Chapter 14
Yoruichi enjoyed her meal and the milk for about 30 minutes. Once she was finished, she sat back and relaxed for a bit, looking out the window at the sea, and the various ships that were anchored to the Baratie. While she was gazing, a shadow crossed her vision. She turned around to find the man who was on the balcony standing in front of her table.
Getting a closer look, she could see he was a gruff, probably short-tempered man that reminded her of a pirate. The two stared at each other for a moment, before the gruff man huffed, and said “My name is Zeff, and I am the head chef and Owner of the Baratie. I came to thank you for your attendance of our establishment, as well as apologize for you having to deal with my son.”
The man, Zeff, bowed a little, barely more than a head nod, but grateful, nonetheless. Yoruichi smirked a bit, before waving her hand dismissively and replying, “Mah, Sanji wasn’t a bother at all. He was quite fun to tease, and he still did his job exceptionally.”
Standing tall again, Zeff said, “Yes, that boy is something else. At this point I am starting to believe his flirting is a natural reaction.”
They both chuckled, before Yoruichi got up, and paid her bill with ‘her’ money. Zeff saw her out himself, both chatting amicably. When they got outside, they could see Sanji standing at the railing, looking out over the sea, and smoking. They stopped behind him, before Zeff barked, “Stop moping around brat and get back to work! We still got customers.”
Sanji jumped, spinning around. When he saw Yoruichi, he had a very conflicted expression on his face. One part was his eyes, which were still visible hearts, while the other was the terrified expression on the rest of his face.
Chuckling, Yoruichi thought to herself, ‘This kid’s dramatics probably turned off any woman to hear him speak. I was probably the first one to return the favor, and I think it broke him.’
In the end, his flirty nature won out and Sanji darted over to her, grabbing her hand, and kneeling in front of her. He cried, “Oh, my beautiful star, how wonderful it is to see you again! You make my heart pound with your lovel- Urgk” he was cut off by Yoruichi reaching over with her other hand, and clamping his mouth shut. Sajni’s hand tried to move hers off his face, but her grip was much stronger than he could hope to surpass. She then took her other hand, and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and holding him up to her face level.
She leaned in close, and put on the Retsutm smile on her face, and looked at him. “Since you are still young and naive, boyo, I’m gonna teach you a real nice life lesson, that according to your good ole’ father over there, you sorely need.” She paused, as Sanji looked to her right at his father who was pretty much laughing in his face at what was happening. When he turned his eyes back to her, all the while trying to pry her hand off his face, to no avail, she continued “I like flirting and compliments as much as the next woman, but there is a point to where it becomes creepy.” She stared into Sanji’s one visible eye: his cigarette long gone. “You, my little blond cherub, have gone a step beyond that already, in the single conversation I had with you. You are now at the level of just. Plain. Annoying.”
Yoruichi let go of his chin, but still held him by the back of his suit jacket. He tried to speak, but she shushed him while she dragged him over to a bench beside the restaurant entrance.
She sat him down, before sitting next to him. At this point Sanji was kind of just numb, not really reacting to anything.
When Yoruichi sat down, she reached over and gave him a little slap on the back of the head, much like an older sibling would do to a much younger one who had done something stupid.
“Ow! Hey watch what you’re doing you ol- huh?” Sanji roared, being snapped out of his daze. He froze a second after speaking, probably realizing it wasn’t Zeff who hit him. Said old man had already walked back inside to supervise the kitchens again, as he could sense a fight starting to break out.
Sanji froze, wide eyed and staring at Yoruichi, before he tried to bolt again, just like when she was having her food. He barely made it out of his seat before Yoruichi reached out and gripped his shoulder, before forcing him to sit back down. “You sit right there, mister. You are not going to move from that spot until I think my lesson has truly sunk in. Got it?” Yoruichi asked, her question more of a statement than anything.
Sanji hesitantly nodded, saying “O-Ok.” Yoruichi smiled, and then continued talking. “You seem like a nice young man, who has only been living with men who could give pirates a run for their money his entire life. You obviously don’t have someone in your life to slap some sense into you, and if you did, they’re long gone by now.” She saw Sanji visibly flinch, guilt and despair wafting from him.
