Cat on Water

Chapter 19

It had been almost 5 days since Yoruichi had arrived at Marineford, and had been stuffed in an officer’s quarters by Garp after her initial meeting with the big honcho of the marines.

Currently, she was lounging on an upper pathway that was overlooking a training field. Watching her people of Division 2 had been a small pastime of hers, and it gave her a sense of familiarity to see the training so similar to what she had her people doing.

‘Of course, there are some differences.’ Yoruichi commented to herself. ‘We trained our Hakuda, Hoho, Kido, and Zanjutsu. These guys train with whatever weapons they happen to have. Mostly swords and guns. Those ‘muskets’ I think they’re called, look similar to Soi Fon’s Bankai, but smaller. I wonder if they do the same thing….’ Her musing was interrupted by a clearing of the throat behind her.

She glanced over her shoulder to see Aokiji, the tall man blocking out the early afternoon sunlight. “Yes?” she asked, “You are Aokiji, right? Or Kuzan. Which do you prefer anyways?”. Turning half her body so she was siting fully on the lip of the pathway, she turned to face the man.

He felt as cool as ever, she could even feel the frigid air coming off of him.

He smiled a bit, and extended his hand in greeting. “Kuzan, please. Aokiji is a title for those outside of personal acquaintance. Since you know my mentor, that excludes you from that as well.”

Yoruichi shook his overly large hand, her entire arm seemingly disappearing in his grip. “Nice to meet you, Kuzan. What do you mean by title anyways? I know most people have like epithets and stuff, but yours sounds like an actual name.

Kuzan smiled more at that comment, and said “yes, well, when you become an Admiral whether it be Rear, Vice, or just Admiral, you get given a codename, or callsign if you will. Most of the general pubic refer to us with those names from that point on. Mine is ‘Blue Pheasant’. The other two Admirals, Borsalino and Sakazuki have the code names, ‘Kizaru’, or Yellow Monkey, and ‘Akainu’, or red dog.”

He walked a bit forward, letting her arm go. Looking out over the marines training down below, he asked, “So, what do you think? You said you had military experience, no? I heard you mention it to Tsuru at that meeting.”

Yoruichi looked down her left side, down at the marines again. She examined them critically for a moment, then turned to face Kuzan again. “You would be right. I did have military experience. Was in it for a long time. Either way, you want to know what I think about the training down there?” Yoruichi asked, looking up at the massive man who was still 3-4 feet higher than her, despite her position on the wall.

He nodded down at her, and she started her examination. Turning to face the marines fully, her feet dangling over the edge, she said, “They don’t really have anyone teaching them how to use their specific weapons. Looking at them in their drill lines, the only two examiners down there only seem to know how to deal with the guns, and maybe a sword.”

She glanced at the cold man, who was staring intently down at the marines, recognizing what she was saying. She kept going, seeing as he did not say anything. “Because there is no teacher helping them one on one, there are a lot of them that have a very bad form. Take that one guy on the edge there.” She pointed over to a large man, who looked like he ate way more than he should, holding a sword much too small for his size.

“That sword he has should be like almost a half-foot longer. He should be able to easily carry a larger size sword, but the standard one does not compliment his large reach. If anything, it just inhibits it.”

Kuzan grunted in agreement but said nothing, still focused on the marines.

Yoruichi kept talking, a more teacher like voice coming to the fore. “The entire back row does not look like they even want to be there, and most of the rest look like they don’t know what they’re doing, or why. See how they are striking at the dummies in front of them?”

She was pointing out how the marines were just haphazardly swinging at the straw dummies in front of them, most of the marines not even hitting the thing dead on, their alignment with the sword causing it to glance off with minimal damage.

Yoruichi stopped talking, looking at Kuzan. He was making small contemplative noises, but he started talking after a few minutes. “Yes. You seem to be quite accurate with your assessment. Are you a sword user by chance? You seem to know much about them.” Kuzan said calmly.

Yoruichi snickered a bit, but said, “I guess you could call me knowledgeable with a sword. Compared to my contemporaries, though, I am barely a competent master.”

