LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 15 – Cat Gets Advice, And Hitches A Ride
Chapter 15.
Yoruichi was surprised at how little there actually was to see in the East Blue. She was currently sitting in an old rundown bar named after the ‘Pirate King’, almost a full year from when she left Foosha Village.
‘Who knew a whole quarter of the world could be so goddamn boring…’ she grumbled internally, hunched over the bar with no one else in it but the wrinkled old owner. ‘Seriously. There is nothing. That first week was like the highlight of my entire year. Yeah, some weird stuff happened, but weird stuff is better than no stuff.’ Continued in her ranting thoughts, she did not consciously register the old bar owner who had walked over. He was a short, wrinkly old man, wearing a blue beanie with a dropping face and ring earrings. Having on a standard white shirt and black pants, he set another glass of sake down, before picking up her old one and cleaning it.
“So, what brings a young lass like you to an old place like this.” He asked, having to look up at her because he was so short. Yoruichi glanced at him, asking grumpily, “Why do you want to know?”
The old man chuckled a bit, more of a wheezing sound than anything, before replying, “Well, you seem a bit lost. Most people who come in here nowadays are lost. Those that don’t are only here because of the name. Name’s Raoul by the way.”
The werecat nodded, sipping on her drink for a bit. A couple minutes of silence go by before she decides to respond to the implicit question. “Yoruichi. I guess I am kind of lost. My friends forced me to go on a vacation because I complained too much. One year later, I have explored most if not all the east blue, seen a lot of stuff, done some errands for a friend or two, but most of it was so boring.” Yoruichi despaired, the classic bartender chitchat helping her lay out her hangups without issue.
The old man nodded in agreement, before saying in an even tone, “As I said, most people come in here lost. I don’t let them leave without setting them on their way. It’s one of the only things an old man like me can do. Back in the good old days, pirates would frequent this bar like nobody’s business. All of them looking for something exciting, something to get their blood pumping. Nowadays pirates are considered common criminals, and most of ‘em are. No pride in their chosen path anymore.” He spoke.
His hand was then waved in the air, as if dismissing the atmosphere that had quickly turned depressing, then continued. “You know what you were mistaken on, missy?” He looked at her, as if expecting her to say something. She did. With a raised brow, she asked, “Oh? What do you think I was mistaken on, then?”
The old man chuckled again, this time sounding like a real laugh. “Ah, wasn’t sure if you were one of the types that doesn’t like getting advice. Too arrogant of them in my opinion. You, are mistaken on one, single, thing. Your friends who sent you here were too. You don’t want a vacation. No one who wants a vacation wants something to happen. They always want the vacation to stop stuff from happening. To get away from the excitement. What you’re after is a good bit of old-fashioned adventure, just like those old pirates, and the one I named this bar after.”
Yoruichi sat there in silence for a minute or two, seriously thinking over what the old man just said. ‘You know, he’s right. Vacations are something you do to get away from it all. Not to find stuff to do.’ She then focused on the old man, who was still cleaning her old glass. Looking at him challengingly, she asked, “What would you suggest I do, then, since you seem to have such a good idea anyways, if you ‘don’t let lost customers walk out of here without finding their way’?”
A fully belly laugh came from the old man, much louder than she would expect from someone of his size. “HAHAHA I knew I didn’t peg you wrong. Tell ya what. There is an old friend down at the docks who sells ‘recently acquired’ ships, for pretty cheap. If you got the cash, go down there, and buy one, then head to the grand line.” The old man pulled over a stool, then hopped up on it. He then leaned over to Yoruichi, like he was going to share a secret. “You see, this bar used to be run by the Gol D. family, way back in the day. I was their apprentice and hired hand. Their son, Gol D. Roger, was someone I knew well. You see that skull on the end of the bar over there?” He said, pointing to a skull hanging off to their right, sitting proudly on the end of the bar. “That belonged to a guy named Killer Giant. One of Roger’s better kills in his early days. He was a real evil man, who was responsible for the death of hundreds of men. Roger ended the guy in one blow, right on his skull.” Yoruichi looked over at the skull, seeing the giant crack taking up most of its forehead. “That does look like something deadly.” She agreed. Looking back at the old man, she could see some surprise on his face. “Really? That’s it? ‘Pretty deadly?’ Most people react a bit better than that.” He grumbled, before turning around.
Yoruichi just shrugged, saying under her breath, “Seen bigger.” The old man frowned, but ignored words he couldn’t hear. “Anyways, all these people on this wall were famous bounties Roger killed. He was a great man, and I run this bar in memory of him and his family. Least I could do for them, seeing as they just gave it to me.” He said a bit mournfully.