Yoruichi’s eyes narrowed a bit but kept talking as if she noticed nothing. “Since they aren’t here to do it themselves, I’ll give you some advice, that I hope you really think on. If you want any real hope of a relationship in your future, you’ll listen.” Sanji nodded, staring at her.
“Now. Complimenting people is perfectly fine. Everyone likes compliments. Women, men, dogs, that chicken one time, everyone. However, I don’t know where you got the idea that the more compliments the better and using the most outlandish and frankly childish monologues to ‘woo’ women, but it’s a horrible idea.
I’ve lived a long time, and seen a lot of shit, but you are probably one of the most over the top people I have ever seen. If you like doing that sort of thing, go ahead. I won’t stop you. I’m just telling you how it is. There are a time and place for compliments, just as there are times and places for everything else. None of your overly flirtatious, or outright exaggerated declarations of love have a time or place in a restaurant, especially when you work in said restaurant.
You want to flirt with the ladies that come in? Ok. You’re young. Go ahead. YOLO and all that. What you can’t do is hit on people that are obviously in a relationship or don’t want to be harassed while having dinner. Zeff says you do both. And more.”
Sanji cut in at this point, “But I can’t help it! I fall hopelessly in love with every woman I see! I see them and want to pamper them, shower them with love, just like you my etoil-“
Yoruichi smashed him in the back of the head, sending him careening into the floorboards. She winced, before grabbing him in the back of the arm and hoisting him back up into a seated position. He looked dizzy, with blood dripping out of his nose.
She grimaced apologetically, before disappearing for a moment, and coming back with some napkins, which she used to dab up the blood. “Sorry about that. I hit you a bit too hard there.”
Sanji shook his head a bit, before saying “don’t worry about it, I’ve been hit harder before.” Yoruichi raised an eyebrow at that but said nothing.
She continued with her lecture, falling back into the old teaching voice she had in her back pocket. “The issue isn’t that ‘it’s just my nature’. It’s that reality doesn’t care about your nature.” Yoruichi paused for a moment, before asking “you read a lot of cheesy romance novels don’t you.”
That caused Sanji to completely freeze, looking at her wide eyed like a. Deer caught in headlights.
“N-n-no.” He stuttered, “I definitely don’t read cheesy romance novels.” Yoruichi’s eyes narrowed in triumph, before stating, “You do, don’t you. That’s where all the crazily outlandish displays come from.” She grinned as she watched Sanji’s face get progressively redder and redder, his head lowering.
She then patted him on the head, like she did Yushiro when he was little, and said “it’s ok, kiddo. You don’t have to be embarrassed. It’s a perfectly normal reaction for a teenage boy to read those trashy romance novels. You just have to understand, that the only thing you can trust about those books are that they are made of ink and paper. Everything else is so wildly exaggerated or just plain false that there is a very good reason they’re considered ‘fiction’.”
Yoruichi cackled internally, her teasing having just claimed another victim as she watched steam come out of Sanji’s ears, with him mumbling incoherently. Undoubtedly, he was thinking about the ‘trashy’ parts of the romance novels, or more accurately, the ‘steamy’.
She felt a bit of pity for the kid. He had no one to really show him exactly how to act toward the opposite sex, and the other cooks definitely aren’t going to help. A few more years of no one disillusioning him, and he probably would have continued with his displays of grandeur up until the day he died, or worse, an annoyed and powerful woman had enough of his shit and killed him herself.
She humphed, thinking ‘None of those idiots could figure out how to change a lightbulb, much less figure out how to talk to women.’ She looked back at him, before saying “Head up, Sanji. “ she paused as he did as she asked, “You are a nice kid, with an obvious sense of honor and chivalry that has been blown out of proportion. What you really need to take away from this, is to be yourself. Don’t follow the ‘advice’ of those romance books, and I would probably suggest not following the advice of the other chefs here, either. At least in regard to romance. You will be much better off if you at least keep things in moderation. You wanna keep showering people with affection because you can’t get rid of the habit? Fine. Just make sure the ones you do it to are friends, family, people you already have relationships with. They will probably appreciate it more anyways. Now. What have we learned?” She said, a sterner tone to her voice.