Kuzan moved away from his position looking down at the group of marines, and moved over to another section of the wall.

He pointed down at a smaller group of marines, none of which were in a formation, spread out across the field either in spars with each other, or just standing around talking, and said, “What do you think of these marines?”

Yoruichi hopped off her spot on the wall, and walked over. She could sense all of the marines down there with her spiritual senses, and could tell that these were definitely officers.

She scanned over the marines and could see that most if not all of them at least knew what they were doing. Some of them had obvious devil fruits, like one marine woman, who was tall (For normal standards), with long pink hair down to her waist.

She was creating iron bars out of her sleeves, trying to trap another woman in them. The other woman had short red hair, with a rapier in her hand. She was only partially succeeding at parrying the iron bars flying by her.

Yoruichi nodded to the two women, and said, “See those two? The woman with the devil fruit is probably never going to catch the other one with only one direction of a cage like that. She either needs to make the gaps smaller or learn to make them wrap around an opponent.”

She then pointed to the other woman, who had just backflipped over the top of a set of iron bars. “The red-head, however, needs to stop using that rapier like a normal sword. That’s not what they’re designed for. Less slashing for stabbing. Parrying is also a royally bad idea with a blade that thin. Its just asking for it to get snapped in half.”

Kuzan nodded slowly, but did not get the chance to respond, as he turned his head to look down the walkway. Yoruichi followed his gaze, locking onto a heavily muscled man, about as much as Garp, and equally as tall. He had a cigar in his mouth, wearing a double-breasted white suit with a red collar and orange flowers on it.

He had a baseball cap with the word Marine written on it, and a jacket with an Admiral’s lapels on it.

Kuzan stood up fully, turning to greet the other man. “Ah, Sakazuki, you here for the Warlord meeting?” he said, giving a small nod to the man.

Sakazuki, who Kuzan had said was called ‘Akainu’ earlier, just grunted in acknowledgment. “With these damn pirates being let into Mariejois so freely, someone must keep an eye on them. Still want to get rid of that abysmal system anyways. Who lets scum of the sea go free…” The Sakazuki said gruffly, stopping next to Kuzan.

He scanned the marines in the training yard below them, and after a few moments just shook his head. “Pathetic….” He muttered. “They’ll never survive at this rate.”

Kuzan huffed a bit, and replied, “Maybe if you would stop killing them all whenever you go fight pirates, we would have competent marines. They need time to get experience, which they can’t have if they’re dead.”

Sakazuki snorted and crossed his arms, turning away from the training grounds. “Humph. If they die, they deserve it. The Marines don’t need weaklings around that cant cut it.” He grunted, walking away.

Yoruichi just sat on the side, her eyebrows raised in surprise. ‘This guy is an Admiral? How the hell did they let someone with that attitude lead people?’

When he passed by Yoruichi, he glanced down at her out of the corner of his eye. He stopped walking when he saw her expression and frowned down at her.

“Who are you? What’s your designation? Why are you not in uniform?” he asked, pretty much asking his questions like commands.

Yoruichi deadpanned, and just leaned against the wall, crossing her arms under her chest. She stared up at the large man, almost twice as tall as she was. “Calm down there, buddy.” She said, trying to be civil. She always disliked people like Sakazuki, who treat their subordinates like trash. “I’m not a marine, so I don’t have any of those. My name, however, is Yoruichi.”

Sakazuki turned to fully face her, and started audibly growling. “If you are not a marine, what the hell are you doing here?” he ground out, his face starting to go red in anger. “Who let you in here? Was it Garp? He seems the type to let civilians wander around.”

Yoruichi made a face of grudging surprise. “Wow, you got it right in one. I am Garp’s guest.” She smiled up at the big man, which only seemed to make him more annoyed. She could see steam coming off his neck, but did not stop smiling.

After a moment Sakazuki grunted and turned to continue walking away. “Kuzan, the warlord meeting is in 2 hours. Be there.” As a final word of warning, he said to Yoruichi, “You, on the other hand, should not wander around Marineford like it is your own home. You said you are a guest, so go stay in the guest quarters.” He then turned and walked away, steam still slightly wafting from his neck.

