to solve the mystery. She wouldn’t tell him though. Oh no, she would keep that to herself since there was no reason to impart knowledge that she would be looking him up as soon as possible.

“Honora Fairchild.”

She said with a bow, breaking her brief moment of silence. She smiled at the boy and Raphael, standing upright upon saying:

“Nice to meet your acquaintances.”

She paused for a moment, the kuja considering what sort of questions she wished to ask of the duo whilst they waited for the marines to give up on finding them. She didn’t want to know anything too personal, but she also didn’t want to start one of those mundane conversations that went absolutely nowhere because… well… it was mundane. Ultimately she decided on asking Raphael for his reason for attacking the marines more than necessary. She understood the initial attack, but all he had to do afterwards was scoop up the puppy and high tail it out of there. Perhaps he was some sort of champion for justice… when it came to animals.

So, her gaze shifted to Raphael. She tilted her head to the left.

“Neh. Why did you continue to fight them marines instead, you know, running?”

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