The old man, who she belatedly remembered was named Raoul, (a/n replace Yoruichi with me, and that’s what happened) turned around before leaning over to her again. Grinning, he said animatedly, “You want adventure? The Grand Line is where it’s at. At this point, I’ve seen enough people your age go there and do ok. It is very dangerous, known as the pirate graveyard for a reason, but someone who thinks a man with a 500 million bounty is only ‘pretty deadly’ should be ok, eh?” he cracked a smile, grinning at her.
Yoruichi ignored Raoul, draining her drink. She then stood up, placing a set of bills on the bar. “Thanks for the drink, Raoul. And the advice. I was referring to the death blow, though.” She turned to walk out but was stopped by his voice. “You don’t seem like the type to follow authority, as most are who walk in here, so I’ll leave you with this. You have a few days to decide on what you want to do before the sale of ships will probably stop. There is a new marine captain due to be starting here after that, and rumor has it he is a real hardass. He’s getting dropped off by Vice Admiral Garp, too, so he must be good. Garp doesn’t do that for anybody.” Raoul said, keeping his promise of not letting anyone walk out of the bar with a direction to go in.
Yoruichi just stared back a little absentmindedly at Raoul, who after about 30 seconds of it, got a little anxious. “Uhm, you ok there Yoruichi? Lookin a little lost. Not really helping my track record.”
Yoruichi focused back onto Raoul, chuckling a bit, smiling, and turning around again, leaving the store. Raoul just watched silently as she walked out. It was almost night time, the streets closing with the vendors packing their things and the people in the last closing rush of the day.
Yoruichi started walking down to the hotel she was staying at, down the road, lost in thought. ‘Garp is coming to the East Blue, huh? It is around the time he said he would show up.’ She mused, ‘Wonder why he came a bit early? Might be this new marine guy.’
Yoruichi stopped in front of the hotel, which was only a few blocks away. ‘Now the real question is, do I wait here until he shows up, and hitch a ride? Or do I just beat him back to Foosha and get Luffy to surprise him for me.’
That train of thought only took a few seconds to decide. ‘Nah. I’m gonna wait here. Even if I ran it would still take me like a day to get there. Plus, whatever I have Luffy do would just get spoiled by Luffy himself.’
The decision made, Yoruichi headed into the building for the night, waiting for Garp to show up.
A day and a half later, Yoruichi could sense Garp with her Spiritual Sense, as it had to be him. She had spread it incredibly thin so she could see him coming from farther out, but she couldn’t see details. Not that she needed to.
Storing her clothes, Yoruichi turned into a cat and headed leisurely across the rooftops of Lougetown. She had time to get to the docks, as Garp’s ship was still an hour or so out. It was early afternoon, and she had a bit to figure out what she wanted to do.
She found a nice rooftop overlooking the docks, and the direction Garp was coming from. She lay down, waiting patiently. After a while, she could see the large navy ship with a dog as its figurehead, and HQ3 on its front sail cresting the horizon. It did not take the ship long to come to port, pulling aside the largest dock available, with the hands on the island catching the ropes thrown from the decks to tie the ship to docking poles to hold the ship down.
A gangplank was let down, on which Garp departed, followed shortly by Bogard, and a tall (to her anyway), white haired man, probably in his early 30s. He was quite muscular, not as much as Garp, but still above the normal marine standard, with blue pants, and a marine jacket with a green outline. His most defining feature was the two cigars he appeared to be smoking, with many more strapped to his jacket on the outside, like an ammo belt.
Yoruichi hopped off the rooftop, headed in the direction of Garp, who was now greeting the people of Lougetown in his normal boisterous manner. She had not seen him in a while, but when she got closer, she remembered exactly how tall he was, especially compared to her current form.
She did not care though, and while he was giving a surely rousing speech, introducing the new marine captain for the region, she jumped onto his back leg, and climbed up him until she reached his shoulder, where she then clawed onto his head, then laid down, intent on enjoying her new nap spot. She had entirely ignored the cries of the indignant (see. In pain) Garp, who almost reached up to grab her and forcefully relocate her, before his Haki picked up on her signature Wild, but hidden feeling.
Garp visibly deflated, mumbling “Goddamn cat woman, should have known this would happen.” Bogard was smiling behind him, a rare sight for the detective dressed man, and the other marines on Garp’s ship were outright laughing at him. Most, if not all had recognized Yoruichi’s cat form, as she had used it a few times on the ship the last time they met, and enough of them had good enough Observation Haki to sense her distinct presence, which she wasn’t hiding.