Sanji looked at her, before meekly replying “No more romance novels, and stop hitting on women who you don’t know.”
Yoruichi sighed a bit, before standing up. “Eh, close enough.” She mumbled to herself. Louder, she replied, “Think on it some more, and come to a conclusion yourself. It’s your life. You want to ignore me? Go right ahead. Just don’t blame me when you piss off someone who will try to kill you.” She made him stand up with her, before gesturing at the door. “Come on then. Back inside. You owe me some desert for making me talk so much.”
She then pushed him inside the door from behind, with Sanji just looking around confused.
***
Zeff POV
Zeff had been watching the conversation happen from above them, on the lookout post. When he saw them headed back inside, he turned to go inside himself. ‘She is right.’ He thought, stroking his mustache. ‘He really only had us as parental figures. I don’t know where he came from, but the beat did have some issues that never really cleared up. He treated women like a fragile vase, able to break at any time. We did not really help with that, just laughing at his antics thinking nothing of it.’
Zeff walked back downstairs into the kitchen, seeing Sanji manning a baking station. He walked over, before asking gruffly “What’re you doing, boy?” Sanji did not even turn around before answering, “making a milk chocolate cake for a customer he replied, hands moving quickly as he divvied out portions for a cake.
Zeff’s eyebrow raised, “This wouldn’t happen to be the woman who was talking some sense into ya, is it?” Sanji just grunted in affirmation, causing Zeff to continue “what does she want it for? She already paid her bill.”
Sanji shrugged, before turning around and grabbing a baking pan and outing the now mixed batter into it. “I dunno” he said. “Something about food, fighting, and surprises.” Zeff had a look of hard skepticism on his face but said nothing. He just turned around, leaving parting words. “You know what you’re doing, kid. Use this to think about what she told you.” Zeff then walked off to go yell at some other chef, not noticing Sanji pause and look at him through the fringe of his blonde hair.
***
Yoruichi POV.
Yoruichi sat at a table again, watching Sanji come out with a nice chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. She smiled at him, and he just bowed, presenting the cake to her like one of the servants back in the Shihoin clan. “Your desert, miss.” He said, head still bowed. “As a thank you. Please come again.” He looked up and smiled at her politely.
Yoruichi stood up and took the cake with both hands, and then put it in the satchel she always had with her now. She ignored the very confused look Sanji gave her, before patting him on the cheek and saying, “Well it seems like this big sis’ advice worked, at least a little. Keep it up, and you’ll be on the right track. Ta ta!” She said, turning and waving over her head. Once she stepped out the door, she vanished from where she was standing in a flash step, making the Sanji who had just followed her out even more confused.
‘Where to next,’ she thought, standing in the middle of nowhere. ‘Oh right. That festival is soon isn’t it. Wasn’t that in the island the Baratie came from?’ She took off in a western direction, away from the floating restaurant. Hopefully she can find something interesting there.
It took her only a few minutes to arrive, and looking around she could see that the festival was still being set up. Yoruichi shrugged, before wandering around for about an hour, looking at the still unfinished attractions on display. She decided to find a hotel to stay in the night, as the festival would only start the next day. She picked one at random, before going to bed. Even though she didn’t need to sleep unless she burned through a ton of Reiatsu, she still liked her cat naps. She decided to change forms for the first time in a while, before taking a genuine cat nap on the bed.
***
The next morning, Yoruichi woke up and stretched, feeling the pull of her muscles. Looking around, still in her cat form, she decided to stay like this and eavesdrop on people. ‘Wonder what kind of stuff I could find, hehe’ she thought. Her cat form was much better for reconnaissance than her human form anyways.
She opened the window to her room and hopped out, flash stepping the next few floors to the roof, she sat on the edge looking around. She could see the entire city already bustling at 8am, and with an obvious fervor and excitement in the air. Looking down at the street below, she could see the merchants in full swing, shouting, making deals, haggling with people.
Over on the horizon she could see a Ferris wheel towering over everything. ‘Obviously the fun part of this place’ she thought. She jumped down onto a lower building’s roof, where she could get a better view of the merchant’s section. Jumping down into an alley, she walked out, cautiously looking around.