Yoruichi just huffed, and turned back to Kuzan. “Well,” She smiled slightly at the man, “You heard him. Youd better be there.” She teased, earning a slight smile from the normally collected Admiral. She then pushed herself off the wall, stretching a bit, and said, “Well, I am going to go find something else to do, hopefully the opposite of what that hardass wants.” She brushed her butt off of dirt from the wall, and hopped up onto it.

Crouching on top of the lip, she looked around. She could still feel Sakazuki close, his presence giving off a hot, boiling feeling. She could not feel Garp, Sengoku, or Tsuru, which made sense if they were up at that Mariejois place getting ready.

‘Wait, scratch that, Garp is on his ship.’ She thought. ‘I should go visit him, figure out exactly what this ‘meeting’ is for.

Turning back to Kuzan, she said, “Well, Im gonna go annoy Garp, so I will see you later.” Giving a mock salute, she let herself fall off the walkway toward the ground. She grinned as she saw Kuzan casually lean over and glance at her falling form, before shaking his head and moving away.

Yoruichi flipped herself over in midair, and flash-stepped to the ground in the direction of Garp’s ship. A few moments later, she found him in his room putting on an actual uniform.

She knocked on the door to the room, and walked in without an answer. Garp was facing a mirror, buttoning up the last few buttons on his suit, which looked much like Sakazuki’s.

He looked over his shoulder when she entered, and he said, “Ah, Yoruichi. You have been suspiciously absent for the last few days. Made Sengoku all worried.” He reached out and grabbed a tie out of the closet, a full sky-blue color, contrasting with the navy blue shirt he was wearing.  Putting it on, he turned around to face her.

Yoruichi flopped herself down on his bed, crossing her legs and arms. She looked at Garp a bit seriously, and asked, “So, you never did answer me when I asked you about what you told Sengoku and Tsuru. I heard from Sakazuki you have two hours to get to Mariejois. So spill.”

Garp started sweating a bit, but eventually just bit the bullet. “Well, uh, I kind of told them about how you could fight me, and how you had some sort of cat zoan.”

He said awkwardly, finishing tying his tie and tucking it into his suit jacket.

Yoruichi just stared at him. “Anddddd?” she prompted, eyebrow raised.

Garp winced a bit at the exasperation on Yoruichi’s face, and mumbled, “And I told them you might be convinced to join the marines.” He quickly looked up, anxious to clear his name. “But I didn’t tell them you were going to, just that you might be convinced. They made the assumptions.”

Yoruichi did not look impressed. “Really.” She said sarcastically. “That’s it.” Garp grabbed his jacket off his deck chair, swinging it over his shoulders. He smiled his D shaped smile at Yoruichi, and said proudly, “Yep! That’s it.”

Smirking a bit inwardly, she said, “Well, if that’s the case, you wouldn’t mind telling me what this meeting with the warlords is about, then?”

Garp, almost subconsciously said, “Uh, well we have to pick a new Warlord, since the last one got- “He paused, realization kicking in. “Hey! I hate it when Tsuru does that, I don’t need you to do it too!” He pouted at Yoruichi, crying his misfortune.

Yoruichi chuckled, smiling kindly at the bear of a man. She said jovially, “Well, don’t make it so easy and we’ll stop.” She got up from her position on the bed, and asked, “Well, where are we going? You seem ready to go.”

Garp just looked at her confused. “What do you mean, ‘We’? I am going to the meeting. You, are staying here.” He pointed at himself, then her for emphasis, his jacket rippling.

Shaking her head, she replied, almost like a petulant child, “Nuh, uh! That’s the only thing interesting happening around here, so of course I am going.” She crossed her arms and tapped her foot like an impatient teenager. “Well?! Hurry it up, snailface! We got places to be, and I don’t know where we’re going.” She said snidely.

Garp just groaned into his hands, which had come up to rub his eyes in frustration. “Ugh. Fine. You’re worse than Luffy sometimes, you know that?” he groaned at her. Yoruichi just smiled impishly.

