Week 16 [M] Jensen Gunnert <Chapter 1. Night Terror>

**Behemoth** Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:59 am

The harsh waves thrashed against the hull of the boat, the ocean spray drenching all who were unlucky enough to be caught in its wake; the storm came out of nowhere. There were no tell-tale signs of one brewing yet the wind blew hard as if the great god of wind, Fujin had decided to punish them; the sails were in tatters and the mast was swaying uncontrollably. If the wind didn’t cut out soon the whole ship would capsize; drowning at least 80 brave marines. These winds must have capsized hundreds of innocent ships and hopefully a few pirate ones. Drowning at sea would be the worst possible way for a man of the sea to go, the icy cold water, filling up their lungs and simultaneously burning and freezing their insides. If drowning didn’t get to them the cold water and freezing wind would surely give them hypothermia.

The continuous rocking of the boat would make most people blow chunks, however not on this boat; the marines here were complete veterans of the sea, and these men were completely infallible. The harshest of winds couldn’t shake them, however the latest recruit of this hardy group of men couldn’t compare; his sea legs were average at best and his stomach was churning so much he may as well had been making butter in there. He clung to the rails so tightly his hands were turning white; this was the first time he had experienced the sea in such a manner.
The mighty sea had thrown many obstacles in the way of sailors in the past, typhoons, squalls, whirlpools and many more; all of these things man had to endure and overcome. Why should a storm be any different? All of the other marines were managing to keep calm under pressure, why couldn’t he? Was it due to his inexperience, or because he wasn’t used to these kind of situations?

Jensen summoned up all the courage he could muster to let go of the rail, his legs quivered and his stomach was doing more somersaults than an acrobat; still he persisted. He walked over to the mast as fast as he could, the ocean spray soaking him some more. The boat jerked around violently but he managed to grab hold of the mast, slowly he began to untie the mainsails rigging. Lowering the white sail, so the wind wouldn’t capsize them; the only thing left that could wash them away forever was the lethal city-block like waves that dwarfed the marine vessel.

Another wave crashed into the boat, the young marine’s feet being pulled from under him; the boat swayed violently and he began to slide towards the starboard bulwark. Rolling onto his stomach he tried to dig his fingers into the solid wood below. Anything would do to stop him from falling to his demise, a lose nail, a bent plank, even a hole would do. Anything would do, just as long as he didn’t drown at sea. No matter how frantically he searched for something to dig into, there was nothing. His fingers began to bleed as his nails snapped from their cuticles as he continued to slide towards the ferocious depths of the sea.

The captain of the ship turned from his post to spot the young recruit sliding towards the bulwark and barked something, something that Jensen couldn’t hear over the howl of the wind, all he could see was the stout man’s mouth opening and closing while pointing and waving frantically. How sad, his first day out on the open sea would become his last, that is just how fickle Mother Nature is.

A steady stream of blood, ran along the width of the weather deck, the trail leading towards Jensen Gunnert; his fingers bleeding quite profusely. He hadn’t given up on living just quite yet, as long as there was breath in his body he would try his damnedest to remain alive. Another great tsunami like wave crashed into the hull, sending barrels, cannons and gun powder overboard; yet again the boat was slammed with another colossal wave and with the random pieces of fly debris the young navel recruit was sent hurtling into the icy deeps of the North Blue.

The water was so cold it felt as if he was being burnt from the inside, like someone had poured molten lava down his throat. With vehement fury the briny deep tossed him around like a ragdoll, he stood little chance of being rescued. He had to escape this by himself; with all the strength he could muster he kicked his legs as hard as he could. Trying his best to keep his head above water; the water was so cold just staying awake was difficult. I’ve got to stay awake, if I let myself drift off. It’s over!/i] he thought, [i]Stay awake, Jensen. I can’t go down like this. he deliberated on this one thought trying to focus in on it. However his body began to feel numb as hyperthermia began to set in, his legs grew weak; his arms felt like lead and slowly but surely his head began to bob underwater.

With all of his strength being sapped from his body, he sank; his body being enveloped by the cold embrace of the murky depths he descended. Gently floating down without enough strength to swim back to the surface, never mind getting back onto the ship; the footsteps of the grim reaper grew ever closer. His heart was beating so fast it felt like it was about to explode from his chest. His oxygen deprived brain craved for fresh air. In his mind he screamed for air, he knew however if he so much as tried to breath his lungs would fill with water and he would surely drown.