‘Good’ she thought, ‘no one paid any attention to me. Well, time to get to work.’ Yoruichi kitty sauntered over to the nearest fishmonger, and sat down on her haunches, staring at the man from the side. She made her eyes look as pitiful as possible, so the man would give her free food when he looked over.
He did so a few moments later after finishing a deal with another merchant, looking down in surprise at the little black cat staring pitifully up at him, tears in its eyes. His expression immediately softened, and he reached over to a basket and grabbed a small pickerel out of it. He then held it out for her to take, saying, “Here ya go little guy, don’t go starving on me now yea?” Yoruichi grabbed the fish with her mouth and walked off with no hesitation.
‘Heh, sucker.’ She thought smugly. Begging food of people as a cat was always entertaining for her. No one could resist the cuteness. She laid down on a corner between two stalls, intently staring at her breakfast. This spot was perfectly chosen for maximum attention, as well as complete ignorance of the general populace. After all, would a cat care about people?
Yoruichi forgot one key factor, though. Humans love cute things. In fact, they love picking them up and strangling the life out of them in bone crushing hugs. Which is exactly what happened to Yoruichi when she was halfway through her delightfully fishy meal. She was snatched up from behind, and held against the chest of a 16 year old girl, with short orange hair, a striped crop top, and jean shorts. “Ohhh! Look at you! You’re so cute aren’t you!” The girl said, swinging her back and forth with joy, as she crushed the cat in her arms.
The cat looked like it just got dropped into a pit full of dogs. Namely, Yoruichi wanted to die on the spot. ‘I HATE IT WHEN THIS HAPPENS’ she screamed internally. She then looked around, thinking, ‘Wait, where is my fish?!’ Head turning on a swivel, she scanned the surrounding area for her breakfast. She spotted it now on the ground, covered in dirt. ‘nooooooooooooooo’ she despaired. It came out as a pitiful wail, startling the orange haired girl a bit. “Mrrowowll!”
The girl went and loosened her grip on Yoruichi, but still held her in a secure enough grip she couldn’t escape. “Oh! Was I hurting you? I’m sorry little kitty. I won’t hurt you again.” The girl smiled down at the cat, who was still sadly meowing while staring at the ground.
This was noticed, and the girl said soothingly, “aww. Did you want some more food? I bet you do. Let’s go get you some then.” Yoruichi was then jostled around for a few minutes as the girl weaved through the crowd skillfully.
She noticed that the girl was bumping into people purposely, apologizing and then walking away, and coming out of her despair, she could see the girl’s sticky fingers coming away with wallets, coin purses, jewelry, and more. Yoruichi watched, increasingly in approval as this girl robbed every single person she bumped into blind in her way to wherever it was they were going.
‘She’s pretty good’ Yoruichi thought, spectating the newest source of entertainment she had found, er, found her. ‘Only thing she could do better is not be seen at all. Then no one can connect her to the crime.’
5 minutes later saw the both of them back in front of the fishmonger she had originally gotten the food from. The girl held Yoruichi under her front paws, holding her out in front of her face, and stating cheerily “One fish for the kitty please!” The man obliged. It wasn’t his first time seeing someone like the girl, feeding her pet.
“That’ll be 100 berri please” he smiled at the girl. The girl smiled politely back, having brought Yoruichi back to cradle her in her arms, and stated. “5 berri.”
The merchant looked at her a bit weirdly, saying, “I definitely can’t go that low. I’ll do 90 for ya, since it’s only a small fish.” The girl immediately shook her head, saying again, “5 berri.”
The man frowned now, starting to get annoyed. “Miss, that fish at cost is at least 60. Don’t insult me. 85 berri.” The girl leaned in toward the man, using the cat like a push-up bra. “Come on, mister. I’m sure we can come to a deal. 5 berri.”
The fishmonger was visibly getting angry now and stated. “All right, that’s it. No sale. You don’t want to buy, go somewhere else.” The girl pouted, still using the cat to display her cleavage. “Aww, you’re no fun.” She mumbled, walking away. She walked to a alley, before slipping in and putting the cat down on a little wall about waist height for her.