“You know that is completely false. I can do basic math. The only math I would catch Luffy doing is how many sticks of meat he has left.” She said haughtily, sticking her nose in the air like a certain Snake Princess. She paused for a moment, thinking of something. “Who’s going to be there, anyway?” she asked.

Garp just shugged, saying, “I don’t really know. I’m pretty sure at least 3 of them are showing their faces, but only Doflamingo and Crocodile have confirmed they are coming. Moria would usually show up to something this big, and Hancock is not, we both know that.”

He finished, then shrugged again. “As for Mihawk and Jinbe, well, Mihawk never tells us anything, and Jinbe would rather not be anywhere near where we are going.” He grunted, walking to the door.

Glancing over his shoulder, hand on the door handle, he said, “You can’t go like that, anyways. Sengoku would have a stroke seeing someone who’s not a marine there.”

Yoruichi just chuckled, and started stripping.

“Gah! Can you stop doing that?! Do you have no shame?!” Garp quickly said, turning around again to walk outside, jacket spreading out behind him. He felt a bit of pressure on his right shoulder, before he felt Yoruichi settle into a spot on top of his head, in cat form.

He just grumbled to himself, not saying anything. He had learned his lesson the last time.

Yoruichi chuckled at his annoyance, her deep voice vibrating Garp’s skull. “Heh, you know I don’t have any shame. Never stops you from trying to peek, does it? Pervert. Aren’t you a grandpa?” Yoruichi teased, her tone lilting down the hall of the ship’s interior.

Garp just bopped her on the head with his hand, and said, “Shut up, you’re a cat now. Act like one.” He walked out of the ship’s interior, telling his men to set sail for Mariejois.

 

***

20 minutes later, Yoruichi arrived at the top of the red line, and she could look around from her perch on Garp’s head. She could see a massive castle in front of her, at least 6-8 floors tall.

“That’s where we are going?” She whispered to Garp. She could feel some sort of tingling going down her spine when she looked at the place. She didn’t like it.

Garp grunted in affirmation but did not say anything. ‘Guess he’s trying to act the part of an actual Vice Admiral.’ She thought to herself. She laid down on Garp’s head, paws holding her chin.

Looking around, she could see a sprawling city laid out around the castle. Her spiritual senses could feel many people rushing around, going about their business. The entrance Garp intended to use was apparently a side entrance, as she could see a gaudier looking part of the castle off to their left.

They arrived at the door, after passing through a garden looking place, and Garp gave a slight nod to the guard, completely ignoring the man’s look of confusion at Garp’s companion.

The guard let him in anyway, as he was easily recognized. When they entered, they were let into a long hallway with pictures of unknown people on the walls.

‘Look like royals, or at least nobility.’ Yoruichi thought, gazing at the pictures. She eventually got bored at looking around, the light blue coloring of the walls making her eyes hurt a bit.

She closed her eyes, relaxing and extending her spiritual senses. After a few moments, she tensed up as she felt something.

Her eyes shooting open, she scanned the hallway they were in. ‘Nothing…..’ she thought. ‘But could that have been…? No, it couldn’t. Theres no way for them to get here.’ She shook her head. It was only a fleeting feeling, so she ignored it.

Eventually, Garp was led into a Circular room with windows as tall as the walls spread out every few feet. In between them were pillars holding the roof up, and the center of the room held a round table with high backed chairs around it. It was covered with a tablecloth with the world government symbol inlaid onto it. Everything was still that off blue color, of course.

‘This looks bland as all hell.’ Yoruichi thought, her small head twisting and turning as she examined the bare room. She could identify Sengoku, Tsuru, Kuzan, Sakazuki, but the others at the table she did not know. Two were marines, the first a woman with curly black hair tied back into a low pony tail, and was sitting next to Tsuru. She had on a Pink blouse with frills on the neckline. Over her shoulders was a standard marine jacket with admiral lapels.

