~Third~

*THUD* The whole forest shook from the resulting shock wave, an old man wearing a tengu mask happened to hear it and went to see what the fuss was about, he saw Nicole in a shallow crater shaped like a paw and more interestingly a pin on one of her swords, the old man picked her up and took her to his home.

~skip~

Nicole blinked her eyes clear as she woke up, she remembered what happened and remembered flying for three days and nights, she had no idea where she was, she noticed her swords leaning on the wall next to her but no sign of her pin, that can wait, she dug into her bra and looked at the vivre card from Rayleigh, she tugged it back in sensing someone approaching.

Nicole watched as the old man in a tengu mask walked in, she narrowed her eyes drawing a sword and clashing with him all of the sudden "Give that pin back now"she growled holding the old man in a parry.

"First tell me where did you get it?"the old man asked "Why should that matter?"Nicole glared pushing him back, the old man said nothing holding his ground "It was my mother's, she gave it to me, it's very important"Nicole said.

The old man backed off drawing away his sword and handing the pin to her "I sense you are not lying, a few more questions if i may"the old man said taking a seat, Nicole sensed no hostility from him so she took a seat as well but didn't let her guard down.

"Only if you answer my questions"Nicole said, the old man nodded "You have a deal"he said "So what's your first question?"Nicole asked "What was your mothers maiden name?"the old man asked, Nicole lifted a brow, she wasn't expecting that "Shimotsuki Kiyomi"she simply said.

"Yes, it makes sense now"the old man muttered "Your question then"he said "Where am i?" Nicole asked "You are in Wano"the old man said, "WHAT?!"Nicole asked in shock jumping up "Oh this is bad, this is very not good!"she said pacing around

"How am i supposed to get out of here? Ah wait Kaido is based here, i can steal a ship, ah but i'll have to be careful, oh but just getting to Kaido's base will be hard, his men must have a way in, oh what should i do?"Nicole fretted pacing back and forth biting her nails.

"Hold on please calm down, if you know Kaido you must be a pirate correct?"the old man asked "That's right"Nicole said as she continued pacing trying to figure out what to do "Then another question, who is your father?"the old man asked.

Nicole paused again not expecting that "Why are you so interested in my family history? You don't even know my name, i don't even know yours, you seem to know something about my pin, tell me everything"she said.

"That pin has been passed down in a line of great samurai, from the day Dragon Slayer Ryuma gave it to his wife Ayame, it has been passed down from mother to daughter, your mother was a part of this line and so are you, i am Tenguyama Hitetsu, for generations our families have worked closely together, mine creating legendary swords such as the Kitetsu and Shusui for yours"the old man said.

Nicole was honestly taken aback, she knew her mother had been from Wano but to think this little pin was such a big deal "Whoa i never knew that"she muttered "Now tell me what is your name and who is your father?"Tenguyama asked "Alright, i'm Nicole Mihawk, my father is Dracule Mihawk a warlord of the sea and the greatest swordsman"she said.

"I maybe an old man but please, it would be an honor to serve as your swordsmith lady Mihawk" Tenguyama said bowing down, Nicole sweatdropped a bit "I think you're taking this a bit far but any help would be appreciated, thank you"she said bowing back.

"As you wish mi' lady, how shall i help you?"Tenguyama asked "Well i need to somehow infiltrate Kaido's base, i need to gather info at the very least, but i can't let myself be recognized"Nicole said "Understood, please wait here"Tenguyama said and went to get something.

Tenguyama came back with a mask and handed it to Nicole "I can only offer you this and wish you luck mi' lady"he said, Nicole looked at the mask "The bells are just decorative, they don't make a sound"Tenguyama said.

"Thank you"Nicole smiled and bowed to him "If i may what is your plan mi' lady?"Tenguyama asked as she pinned her hair up "My plan is to first steal some clothes, then find one of Kaido's beast, force them to talk, sneak in, steal newspaper, steal a boat and hope i can sail it on my own"she said.

"And what of those swords?"Tenguyama asked referring to her swords "I'll leave them here, i'll steal new ones or come back for them later"Nicole said putting the mask on her yellow eyes shining from the narrow eye holes.

"Alright then, i wish you luck"Tenguyama said, Nicole nodded and in a flash she was gone, Nicole wasn't quite sure how but she's always had a nack for sneaking around and staying hidden, finding a town was easy, she just had to follow her Haki.

The town was quite large and very crowded which made sneaking around and stealing clothes that much easier, soon enough she had a complete set, she found an empty home to change in and did just so, she wrapped her chest in some wrappings stuffing the vivre card in the same place.

Next came this sweet coat she found with a dragon print on it, she put it on and wrapped a plain black obi around her, she had also stolen this ridiculously long red scarf and wrapped it sorta loosely around her neck, she also wrapped her feet in wrappings and she was done.

Nicole honestly loved how she looked, but the time to admire herself came later, now for the next part, to find one on Kaido's beast so she took off kinda aimlessly wondering around Wano until she would find someone.

Eventually she did and interrogated them and found out the Kaido pirates did have a secret passage way to their base, she forced them to show it to her which they did out of fright and she killed them as thanks, Nicole snuck in and stayed hidden as she made her way further in.

This was too easy, maybe Kaido wasn't here at the moment, or any of his commanders, Nicole was lucky this was the case, she spotted a newspaper and stole it, she would read it later, she also happened upon a transponder snail and stole it too.

Then as Nicole snuck around looking for a ship she heard something, a whisper, her curiosity got the best of her so she followed, to her surprise though she found a room full of devil fruits, no, not quite, SMILE's, yes she knew what they were.

The voice she was hearing wasn't coming from any of them though, there was one in particular discarded in a corner of the room, it felt like it was almost calling to her, Nicole couldn't help following it and found what seemed to be an actual devil fruit, but why was it just tossed to the side? Nicole shrugged it off and stole that too.

Nicole looked around for a while more but found no ships so she headed back out and over to Tenguyama's place, once there she sighed a bit lifting her mask "You're back sooner then i thought"Tenguyama said "I didn't find any ships, i did find this newspaper and this devil fruit"Nicole said looking at the mysterious fruit shaped like an orange.

Nicole still felt like it was calling to her, to be frank she had never thought about eating a devil fruit, she liked swimming and who knows what sort of devil was in this fruit, it was shaped like an orange but was white with red swirls around it, it was weird, she could definitely feel a strange energy from it along with whatever was calling to her.

Nicole shook her head out of it and started to read through the newspapers, it was all about how Ace was set to be executed, the new warlord Blackbeard and Luffy's attack on the Celestial Dragons.

"Well damn, i've gotta find a way to get off Wano, but even if i manage to do that i don't know my way back and i'll have to travel through fishman island anyway, this would of been so much easier with one of Kaido's ships but there were none, oh what am i to do now?"Nicole fretted pacing once again.

"Mi' lady perhaps this devil fruit can help, it might have the power to help you"Tenguyama said, Nicole hummed a bit picking up the orange like thing once again, as much as she liked swimming it was a sacrifice she was willing to make, still though she had no idea what this devil fruit held.

Nicole decided to take the plunge and ate the whole fruit whole, she shivered swallowing it down "Ugh disgusting"she muttered "Do you feel any different mi' lady?"Tenguyama asked "Not really, i feel like there's a voice in the back of my head telling me how to do this, seems i found one of the Zodiac fruits, the mystery thirteenth one, model Wolf, i've gotta try this out"Nicole said and headed out to try out her new devil fruit powers.