Yoruichi wanted to bolt at this point, but this was kind of funny, so she decided to stay and look at the girl, trying to figure out what she wanted.
She leaned down, holding out a fish that was larger than Yoruichi’s entire body. She then set it down next to her and looked expectantly down at the cat.
Yoruichi just looked back and forth between the fish and the girl uncomprehendingly. ‘Does she seriously expect me to eat this?! It’s huge!’ She screamed internally. The girl was now giving pointed looks at the fish.
Yoruichi just stared back at her disdainfully, ‘I’m not a snake, idiot. I don’t know what you think is gonna happen.’ She meowed at the girl before turning a a circle and laying down on the sun heated rock wall.
The girl just humphed, and walked away, muttering “I did all that for you, and you don’t even want it.”
Yoruichi ignored her, basking in the sunlight. After about an hour or so of relaxation, Yoruichi decided it was time for some eavesdropping. She wandered around until she found a bar, and walked in headed for the bartender. Waltzing behind the bar, she sat down, staring expectantly at the rather average man in an apron in front of her. Meowing to get his attention got him to look down, smile, and pick her up and put her on the corner of the bar. He then reached into a cabinet in the bottom of the bar, pulling out a little dish and some milk. He poured it, then placed it in front of her. “Here ya go, little one. One milk, on the house.” Yoruichi laid down to drink her favorite treat, while using her spiritual sense to expand her hearing. She listened for 30 minutes, hearing all sorts of things. Most of which was just gossip that she couldn’t do anything with, like how some guy got caught cheating on his wife, or an old lady was found high on meth trying to steal a ship.
One thing she could use though, was that there was a new captain over at Marine Base 16, one Captain Nezumi. There was rumor that he was a very corrupt man, already working with the Arlong Pirates, the overlords of the Conomi Islands of the region he was supposed to patrol.
She also heard there was a new bounty hunter becoming famous, getting the name ‘pirate hunter.’ What really caught her interest was the green hair and three swords he was supposed to have.
‘Isn’t that Zoro?’ She thought. ‘Wonder what he’s doing as a bounty hunter.’ She put the thought out of her mind a moment later since it seemed that he was fine. Returning to her milk, she had a nice and relaxing next hour before there was a large commotion outside.
Getting curious, Yoruichi hopped off the bar and headed outside, only to see the same orange haired girl that almost strangled her to death from earlier. She was weaving back and forth through the throng of people in the middle of the road, with what looked to be about 4 pirates chasing her.
Yoruichi hopped up onto a roof to get a better view. ‘Oh, this’ll be good.’ She thought. By now the leading pirate was close enough to grab her, but she skillfully ducked underneath his attempt, putting some fat rich man in between her and the pirates.
Yoruichi nodded a bit in approval, ‘Smart idea, notice the most likely person to get mad at random shit then make your pursuers piss them off by almost knocking them over.’ Yoruichi watched as the girl slipped down the next street, so she followed along with the pirates, watching them look around in anger and confusion. One of them happened to look in her direction, and pointed up at the rooftop saying, “There she is! On the roof!” Yoruichi was a bit confused until her spiritual sense picked up on the teen climbing the side of the building she was on.
The centuries old werecat looked over her shoulder, as the girl pulled herself up onto the roof, before laying down on her back and sighing in relief.
‘Must’ve thought she got away.’ Yoruichi thought, before meowing to get the girls’ attention. Said girl looked up with a “huh?” before locking eyes with Yoruichi.
“Oh! It’s you! What are you doing up here little kitty?” The teen got to her feet and walked over to where Yoruichi was now sitting on the corner of the roof. When she got close enough, the teen could see the pirates running down the alley in between this building and the next. She frowned a bit, muttering, “Oh. I thought I lost these guys. Oh well. Thanks for warning me kitty!” Yoruichi was then subjected to the humiliating yet very comfortable feeling of having her head rubbed, before the girl hopped over the gap between buildings and ran off.
Yoruichi chuckled internally, before disappearing in a blur, flash-stepping in the direction of the carnival. ‘I’ve had enough of this place for a bit. Time to go see what goodies I can mooch off from vendors in the carnival area.’ She grinned internally, thinking of all the ice cream she could get.