The other was a man, who had extremely wide cheekbones and thick eyebrows. He wore a fedora, and a blue button down long sleeve shirt with a charm hanging from a necklace. He also had a jacket with Admiral lapels. He was sitting across from Gion at the table, attempting to make small talk with the woman. He had a pipe in his hand, and he was taking a puff every so often.

The other three were another story. All three were male, but as varied as could be. The first man was muscular, had slicked back hair, and a long scar across his nose, which moved whenever he took a puff of the cigar in his mouth. He wore a black suit, pants, and furred coat. Yoruichi could feel a gritty feeling from him when he looked at him with her spiritual sense.

The second was a tall, thin man, that looked like he shouldn’t be let within 300 yards of a school. He had on the most ostentatious s pink feathered jacket Yoruichi had ever seen. Short cropped blonde hair, and thin tinted glasses. He was smiling creepily at the others around him, though would flinch a bit whenever Tsuru would glare at him.

The last one just threw Yoruichi for a complete loop. ‘Is that guy even human?’ she thought incredulously. For one, he was at least twice as tall as everyone else in the room, and with people like Sengoku, Garp, Kuan, and Sakazuki there, that made him at least 20’ tall. He also had horns coming out of his unnaturally thin head, along with stitches running down his face and neck. To be honest, he looked like some off brand Dracula with his outfit, an overly puffy bib on his front, with a frilled backed cape over his shoulders.

What really got Yoruichi, though, was the fact that the man was either blue, or a dull grey. That and he was shapedlooked like a bowling pin.

She just looked around for a glance, then put her head back down. She laughed silently at the looks Garp was getting from the marines when he walked in, though.

All of them were just looking at Garp with complete shock on their faces. They all expressed it differently though. The man with the fedora let his pipe fall out of his mouth, the woman just had the ‘surprised pikachu’ face on, Sengoku had one eyebrow raised, and Tsuru just glared at him. Sakazuki did not really care, but she could feel the surprise roiling in him. Kuzan was smiling openly at the scene.

She watched the woman lean over to Tsuru, still looking in shock at Garp. “Doesn’t Garp hate cats, Tsuru?” she whispered. Tsuru didn’t even break eye contact with Garp, her eyes boring into his skull. She whispered out of the corner of her mouth, “Gion, that man hates anything that looks like a cat. Your guess is as good as mine as to why there is one on his head, and he’s not doing anything about it.”

The woman, Gion, just giggled a bit, but decided to engage anyway. She sat back up straight, and asked Garp, “Hey, why do you have a cat on your head? The last time one of them came near you, you freaked out.” This caused the pimp to laugh openly, which got a glare from Tsuru.

Garp just chuckled as well, before sitting down across the table from Sengoku. Leaning forward, he shook his head a bit, which Yoruichi took as a que to jump off his head.

She landed on her feet on the table and started wandering around. She decided to go around the marine side first, but quickly noticed there were almost clear strings laying slack across the table. Using her spiritual senses, she quickly traced them back to the peacock off to the side, more specifically his hands.

‘Wire user, huh. Don’t see many of those.’ Yoruichi thought. As she walked across the threads, she quickly used her claws to cut them. She completely ignored the smoking man, who was still just staring at her, and walked over to the woman, Gion. She rubbed up against the hand Gion extended, and started purring.

Gion smiled, and said, “Well aren’t you precious.” While that was happening, Tsuru kept glaring at Garp, who started getting uncomfortable. “Why, exactly, did you bring a cat to this meeting?” she asked pointedly.

Garp just shrugged, pulling out a sleeve of crackers, and started munching. “Eh. I just brought a guest, it’s no big deal.” He said nonchalantly. As soon as he said that, Tsuru and Sengoku’s heads snapped toward Yoruichi, recognition on their faces.

Sengoku just mumbled something incoherent, and said, “We will talk about this later, Garp. We have a meeting to get on with.” Yoruichi moved on from Gion, and walked over to Tsuru. She sat down on top of the papers the aged woman had in front of her, and meowed.

Tsuru just looked even more exasperated at Yoruichi’s antics. Her hand rubbing her temple, she said, “No, I’m not going to pet you. Go away.”