How did this happen? he questioned himself. When he set out this morning there was no indication of anything difficult was about to befall him, yet here he was sinking towards the ocean floor, with no hope of escape. There was little else he could do but accept death, Looks like I’ll never get to see what the world looks like standing at the top of it. It seems like I was destined to end up the same way as my father, dying without ever having accomplished my dream. Feeling his death approaching him he couldn’t help but smile. A broad foolish smile, he knew that he was about to die yet he couldn’t help but smile. I’m coming pops. he thought, unable to resist the need to breath any long. The air rushed from his lungs, bubbles gushed out of his mouth, quickly being replaced by the salty sea-water. It was over…

“What’s your name boy?” A tall, old looking marine said. His face covered in scars and an enormous grey moustache coming from his upper lip; it looked as if he had stuck a mop head to his face. It wiggled as he spoke.

“Sir, Jensen Gunnert, Sir.” Jensen said his back poker straight and his right hand held over his eyebrow; saluting the old commodore. His stomach was doing backflips; it was making him nervous just standing in front of him. The legendary Commodore Brutus Mailer, he captured hundreds of pirates over the years, he had practically filled impel down by himself. He had constantly turned down promotion to stay close to his family in North Blue; if he had accepted promotion he would more than likely be one of the Admirals. His colossal reputation could only have been matched by his massive stature. He stood close to 22 feet tall, and must have weighed well over a tonne; all of it pure muscle. He was as close to a giant as Jensen had ever met, despite only being a normal human. Wherever he came from, they grew their marines big; it was rumoured that his mother was a giant. Only rumours though, no one would ever have dared said it to his face.

“How long have you been here, son?” The legend said, his moustache still wiggling, long after the rumble of his voice had subsided. Jensen’s hair stood on end he could easily understand why this man had lasted so long as a marine. His presence was intimidating just standing in front of him was enough to scare even the bravest of men; never mind a fresh faced recruit. Each of his syllables was like a bark.

”T-two years, Sir.” He stuttered, sounding slightly surprised. It really had been two years since he entered the marines. So far he had been stuck on dry land not once had he been involved in a military operation. All he was good for was moping, dusting, cooking and cleaning. Of course he had been training as well turning his average body, into that worthy of a marine; perfectly sculpted muscles; only one single scar ruined his otherwise perfect body. A distinct nihihahahaha laugh echoed out of the legends mouth.

”Two years, eh? You must have been quite unremarkable, two years is a long time. That or you’ve never been given the chance. ” he sat there running his fingers through his thick moustache. ” You know what kid, I’m going to give you, your chance to shine. Next week Captain Falsh is coming back to base. You’re going on to his ship. You’ll be away for six months and if you’ve not been promoted by then. I’ll kick you out. Sound fair?” He started laughing with his strange chuckle like laugh. He didn’t seem so bad when his face was plastered with a smile; Jensen imagined that’s what his grandfather would have looked like. He didn’t know his own grandfather, as he was already long dead and buried by the time he was born.

”Sir … That’s a bit …” Jensen stuttered once again, trying to force out words that he knew would only land him in hot water. ”extreme, Sir.”

The smile on the old man’s face vanished as quickly as it appeared. Replaced by a scowl, he stood up and looked down on the young recruit. ”Extreme? Nihihahahaha. You don’t know the meaning of the word. I can show you extreme if you want? I’ll throw you out of the fucking base right now; I’ll skim your skinny little ass right across North Blue into the fucking red-line. Now does that sound extreme to you?” his face reddened, veins popping out of his neck and his nostrils flared. All that was missing from him was fire coming from his mouth. This man was truly a monster; Jensen swallowed hard opening and closing his mouth as if to say something but the words not ever finding their way. Jensen simply nodded in agreement; there was little else he could do. Standing in front of this behemoth of a man, he was just an ant stood below a boot. ”Now get the fuck out of my office, before I rip off your head and piss down your throat.” Brutus roared saliva spewed from his maw, drenching the recruit. Visibly shaken, Jensen saluted and turned 180 degrees to the door, he walked out slowly. As the office door shut Brutus looked on, showing a toothy grin. ”Gunnert, eh? The kids got a set of rocks on him; I bet he makes a name for himself.”