***
Yoruichi was laying on the top of a short wall, staring over in the direction of the ferris wheel. It had been 30 minutes since she saw the orange haired girl evade the pirates, and she had scored a nice chocolate ice cream dish from a particularly nice little boy, who seemed to be helping his mother prepare ice cream that his father was selling at their booth.
The issue was that she had the gut feeling she wouldn’t be enjoying much of it, as in her sights was a tall, muscular, green haired teen with three swords who she had watched enter the carnival area, ask where the ferris wheel was, and then proceed to walk in the complete opposite direction of the advice given to him, and was now wandering in circles looking visibly confused and getting visibly angrier and angrier as time went on.
Yoruichi was lost for words, her dish of cream forgotten as she watched in disbelief and awe as she watched some supernatural curse at work. ‘Because that’s what that must be. There's no other way. How the hell do you get lost in an open area with a bunch of people to ask directions from, and your destination is literally the tallest, most colorful, and only moving thing on the horizon. Just how?!’
The teen, who Koushirou had called Zoro, wandered closer and closer to where she was, muttering angrily about ‘Stupid glowing wheels, horrible directions, and everything just shifts around me.’
He had apparently decided to climb up onto the building next to her, probably to get a vantage point. ‘As if that would help.’ Yoruichi rolled her eyes a bit, then stood up. ‘Well, I promised Koushirou I’d at least point the kid in the right direction.’ Yoruichi-kitty ambled over to the point where the wall connected to the building Zoro was now on, still peering around with his and over his eyes, looking for the Ferris wheel.
Yoruichi climbed up the wall, then walked over to sit behind him, and started licking her paw of leftover ice cream. “You know kid, I’m starting to wonder if you know what a Ferris wheel is. You’ve been looking for it for like 10 minutes, and you walked past it 3 or 4 times, and it’s the biggest glowing thing on the island.”
Zoro whirled around, roaring “You know what, I’m not the one with navigation issues, the world just move..s…around……me…. What the hell? Who was that?” He was now even more confused, and a little afraid at the stealthy man that had appeared to ‘insult’ him. But no one was there, and only a stray cat sat on the roof with him, cleaning its paw.
Then things got weird. The cat stopped licking itself, then started padding in his direction, and then started talking. “In denial I see. Koushirou said it was bad, but damn, that has got to be one sad existence.” Zoro watched in a bit of horrified silence as the talking cat perched at the edge of the building, looking over the carnival like an old geezer staring into the sunset mornfully.
Yoruichi sat in resigned indifference at Zoro’s plight. ‘Just point him in the right direction. Just point him in the right direction.’ repeated like a mantra in her mind, and she followed her own advice. Pointing with a paw, she said, “Do you see the giant, glowy, spinny thing? Over there? Yeah, that’s the Ferris wheel. You’re going there. Don’t take your eyes off it, and just walk straight to it.”
She turned around to walk away, as Zoro said dumbly, “Uh, yeah...... Sure...... Weird talking cat guy.” Getting quieter as he spoke, until he was muttering the last under his breath. Yoruichi huffed, swatted him with her tail as she walked by, and said, “Get going, Mr. I’m not directionally challenged.”
Yoruichi returned to her dish of ice cream, most of it now melted in the slightly humid air and laid down again to start enjoying her treat. She got no further than a few licks before spotting out of the corner of her eye a mop of green hair wandering around on the rooftops of the buildings across the carnival area from her.
“How the hell….?” Yoruichi wondered aloud, too in disbelief to not act like a cat.
“He is literally on the building next door to the Ferris wheel, and he still can’t find it?! You must be joking. This is a prank, isn’t it. Not funny. Haha. It can stop now.” She continued, deadpanning at the continued sight.
Rolling her eyes once more, Yoruichi got up and flash stepped over to Zoro, arriving to hear him angrily stomping around, almost shouting in frustration.
Yoruichi took a deep breath in, the day’s events starting to catch up to her. ‘First that cat girl, and now this dumbass.’ She sighed resignedly, before speaking again. “Dude. Turn around. And look up.” Zoro froze, looking down at her again. “Uhh. Hi again, creepy cat dude. Did not expect to see you again. Honestly thought I was hallucinating you.” He said under his breath, before Yoruichi blurred in front of his eyes, and he felt sharp claws rake across the back of his head. He yelled in pain, hand doing to the back of his head, which was now bleeding.