That did not stop Yoruichi, who meowed again, reaching out with a paw to tap Tsuru on her other hand. Said hand made a shushing movement, pushing Yoruichi away. She stumbled a bit at the movement, but she eventually huffed and turned to Sengoku. He had just started speaking, when she hopped up from her spot on the table and onto his shoulder.

She felt the large man tense up under her, but she ignored him. She also ignored the loud laughter from Garp and two of the Warlord. What she was more interested in was the large stuffed seagull on his cap, which she immediately pulled off his head with her claws.

She was not prepared to get smacked in the face by a full blown afro, almost knocking her off Sengoku’s shoulder. Said man gave a cry of indignation, scrambling to catch his cap.

Once Yoruichi regained her bearings, she hopped up into the new nest she had found, and settled in. This caused Sengoku to go, “Hey! Stop that! No!” and reach up to grab her off his head.

In the middle of resounding laughter from Garp, the Warlords, and Gion, the doors opened once more, causing everyone to freeze. In walked two men The first, a tall, round man that had two large tusks coming out of his mouth. He was completely blue, with curly black hair pulled back. He also was wearing something of a kimono, yellow colored with flowers filled in with skull and crossbones. He had on his back a cloak pinned to the kimono, and he looked grudgingly annoyed with his own presence here.

Yoruichi used the distraction of the men to dig further into the afro, laying down and peering through the hair at the other man following the first. He was short compared to the people in the room, but still about 6 and a half feet tall. He had on a long black jacket with red sleeves and a puffed collar, with no undershirt, showing his muscled torso. He had a feathered hat on, with light purple pants and boots.

What caused Yoruichi to dig her claws into the Fleet Admiral’s skull was the weapon on the man’s back.

‘No…. It can’t be…. There is no way that it could even be here. It was lost in a fight with a hollow around a million years ago.’ Yoruichi was completely floored. She was staring at the sword of the founder of her clan. Yoru. That sword was the Shihoin clan’s shame for almost their entire existence.

‘I’m sure of it. There were drawings of it in the archives, every clan leader knew what that weapon looked like. It even has the jewels and everything.’ Yoruichi felt her mind implode, the implications of what she was looking at crashing over her.

She was completely lost in her own thought now, staring at the man with the sword on his back, that she did not notice the greetings Sengoku gave the two men.

“Ah, Jinbe, Hawk Eyes. I did not expect you to be here.” Sengoku said, his eyes narrowed.

He and Tsuru exchanged glances, glad they had asked Kuzan and Sakazuki to attend. If they didn’t, they would be outnumbered right now.

Tsuru glanced up at the afro on Sengoku’s head, and she could see the small black cat staring intently at Mihawk.

‘I wonder what’s up with that. That should be Yoruichi, from what Garp said, and she seemed to want to mess around. Now she is looking like she wants to eat Mihawk. Is she attracted to him? Maybe.’ Tsuru thought, pondering the werecat in the room. Garp had mentioned she had a cat zoan fruit, so that must be it.

She set herself to keep an eye on the mischievous duo and tuned in back to the meeting.

Yoruichi was torn between leaving her spot and instantly going to interrogate the man, who she belatedly caught up to her own ears and knew as Mihawk, and the other as Jinbe.

She eventually came to a decision to wait it out, as it would not be good to cause a scene in this place.

‘Especially with that presence. I was not fooling myself earlier, something is definitely here.’ She could feel a very feint presence poking at the sword on Mihawk’s back, almost examining it.

Involuntarily growling a bit, she extended her own spiritual senses and attempted to brush up against the sword.

That caused the other presence to immediately retreat, much like the previous time, leaving no trace of them whatsoever.

Yoruichi pushed that thought process to the back of her mind, focusing on the sword. She could feel the gems engravings, with the Shihoin clan symbol carved into each of them.

‘Definitely Yoru.’ She thought.

Yoru was a sword passed along with the Shihoin shield, the armaments of her clan’s founder. It was one of the weapons Zanpakuto was based on. The reason for that was because it was one of the only swords that had a spirit inside of it. Yoru did not have a Shikai or Bankai, at least according to the records, but the spirit inside allowed for communication and better resonance between it and the wielder.