Once outside Jensen let out a loud sigh, sinking to his knees; he was trembling all over. It was a frightful site, seeing a grown man reduced to his knees after simply being shouted at. Commodore Mailer wasn’t a man to be trifled with; he knew that now. Simply answering the man back can reduce him to a trembling mess; he would be much wearier around him or at least learn to deal with his way of doing things. ”Well … That was fucking terrifying.” he said trying to laugh it off, he pushed himself slowly to his feet, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. Taking a deep breath he walked past several marines that seemed to be in a queue to enter the Commodore’s office. He didn’t envy them, each and every one of them looked terrified and they must have heard his voice echoing out of his office.

After leaving the worried marines behind him, he calmed himself down by going to train some more. That was right; a long training session would help clear his head. It wouldn’t be long until he’d be stuck on a ship hunting pirates, protecting the innocent, solving crimes. This was the life of a marine and how he loved the idea of it. He burst into a sprint, bounding down the hall of the marine base; with each stride he was coming closer to the gym.

With a sharp right turn, he burst through the door of the gym. With a horrific, bone crushing smash, he collided with another marine. Laid out on the floor was another fresh faced looking recruit. Jensen ducked down to see if he was alright. He got close to him and the marine shot up, slamming his forehead into Jensen’s nose. Blood shot out of his nose, it streamed down his face and covered his plain white shirt. Dude??? What the fuck … Jensen said the blood still running down his face; clenching his fist. The other marine, turned around with a sick little smile spread across his face; letting out a chuckle. Jensen slammed his fist straight into his jaw, sending him flying backwards into the wall.

”Tough guy, eh? The recruit said, wiping the blood from his lips. He stood up dusting himself down; he raised his hands and tucked in his chin. ”Yeah, I am. You’re gunna get the beating of your life.” Jensen said as he mirrored his stance. The two marines rushed towards each other, each of them throwing a right hand and connecting; their heads flew backwards. Jensen was the first to recover; he swung his left leg around; smashing his foot straight into his adversaries chin. He continued to rush the other marine, slamming right after left fist into the marine’s face.

Jensen flung a wild right hand, only to have it caught by the marine. He wrapped his arms around it, swiftly flinging his legs around Jensen’s extended arm and forcing him to the floor. He continued to yank and twist his arm until it started to make a strange noise. Jensen grunted and whimpered trying to get free of his arm lock; tugging and pulling. It wouldn’t be long until his shoulder and elbow both came free from the bone and Jensen’s arm became useless. The other marine started to slam his clenched fist into Jensen’s face; he could feel blood dripping from his face. With a herculean amount of effort, Jensen’s arm burst free from the dreaded arm lock; he speedily clambered on top of the other marine and swung his head down, blood pouring from both of their faces. Cracking noises echoed out, something broke; unsure if it was something of his or the other recruits.

Jensen was breathing heavily from his mouth, his nose was ruined and he couldn’t breathe from it. Jensen started hammering him with elbows; he could see more and more cuts appearing on the face of the other marine. It wouldn’t be long until it was completely unrecognisable, Jensen stood up feeling as if he had shown his dominance. He started to walk away, ”Fucking retard, should have just acted like a man.” He spoke; spitting out a mouthful of blood. He let a toothy smile appear across his face; blood dripping out of his nose and from cuts all over his face. He headed towards the door, when he was forced forwards; something slamming into his back. He crashed through the door; the other marine obviously hadn’t had enough, as he landed on top of him. ”Fucking bastard.” Jensen cursed; sticking his thumb in the eye of the other marine and he could feel the wet squidgyness of his eye. The marine jumped backwards not wanting to have his eye popped from his socket. Jensen pushed himself up, swinging his knee directly into the floored opponent’s face. Feeling something break, Jensen assumed it was his jaw. He grabbed the marine by the hair and pulled him up; wrapping his arm around the marines neck and he started tightening his grip. The marine swung his arms and legs around, desperately trying to escape. He started clawing at Jensen’s arm tearing chunks of meat from it. Jensen jumped up and wrapped his legs around the marine’s waist. He continued to tighten until the marine stopped struggling; his body went limp and lifeless.