Yoruichi just put her head on her front paws, perched on Garp’s head, eyes looking around at the gathered people. They probably did not see people of such a high rank often, so almost everyone who could fit into the dock area was there. Merchants, Thieves, Bakers, Blacksmiths, Journalists, everyone was there.
She could see the cameras fluttering and knew exactly what was going to be in the paper tomorrow.
Garp started addressing the crowd again after getting over his tiny little embarrassing moment, saying “People of Lougetown. As I was saying, before I was so… rudely…. interrupted. I would like to introduce to you Marine Captain Smoker, who has just completed his Marine Officer Training Course, and will be your Marine Base commander here at Lougetown for the foreseeable future.”
There was polite clapping as Garp finished and ushered the white-haired main forward, who Yoruichi now knew as Smoker. ‘Probably a nickname for the number of cigars he smokes. Although…’ Yoruichi paused for a moment, focusing more on her spiritual senses than her actual eyes. ‘He feels a bit wispy. Almost like he is smoke. Devil Fruit maybe?’ Yoruichi mused, eyes now staring at the White-haired man.
Said man shivered a little, feeling like someone was staring into his soul.
Yoruichi was brought out of her thoughts by Garp moving away from the crowd, leading the contingent of marines off to the side of the docks that was sectioned off as the Marine Base.
Once they got there, all the marines were already at attention for their superior officer, he did the same thing as earlier, and introduced them to Smoker. This one was a little more personal, as it would be them Smoker would be working with. Instead of Garp giving a speech, He just stood there watching with the rest of his crew as Smoker himself started taking command.
Stepping forward from the throng of marines he was mired in, he shouted, “At ease soldiers!” there was a chorus of ‘Yes Sir! As the marines went into an at ease stance, with their arms behind their backs, and feet shoulder lengths apart. Yoruichi saw Smoker nod a bit in approval, before continuing in a more normal volume. “My name is Captain Smoker! I have been assigned to the Marine Base at Lougetown as my first assignment after graduating from Marine Officer Training. Most of you would recognize me, as I am a local to this town, as are you. I expect nothing but the best from this base, and I will take no exception to that fact. From this moment forward, there will be no pirates, no swindlers, no thieves, no criminal of any kind getting off this island. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!!” Smoker ended with a shout. He once more received a chorus of “Yes Sir!”. He then started walking forward, toward the base. “This is the entrance to the Grand Line from the East Blue. It is our duty to stop any and all pirates from entering reverse mountain, and I will make sure none of them make it off this Island if they want to stop here for preparations. Who here is the commanding officer?” Smoker asked, crossing his arms, and looking at them once he got to the front door of the base.
A young woman with a sword at her hip stepped forward, with short black hair and brown eyes covered by thick glasses. She wore dark blue jeans, along with a flower-patterned button up shirt, with a blue leather jacket with white trim. She was about half a foot taller than Yoruichi herself, being at 5’7”, taller than average (for the average woman).
She saluted Smoker and said “I am Petty Officer Tashigi Sir! I have been the commanding officer for this base for two months. If you would allow me to introduce you to the rest of the base, I would be honored.” She then brought down her salute, knocking her glasses off her face.
“Aww damn. I wanted to make a good impression…” she whined under her breath, with no hesitation bending down to try and find her glasses on the ground. Smoker watched a bit incredulously as multiple marines facepalmed, groaning, and completely breaking formation to go and give Tashigi her glasses back.
The girl knelt on the ground, fumbling around with her glasses while the marine that helped her looked up apologetically at Smoker. “Ah. Sorry sir. You see, she is pretty much blind without her glasses. It’s always best to help her out with them immediately or she will never find them again.” Said marine then paused, cold sweat going down his back, realizing exactly what he just did. He snapped off a quick salute and a “Sorry Sir!” and quickly vacated the area.
“Bahahah-ow!” Garp laughed, before yelping when Yoruichi dug her claws deeper into his skull when he almost threw her off her nap spot. “Damn cat. Anyway, it’s about time I get home. I am on vacation after all. I will leave you to it Smokey. Good Ol’ Z man always gives his officers a good grounding. See ya!” Garp said, before turning and walking briskly back to his ship with the rest of his officers following behind him. He had left the rest of the marines to their jobs of resupplying and readying for their next leg.