Eventually Yoruichi stopped examining the weapon, which was quite hard for her. ‘It is the first time anyone from my clan has seen that heirloom in a long ass time.’ Yoruichi thought.

She shrugged, thinking about all that she had learned in the last few days.

‘This world is weird, this palace is weird, Yoru is here, like what the hell did I stumble into?’ she pondered, but couldn’t come up with an answer.

Eventually she gave up, her head hurting. She still felt that tingling feeling she had felt since coming here, which she was starting to get annoyed at.

Putting her head in her paws, she sat bored as hell as she listened to Sengoku read off names from a list, and get people’s opinions on them. After 45 minutes, they got to one name.

“Bartholomew Kuma. The Tyrant.” Sengoku said, looking down at the report he had on the man.

Yoruichi looked down as well, seeing a picture of a large round man with long arms and extremely small legs. His body was covered by a jacket that had some sort of target on it, with paw prints lining the bottom. He had black curly hair, and a jutting chin, with glasses, and a grey hat with ears coming out of it.

Sengoku continued, saying, “Former slave, feared for his vicious nature by the public, and apparently has some sort of connection to Vegapunk, our scientist. Current Bounty, 296,000,000 berry. The world government believes he would be a good choice for Warlord. Opinions?”

He glanced around at the table, looking at each of the attendants. Yoruichi did the same, and saw that while the marines were attentive, the pirates did not really care. Mihawk was picking at his nails with a small blade, Jinbe was paying attention, and the other three were doing random things like twiddling their thumbs, or actively smoking a cigar.

After a few moments, Kuzan spoke up, and said, “The Tyrant, huh. Wasn’t he given that title because he massacred his kingdom multiple times?”

Sengoku nodded his head, replying, “Yes, that is true. But he has been recommended by the World Government mainly due to his connection with Vegapunk.”

That saw some nods from the Marines, except Akainu who had been glaring at all of the Warlords in the room, looking like he wanted to smash each and every one of them into the ground.

Turning to the Warlords, Sengoku looked a bit sternly at them, and said, “If none of you ingrates want to participate, I will send an offer to Kuma and we can be done with this.” He put the papers he had picked up down, and stood up.

The flamboyant man laughed, taunting Sengoku, “Hehehe, we all know you want nothing to do with us, old man. Especially after that little embarrassment earlier.” He grinned at Sengoku, looking pointedly at his head where Yoruichi sat.

Yoruichi raised an eyebrow internally, not thinking that a pirate would be dumb enough to taunt the Fleet Admiral in Mariejois. She decided to move from Sengoku’s head, jumping back down to the table as he moved over to Tsuru, earning a glare from the man as her claws scratched his scalp.

As soon as she landed, she paused for a moment, feeling invisible strings attempt to grab her.

‘Hmm, thought I cut these.’ She thought wryly, as she nimbly evaded and cut the lines that tried to grab her. She then completely ignored the blonde-haired man who had tried to get her, and was now looking at her a bit annoyed.

She heard Tsuru say, “Doflamingo, stop with the strings.” Which caused the man to grumble a bit, but assent anyways.

She ignored him, and moved onto Mihawk, who was still cleaning his nails with a small blade. She walked up to him, and sat down in front of him, on the edge of the table. She could feel the gaze of both Tsuru and Garp, probably wondering what she was doing.

She saw the man glance at her, his sharp eyes examining her in one look. She decided to engage him, her interest in Yoru overcoming Garp’s requests.

“Have you learned their name?” She asked slowly, her deep voice causing Mihawk, and pretty much everyone in the room to stop moving and look at her.

Mihawk had stopped his knife movements, looking down at her closer over the blade. Yoruichi could now feel the gazes of every marine in the room, except Tsuru, who was probably glaring at Garp again.

After a moment, Mihawk put the blade down and said, “I do not understand your question, cat. Which ‘they’ are you referring to?” he leaned back and steepled his hands in his lap, looking at her from under the brim of his hat.