The marine’s face had gone purple; cutting off the blood flow to his head did nothing for the cuts across his face, blood covered Jensen’s arm, a mixture of his own and the other marines. Jensen let go of the choke-hold, standing up he spat out more blood. ”Persistent little bastard aren’t ya. If you weren’t such a complete twat; it would have been fun.” Jensen wiped blood from his face; he kicked the unconscious recruit to make sure he was still breathing. He could see his diaphragm moving in and out; still alive, eh? Good. Jensen started walking away once again, in a few minutes there would be an uproar over who started this; hopefully this wouldn’t affect his departure.

After stopping off by the sick bay and sixteen stitches later; Jensen was well on his way towards his regular duties. He was out on patrol, nothing ever happened whenever he was on patrol. It was just his luck, here he was in a world full of pirates and he hadn’t seen one in their ‘natural habitat’ hopefully it would change soon, getting stuck on a boat full of hardened marines with him having almost zero real-life experience. Walking down the street, he passed by familiar face; store owners, drunkards, street urchins and regular civilians.

The age of pirates was at hand, yet in this town they seemed to hide from him. Not out of fear, but just to piss him off. All across the world there were countless tales of pirates invading, fighting and just causing a general ruckus; not once had Jensen been privy to such an event. A mix of relief and anger washed over him, angry at the pirates for never rearing their ugly heads in his presence and relief over the same matter. Such was his life that even in the most hostile of times he would have serenity; it made him sick. Whilst in the midst of his thoughts a small child fell in front of him, if he had been paying less attention he would have ended up standing on the poor buggers head. Instead he ducked down, picking the child up off the ground and wiping the dirt off of him. ”Are you alright, kid?” Jensen said, still wiping the dirt from him. The kid simply smiled and through his arms around the marine’s neck. From behind he heard a distinct clicking noise, the marine spun around, whipping the kid off of the ground and holding him under one arm. The child struggled against his captors grip, ”Get off me fucker,” the child shouted, still struggling. Jensen looked down the barrel of the gun and as sure as there was a nose on his face, stood before him were three shabbily dressed men. Each of them looking more scruffy than the last, the first one; the one that held the gun wore a plain black pair of baggy trousers and a yellow sash around his waist. Like his two suspicious companions he didn’t wear any shoes; however all of them wore a sadistic smile. The sight made him feel sick, ”You should have been taught better manners.” Jensen said to the child beneath his arm, he was tempted to throw him at the pirates and use the chance to attack. Although his moral’s stopped him, barely; rude children was something that annoyed him more than anything else.

”Drop the boy, marine. Or would you prefer I gave you something you could share with him.” the pirate bellowed, before laughing hard; this cackle was full of malice and bloodlust, it made Jensen’s skin crawl, it was as if someone had unleashed a comic book villain into the world. The other two chimed in with their own laughs, the one on the right of the gunman was short and dumpy; he must have just been over three feet. Bald headed and with a chin full of curly black hair; he looked like he was originally normal sized, only to be compressed downward. The other man was tall, skinny and looked like a rat, with long whisker like hairs sticking out of his top lip, with buckteeth and beady little eyes. Jensen snarled, ”You should teach this little bastard some manners, he sounds worse than you fucking ugly pirates.”

”Ugly??” The three pirates said in unison, staring at each other with a confused look in their eyes. It looked like someone had given them piles of shit for Christmas and then shot their puppies in front of them. Jensen would have felt sorry for them, if they hadn’t pulled a gun out on him. The small child under his arm was still struggling desperately to escape from his clutches; Jensen had almost had enough of his wriggling. ”Would you stop moving, do you want me to use you to beat these retarded pirates half to death?” The kid simply squeaked, it didn’t seem like he liked the idea of being used as a bludgeoning weapon.

The pirates begun to circle around Jensen, like a pack of hungry hyenas; they snarled like ravenous wolves. Jensen smiled slowly; he looked around making sure to keep the three of them in front of him as to stop himself from being surrounded. Jensen quickly assessed the situation, it was obvious that he had to get rid of the one with the gun first. Keeping a tight hold of the kid under his arm he rushed forth, keeping a low centre of gravity he’d be quicker to strike.