It was silent for the few minutes it took to get settled on the ship, in which Garp and Bogard headed directly to Garp’s quarters with Yoruichi perched on his head still.
Garp almost frantically rushed into his room, almost closing the door in Bogard’s face before he could get in, and then almost immediately reached up to pry the cat on his head off it.
Yoruichi was waiting for this once she felt the rush Garp was in, and flash-stepped off his head and onto the bed, where she sat imperiously in the center, licking her paw.
Garp just sighed and rubbed his face. Bogard said, “Good to see you again, Yoruichi. Did your trip go well?”
Yoruichi did not change back to her human form, and just laid down again. “Yes, it did, though it was quite boring. I wanted to do something fun, which apparently, I can’t get here. Learned a few things though.”
Bogard and Garp looked a bit surprised at the cat, whose deceptively deep voice had caught them off guard.
She glanced up at them thinking, ‘Heh. I’ve never actually spoken to them in this form, have I? Oh well, it was bound to happen.’
Garp asked uncertainly, “Uh, you are Yoruichi, yeah? I don’t know why your voice is so deep though. Weirdo.” He finished, grinning at the cat. Yoruichi just glared at him, before ignoring them both. The men looked at each other, before starting to discuss what was probably military secrets right in front of her.
After 20 minutes of a nap time, Garp went over and asked Yoruichi, “So, you wanted me to bring you to the grand line when I go back, yeah? Still sure you don’t wanna join the marines?” he grinned, with his arms crossed. Yoruichi sat up and stretched, then glared at the man and said, “No. I don’t want to join the marines. I already left one organization, and I don’t intend to join another. Although, If you have some fun stuff for me to do, then maybe I will accept you asking me nicely. Like you did with that base auditing. Oh yeah. Speaking of.” Yoruichi turned back into a woman in a puff of smoke, causing the men to avert their eyes at her naked form, before she reached into the satchel and pulled out the booklet Garp had gave her. “Here it is, everything I could find out.” She then transformed into a cat again, the satchel disappearing with her. Garp had taken the book and flipped through the pages, frowning more and more as he read on.
Bogard over his shoulder, said “Looks like this is bad boss. Worse than we thought. Good thing Lougetown has a captain now, so we can tell Smoker to deal with this as a test for him, and to get used to his crew.” Garp nodded, handing the booklet off to Bogard saying, “Have this delivered to him then. He should know what to do.” Bogard nodded then left, closing the door lightly behind his thin form.
Garp then took off his marine jacket, before putting it over the back of his desk chair and sitting down. He then put both his elbows on his knees, hands cupping his broad chin, and grinned cheerily at Yoruichi who was curled up on the bed.
“So, what did you do? Where’d you go? Defeat any pirates?” he asked, acting like his grandson more and more as his questions went on.
Yoruichi just huffed, but did not move from her comfortable spot. Garp tried to keep asking her about her trip, but eventually gave up, pouting and turning his head to the side like a snuffed girlfriend.
Garp got out of his funk quickly, turning a bit serious, saying, “I wonder how Luffy has been. This is the first time he has been truly alone; you know? He always had Ace, and then I was there for a bit, but he has been alone for a whole year, with only Makino to help him.” He was now fidgeting a bit, obviously more of an anxious parent than a marine admiral.
Yoruichi looked at him, responding, “He will be ok. I only knew him for a little while, but he has a penchant for making friends. If he can’t, he will just get Makino or that bandit lady to help him. That or he will forget he has to eat food, and then look like an old monk in meditation when we get there. When are we going to leave anyways?” she changed the direction of the conversation, hoping to stop Garp from turning into anxious parent mode.
It worked, and he perked up a bit, saying “Oh yes. We will probably leave once Smoker gets set up here. It’s his first assignment, and Headquarters wants to make sure their prodigy is good to go. So probably a day or so to get him briefed on the surroundings and get him sent on that mission Bogard mentioned a minute ago.” He then paused, before grinning happily. “Then I get to see my grandson! Bahahahaha!” He started, then choking on his own laughter.
“Luffy’s birthday is when we get back. I didn’t bring him anything!” He wailed in despair, thinking of the last birthday he forgot a present for his grandkid, and Luffy stole every single piece of meat Garp had tried to eat during his stay. It was horrible.
Yoruichi rolled over, before hopping off the bed and changing back into her human form again. She then reached for the satchel at her side, arm going in to her mid bicep, before rummaging around for a moment.