Turning around to face Yoruichi, who was now licking her paw clean of any blood, he asked, “What was that for, you weirdo?!” He asked/yelled. Yoruichi looked disdainfully at him, which caused him to get visibly even more affronted at the fact he just got scoffed at by a cat, before she said “Oh relax, tough guy. I just gave you a little scratch. Look over there. You have been wanting to go to the Ferris wheel for a while now, yes? It. Is. Right. There.” Yoruichi enunciated each word with a point of her tail at the very bright spinning circle that was probably 50 feet to their right.
Zoro paused for a moment, looking up. “Huh. Would you look at that. How did I not see that before?” he said. He then picked himself up, giving himself a bit of a nonverbal pep talk, before saying, “Well, thanks weird cat dude, but I gotta go get some dinner funds, so Ill see you around…? Hopefully not though, you creep me out.”
Ignoring the indignant “Hey!” from Yoruichi, Zoro walked over to the side of the building, and started climbing down. She got to watch as the human compass(not) walked over to the Ferris wheel, and then took a 90 degree turn right in front of the entrance to the ride.
Yoruichi decided enough was enough. She flash-stepped directly onto Zoro’s shoulder, grabbing his head in her claws and turning him back around like he was a chef with a rat his hat.
“This way. This way! You have gotta be cursed or something.” Steering him back around, and into the gate of the Ferris wheel was probably one of the hardest things she had ever done. It was like Zoro had a -100% attention span, and was distracted by literally everything he came across, except he completely ignored all the things that attracted his attention, focused on getting to the Ferris wheel.
They finally made it after 3 redirects, a full U turn, Zoro trying to pry her off his head, and some kid laughing at them. Once they were inside, Zoro found what he came for, which Yoruichi found familiar as well.
Apparently, Zoro was after the bounties of the 4 pirates chasing the crazy cat thief kid, who she had helped a bit ago. For once he walked straight and true, calling out their names, one by one as he pulled their bounty posters out of his pants pocket.
Yoruichi watched as Zoro did the one thing he was good at, (besides sleeping and chugging booze, but she didn't know that at the time), handedly hand all 4 of the men their collective asses in about 30 seconds.
She thought to herself, ‘Huh. He is very talented. Give him some more training, and he could easily surpass Koushirou.’ Once he was finished, he threw 2 men over each shoulder, easily carrying 4 times his weight. Yoruichi jumped on his head again, intent on making sure he got off the island in one piece. “Where are we going, boyo? I don’t get all day, so hurry it up.”
Zoro, now resigned to his fate, said “The marine bounty office. It should be by the port.” Yoruichi nodded her ascent, before guiding Zoro to exit the Ferris wheel area, ignoring the pointing, and murmuring of the growing crowd.
As they walked out of the Ferris wheel area, Yoruichi felt the weirdest sensation she had ever felt in her entire life. It felt like something was pulling her Reiatsu into individual atoms and sending them in different directions. She witnessed several different images passing by, in a kaleidoscope of vomit inducing dizziness before her vision came back to the carnival scene.
Almost falling off Zoro’s head, she warbled “Ugh, what was that. Urk… I think I’m gonna be sick.”
She was able to keep herself seated by hooking her claws even deeper into Zoro’s skull, much to his dismay.
“Hey! Stop that, it hurts! Get off me, you furry demon!” he yelled, unable to do anything about it with the bodies in each arm.
Yoruichi complied, saying offhandedly, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re cursed. I don’t know what you did in your past life, but someone really hated you.” Jumping off the disgruntled young man, she padded off back to her dish of ice cream, which was now just slightly flavored milk, leaving Zoro to find his way to the West Blue to turn in the bounties on the pirates.
(obviously. you cant have one piece without the straw hats, idc what anyone says.)
Thank you for saying it, one piece is as much about it's characters as it is about it's world and the main cast is atleast 60% of the reason for it's success
Thank you for chapter!
Ryoga, that you?