The hammer of the gun pulled back, with an ear splitting explosion of sound and a flash, the flintlock fired out its round bullet, it whizzed past Jensen’s ear almost taking it clean from his head. Jensen continued pressing in, taking a grip of the barrel of the gun with his left hand, he twisted it anti-clockwise slackening the grip of the pirate before he planted a left footed side kick straight into his jaw. Jensen spun on his axis, at the same time as the pirate was sent hurtling backwards; flinging the gun into the air, he propelled himself into the air kicking out at the rat-looking pirate; firmly planting his foot into his chin. He grabbed the gun on his descent, pulling back the hammer and firing the bullet at the fat pirate, it shot straight through the fat ones shoulder leaving a trail of smoke, burnt flesh and blood in its wake. The child that was under his arm had fallen silent, completely befuddled by the event that he had witnessed. It was as if the entire world had stopped for just one instant as the entire street was silenced, then with an eruption of applause, it had been shocked into life once more. Women fawned, men smiled and nodded and children stood with their maws agape, the standards of marines were rising, that was for certain.

The pirate whose gun Jensen was holding and the rat-pirate both stood up, rubbing their respective injuries; they looked at one another and then down at the fat one; who was now rolling around the ground in agony, holding his searing flesh wound. They were unsure if it would be wise to try and avenge their injured comrade, try to save their captive one or just to run away, although it didn’t look like there would be any room for them to escape. The streets were lined with civilians, not that it mattered to them, all they needed was one of them to get a little too big for their britches and they had a Mexican stand-off. Jensen was well aware of this as well, which is why he wasn’t prepared to let any of the ordinary citizens get involved, it would just cause a mess that he didn’t want to deal with.

It seemed strange to Jensen that despite never having fought any pirates before, that the competition would be so pathetic; the marine that he knocked out earlier was much more troublesome. Then again he had been trained in the exact same manner as him. The only difference between them was the will, Jensen couldn’t be defeated, rather he wouldn’t allow himself to be. He had his own aim, to surpass those that had come before him he couldn’t afford to be knocked around by small fry. Jensen smiled some more, with the child now completely silent and still; it’d make it far easier for him to fight now; two versus one were much better odds. Although it seemed like these guys were just fish food in comparison to Jensen. Sometimes quantity could out do quality and that was something Jensen knew could happen, there had been hundreds of examples of this, the mighty mammoth being taken down by a pack of Sabre-tooth Tigers or fire ants eating much larger lizards, Mother Nature was a cruel and fickle woman. She would continuously pit the weak against the strong, the many against the one; it truly was survival of the fittest.

The worried looking pirates continued to stare at one another and then back to Jensen; they looked hard to try and find an opening. However there weren’t any, Jensen had trained long and hard; countless hours had been spent cultivating a fighting style that left very few openings. Gallons of blood sweat and tears had gone into him perfecting his form; if it wasn’t for the brat he would have dropped both of those foolish pirates by now.

”You’re gunna die marine-boy.” the topless pirate said, his tobacco stained teeth were half broken or missing. ”I’m gunna rip off yur head and pish down yur throat. You little faggot, you have no idea who the fuck you’ve been messing with. We’re part of the bottleneck pirates,” The colour drained form Jensen’s face, of course he had heard of the bottleneck pirates, they were one of the most notorious pirate groups in all of the north blue. Their captain’s bounty was ridiculous, Forty-two million beli; even if Jensen worked for the rest of his life he’d be lucky to even get half of that. They were completely and utterly insane, they went around terrorising villages all across the sea; rumours said that the captain used to sail around the Grand Line under another name.

None of the rumours had any viable proof; it still didn’t make him feel any better. His heart rate had begun to increase rapidly, beads of salty sweat ran down his neck and a cold chill ran down his spine. He gulped hard, looking more nervous than just 20 seconds earlier; exhaling slowly he tried to calm himself down. ”You? Bottleneck pirates? You must be joking, I heard that those insane fucks were actually worth a damn, you three couldn’t hold a candle to me. Yet you expect me to believe that? I hope they do come here and beat the living shit out of you for sullying their name.” Jensen would probably regret saying that if they were in fact legit bottlenecks. There was nothing he could do now, he’d already shot one of them and apprehended another; he might as well go for broke and arrest the whole lot of them.