Pointing with her tail over her shoulder, she reiterated, “Your sword. Have you learned their name?” She bored her gaze into Mihawk’s realizing that he was given his epithet of Hawk Eyes for the unnatural gaze he had.

Mihawk subconsciously reached his hand back to his blade’s hilt, causing everyone in the room to tense up. He did not pull it out, just rubbed the hilt on the wrappings. He was lost in thought, thinking about what the hell this weird ass cat is talking about. After a moment, he let go of the handle, focusing again on Yoruichi.

“Cat,” he said, “My blade’s name is Yoru. It is quite a famous weapon.” He leaned forward a bit, his eyes staring into hers, both pairs of golden eyes not moving an inch. “Why do you want to know?”

Without so much as blinking, Yoruichi replied, “You have not answered my question. I asked if they have told you their name, not if you knew it.” Both of their eyes never left each other.

 They were only interrupted a few moments later, with loud laughter from the blonde peacock. “Hehehahahah! I’m glad I came, I never knew these boring old meetings could be so interesting.”

Both Mihawk and Yoruichi turned to stare at the man, who had his laughter die almost immediately, feeling incredibly unnerved at being stared at with two pairs of yellow eyes. They did not do much else, as Sengoku decided to take back the attention from the wayward cat. He slammed his fist on the table, releasing his Conqueror’s Haki, causing everyone to freeze.

Sengoku pointed at Yoruichi with his other hand, growling “You. I allowed you to be here, and you will cease your constant annoyances.” Yoruichi just rolled her eyes, which caused both the other marines who noticed to visibly frown.

Sakazuki pushed himself up, and yelled “Fleet Admiral, allow me to remove this disruption from the premises.” He didn’t even wait for Sengoku’s reply, already moving around the table to where Yoruichi was cleaning her paw.

When he got close enough to reach her, he lunged with both hands, intent on catching her in his crushing grip. Yoruichi just sighed in annoyance, and hopped up a few feet to land on the man’s head. He landed on the table, and Yoruichi just walked down Sakazuki’s spine.

She said to the room, “Mah, no need to make me. I’m done here, so I will take my leave.” She landed on the floor, dodging a kick from the partially steaming man, and looked at Mihawk. “Before you leave, come find me.”

Mihawk nodded a bit, glancing at Garp who was laughing his ass off between bites of cracker at Sakazuki’s fails to catch a foot tall cat.

Yoruichi made her way over to the window, moving like a leaf in the wind as Sakazuki kept trying to grab her. When she got close enough, she just lept at the window, extending her claws and causing the window to shatter as soon as she touched it. She flew out the window to Marie Jois, landing on some sort of tree as she fell.

While she did that, the Marines in the room started gathering around Sengoku trying to ask questions.

“Who was that?” Sakazuki asked, “Why the hell was he so insolent?” He had given up the embarrassment he had already had at the hands of the cat, his arms crossed and his cigar smoking more than normal.

Gion and the other marine nodded their heads, wanting the answer as well. Sengoku and Tsuru just glanced at each other, before Tsuru smiled at Sengoku, and he put his head in his hands and groaned.

Tsuru turned to the other marines, all of which were around them, excluding Garp. “We will talk about this back at Marineford.” She turned and glared at the Warlords, and said “You, all of you are to leave immediately. Expect news of Bartholomew Kuma’s acceptance of the Warlord position.”

She got nods from the gathered pirates, all of them leaving without further discussion. Once they had left, she turned to Sengoku. “Go find that annoying cat, and take Garp with you. He is looking far too happy over there.” (a/n anyone get this reference?)

Sengoku just nodded and walked over to Garp, snatching his crackers out of his hands, causing the other man to protest and follow the no longer visibly afroed man.

Tsuru then sent everyone else away, before she started chuckling a bit herself. “I knew that she was similar to Garp with her disregard for the rules, but we will have to find some sort of punishment for her. What to do though….” She eventually got up, thinking over a certain feline’s punishment as she made sure the criminals made their way out of Marie Jois post haste.