She then pulled her arm out, before throwing something at Garp, which he caught reflexively. Yoruichi changed back into a cat while Garp was inspecting the item, or items. A pair of gloves to be specific. They looked to be fingerless wrist reaching gloves, a scaly, yellow color with bumps set into the knuckles.
Garp looked at the cat woman again, curiously asking, “Gloves? As a gift?”
Yoruichi went up to the pillow at the head of the bed and started making muffins. While doing so, she replied, “Yeah. Found em on a pirate about a month ago. Guy was huge, had to be bigger with you. Definitely bigger hands. That’s what interested me in them, as gloves don’t just fit people that size and then shrink back down. When I got here, I asked a merchant what they were. He said they were made of some sort of pufferfish sea king.”
Garp nodded absentmindedly, still studying the gloves. “Yeah, their skin is pretty stretchy. Makes for good rope, sails, or things like this.” He looked a bit closer at the knuckles, before asking hesitantly, “Is that….. seastone? Why do you want to give this to him again?” He flipped the gloves over, sticking a finger inside the gloves to see if the stones stuck straight through.
As she was done making muffins, Yoruichi circled her new pillow, laying down after a few inspection circles. “Yeah. Thought they would make a good gift, regardless. I haven’t known him for that long, but I am gonna guess he is a trouble magnet. Having something that can help with the more troublesome people would be useful for him, yea?” she said, now watching Garp inspect the gloves much closer, going over every detail.
“Hmmmmm.” Garp hummed noncommittedly. “It would help him finally beat that brother of his.” Garp mumbled to himself.
Yoruichi perked up a bit at that. Neither Garp nor Luffy wanted to talk much about Ace for some reason, only saying he had left to become a pirate. She had stumbled upon a bounty poster a few weeks ago in the paper, called ‘Fire-Fist Ace’.
‘If I had to guess, that’s who his other grandson is.’ Yoruichi mused, before asking “You’re talking about Ace, aren’t you? I saw in the paper someone with that name defeated a Warlord.”
Garp winced a little, which he tried to hide but Yoruichi noticed anyway, before grinning. “Yeah. Sengoku gave me a hard time for that. Before I left the ol’ boy was thinking of offering Ace the position.” Garp then stood up again, saying more to himself, “I really hope Luffy doesn’t get any idea from that though.”
Yoruichi chuckled, before leaping from the bed over the 10 or so feet between where the pillow was to Garp’s back, clinging onto his jacket. Garp yelped a bit, before just sighing and ignoring the cat on his head.
The werecat started talking, her deep voice vibrating Garp’s head a bit, leading to a tick mark on his face. “I have never met Ace, but if Luffy looks up to him, you know damn well he will try to best him. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if he intentionally goes after Warlords.” She then sat up on Garp’s head as he walked out the door onto the deck. “Now, mush, my steed. Take Us where We want to go.”
Garp froze in the doorway, his entire crew looking at him. Most of them did not hear Yoruichi talk, as she was kind of quiet, but some of the nearer marines looked both confused at who was talking and quite amused.
Garp snapped.
He moved at inhuman levels of speed, grabbing the furred demon off his head before chucking her as far away from his ship as possible. And with Garp’s cannonball throwing skills, it was quite far.
Garp smiled proudly as he heard Yoruichi screaming in transit to her new location in the ocean. He dusted off his hands, before turning back to Bogard who he sensed coming up the gangplank, having given Smoker the booklet and his mission.
Bogard, who had seen the final moments of the unlucky werecat, told his superior, “Doesn’t she have a devil fruit?”
Garp then paled immediately, before slowly turning to where Yoruichi had flown. “Ah. Shit.” He replied dumbly, before scrambling his ship to go fish for the probably drowning cat.
It was 2 hours later when Garp finally gave up looking for Yoruichi, who had probably long since drowned in the ocean.
He walked into his cabin, sitting down on the chair at his desk, taking off his shoes. “Ahhh. It was nice knowing her for the time I did. Truly regrettable.”
He got up to go take a nap in his bed, before he froze in horror. There was a ghost on his bed. A dripping wet ghost. A very angry, dripping wet ghost. Garp’s face paled until there was no blood in his face.
He saw the ghost get up, from their dripping wet position on his bed, which was now soaked, and held his hands placatingly in front of him. “Now, uh, Yoruichi…. I can… I can explain.” He was about to start begging for forgiveness, but did not get far as the Ghost of Yoruichi Shihoin hissed menacingly, then jumped at his face, all 4 paws of claws held out in front of her to grab onto Garp’s face like a facehugger, only to let go when she drew enough blood, and most of his hair.