”Boy, you’re going to regret what you’re doing, the captain will be coming to town in the next day or so and your whole naval base is gunna be fucked. He’s gunna rip you to shreds, he’ll tear you a new asshole. You little fuck!” The pirate shouted, spraying saliva all of the place as he ranted; veins were popping out of his neck and forehead. His face had reddened into a dark shade of crimson. Jensen almost regretted what he had said, although the comedic value gained from his anger was something that made Jensen chuckle; to which the pirate took great offence. ”You stupid little prick, I hope Captain Razor has fun while he chops you into tiny little pieces.”
Jensen smiled broadly revealing a toothy grin, partially to mask his own fear of the looming pirate threat; it would only be a matter of time before he finds out whether or not the pirate was speaking the truth. He hated that he couldn’t tell if he was lying or not, the pirates speech didn’t help much; trying to differentiate the timbres in his voice from incoherent drunkard ramblings. If only he had studied more on the subject, there were lots of things one could learn from the way someone spoke; not only could you tell where they were from, their upbringing, whether they were lying or not and many other things. He damned himself for not reading more on the subject.
However his damnation of himself would have to wait, the ever more present threat of pirates taking hostages was coming closer to realization he had to act now, either the crowd or the pirates would make a move and he’d be in a precarious position. The pirates were the first to act they lunged for a small child who was watching the ruckus with her parents, within seconds of the pirate reaching for the girl he was met by a large bony fist; Jensen’s hand had met the pirate’s nose with bone crunching precision. Blood and snot spewed from his beak; like ash from an erupting volcano. The crowd only seemed to grow, with each passing second that passed, they gathered, hounding together like vultures around a corpse; hoping and praying to see something, something remarkable to remove them from their mundane little existence.

The first thought that crossed Jensen’s mind was ‘Great more hostages.’ That was all he needed more civilians to get in the way. All he needed was for one of them to get too close again and all merry hell would break loose and it’d be his arse for the high jump. Right before his first trip out to sea, like hell he would let that happen. As the pirates was falling backwards the ground getting ever closer, so to was Jensen he burst forward kicking up a cloud of dirt behind him. His hand quickly covered the pirates face slamming his head straight into the compact mud below. An eerie crack echoed out, the rat faced pirate stared out in utter disbelief, in a matter of mere seconds his comrades had been reduced to nothing more than a twitching corpse and a cry-baby. Their bait had been captured and all that remained was him. A snivelling shadow of a man, if he were to make an escape it would have to be now.

The child under Jensen’s arm began to move around, he was fed up of being in Jensen’s clutches. The dirty looking child sunk his gnashers into Jensen’s arm. Giving the rat faced pirate the perfect opportunity to escape. “You’ll pay for this.” He sneered as he scurried away back to his ship. Jensen didn’t give chase he knew too well where he was heading and leaving two injured pirates wasn’t a good idea. The tiger is most dangerous when it’s wounded; he figured pirates would act in a similar manner. Striking out at whatever moved, leaving them here like this would ruin him and possibly kill civilians something that he couldn’t afford to let happen. Blood began to trickle down his forearm, the stained yellow teeth of the youngster slowly sunk deeper into the muscle. Jensen clenched his fist and struck the child softly. Just hard enough so he’d stop what he was doing but not hurt him.

“Congratulations, Retards. You’ve earnt yourselves a first class ticket to your own personal hell. The great gates are gunna open up for you. You’ll be lucky if you live through your first week. A couple little wimps like you are gunna be turned into someone’s bitch. I hope you enjoy sitting on doughnuts.” With that Jensen flipped his head back and cackled. It was uncontrollable; the overwhelming urge to mock his downed opponents was unstoppable. With his head flung back and laughter spewing forth from the innermost reaches of his soul, backup arrived. With a mixture of confusion and anxiety plastered across their face. It would take some amount of explaining for Jensen to get out of this one.

As the marines gathered the crowd started to disperse Jensen was cornered by a lieutenant and was about to get his head bitten off when the young girl he had saved earlier walked over to him she tugged on his shirt. He looked down and gave her a heart-warming smile; the child returned the favour with a toothless grin. Her auburn hair swayed with the wind, ”Thanks, mister.” she said before turning around and darting back to her parents. Her mother was standing there with tears in her eyes mouthing the words ‘thank you’. Her father bent down to pick her up, raising her up on to his hip, he simply nodded in appreciation; he looked relieved that nothing had happened to her. The lieutenant was still barking at Jensen. He paid him no mind, he knew what he did was the best possible thing in the given situation yet something still irked him.

[5,652 Words]