NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 1 – Cat finds Dog, or rather Dog’s crackers.
Chapter 1
Garp POV
Monkey D. Garp sat on his lawn chair, relaxing in the afternoon sunlight of the East Blue. He had a sleeve of rice crackers in his hand, and was happily munching away, thinking about how he is going to drag ace back to the marines. ‘Ahh, those kids will make fine marines. Hopefully I can get back to Goa in time.’ He thought. He had overheard Ace and Luffy agreeing to leave the island when they were 17 years old, and Ace’s 17th birthday was right around the corner.
While he was thinking and munching, or was it munching and thinking? He felt a presence. It came from a smaller island off their starboard side, and was very strong. It felt, controlled, refined, precise. Not a presence you find in the east blue that often, if at all.
“Bogard! You sense that?” He yelled loudly, scaring some of the marines close to him.
“Yes sir.” Bogard replied, coming out of the belowdecks. He stood at 9’9” (297cm) tall, and was a relatively thin man, dressed like a police detective from the early 1900s. He had a officer’s cloak over his shoulders, with his arms outside his sleeves, and his left hand resting on the pommel of the sword he carried on his hip.
“Should we go check it out, sir?” Bogard asked, frowning.
Garp stood up from his chair, putting his rice crackers into the pocket of his shirt. Garp stood at 9’5” tall (287cm) and wore a red flowered Hawaiian shirt, with a pocket on the left breast where his crackers rested. He was a very muscular man, much larger than Bogard, with exceptionally wide shoulders and torso that put his relatively smaller legs out of proportion. He looked to be about in his 70s with salt and pepper hair cropped short and a trimmed grey beard to match.
“Yeah, we should. No one should have that kind of presence in the East Blue, the weakest of the seas. That and whoever it is interrupted my cracker time and is going to get a pounding regardless” Garp grumbled, pulling his own officer’s coat off the back of the lawn chair and flipping it over his shoulders.
Turning towards the helm, Bogard told them to turn towards the island off their starboard side, post haste. Garp walked over to the railing, trying to catch sight of the presence. He could sense that large, refined presence, but there was something else there too. This piqued his curiosity, and a little bit of apprehension.
‘Hopefully it isn’t that crazy guy again’ he thought, thinking of an old pirate with a wheel in his head.
The ship turned, and started picking up speed to the island. About 2/3 of the way there however, the refined presence disappeared, but the weird other one stayed. He directed the helmsman to go around the backside of the island, to see if they can comb through the sparse forest that exists in the island.
Just as they were about to land, another presence appeared. This one was sharper, more bestial, somewhat muted, and much, much angrier than the first one. Everyone froze what they were doing, even the worst at Haki of Garp's crew were able to feel the anger and, was that annoyance? Coming from the other side of the island.
“IM GONNA KILL YOU UARHARA!!” Rang out over the treetops. It was a deep, almost not human voice, and was definitely the source of the anger. Garp felt the weird presence disappear, but the sharp presence was still there. That wasn’t good. He hopped off the ship, using geppo to fly to the treeline, before landing and rushing to the other side of the small island, Bogard, and the rest of his crew not far behind. After a scant few moments, they reached the other side of the island, and every last one of them stopped in surprise.
Garp was quite confused. In front of him and his crew, with her back to them, knelt a woman that looked to be quite fit, with toned back muscles showing, and long purple hair hanging free. She seemed to be grumbling something under her breath while she searched through a satchel of some kind, one that should NOT BE ABLE TO FIT SOMEONES ENTIRE ARM INSIDE OF IT. But that wasn’t the worst part, no. What was the most surprising was that she was a woman, in direct contrast to the deep manly voice they heard earlier, but also that she was entirely buck naked, waving her butt towards the entire crew.
Yoruichi (Kitty) POV
Yoruichi was mad. Oh, she was very mad. Mad at Kisuke, for chucking her on a deserted island, but even more so at herself for letting him actually do it. She was definitely going to go find those dogs when she got back.
She turned around to survey the area. Decent beach, sand leading the way to the shore, a little horseshoe of trees around her with a larger forest behind. The satchel sat to her right, a couple feet in front of her, slightly buried in the sand.
‘Might as well see what that massive bastard put in there.’ She thought. Gingerly walking on the sand over to it, she ended up getting sand all over her regardless, but at that point it’s just another tally to add for Kisuke’s beat-down when she gets back home, from wherever she is.
She didn’t notice it earlier, her anger and annoyance closing her senses for a bit, but there were humans just about to dock a boat in the other side of the island.
‘Must have heard me screaming’ she thought, finally at the bag. ‘Might as well shift back, don’t want to end up in this, what is it called, bag of dumping?’
She changed back, a small flash of light blocking her view. In place of the small black cat, stood a woman of around 25 years of age, with long, waist length purple hair flowing freely in the slight breeze, small in stature, around 5’1” (156cm) and looked to be around 100lbs. That 100lbs, was fully corded muscle, with most of it being in her legs. She was proud of her legs, she trained them enough to gain the moniker “Flash Goddess” after all. She had decently wide hips, helping with her generally lower to the ground fighting style, and average sized breasts. She knelt down to the satchel, and stuck her hand inside. And then her forearm. And then her upper arm.
‘What the hell is this thing Kisuke?’ she thought, once more getting annoyed at the things he doesn’t tell her.
Right after she did so, she felt the presences she felt earlier through her Reikaku, or Spiritual Sense. One seemed massive, brutish, but under very fine control, easily captain level in power, though their actual Reiryoku was around Lieutenant level. Weird. Another was almost there, probably around the upper levels of the better Lieutenants, with a Reiryoku landing them on the levels of a single digit seated officer. This one seemed sharper, almost blade-like. ‘Probably focuses on some sort of Zanjutsu (Art of the Sword)’ she thought, finally feeling something inside the bag. She could barely touch it, but it felt like the hilt to her Zanpakuto.
‘Not surprised he put Him in there’ she thought while searching a tad more she found something that felt like clothes. She also found a few of her hidden weapons, her Anken, Razor Wire, Ryukotsujo (Dragon Bone Jo), and her Tentoken, which she could already tell she wouldn't need.
While she was rummaging around in the, seemingly endless amount of bag space, someone behind her cleared their throat. She ignored them, intent on finding out what this bag actually was, her catlike curiosity getting the better of her.
“MhHmm” came a loud, deep voice. Yoruichi paused, and then sat back on her haunches. She brushed the sand off her knees, then stood up.
Turning to face the large group of people, now surrounding her, “So, who are you all? I must be close to land, as this island doesn’t look like its got much.” she asked, putting her hands on her hips. After that she paused. And looked up. And up some more. She kept looking up until she could feel her neck pretty much stop her from looking up.
‘These guys are huuuugggeeeeee’ she thought ‘I didn't think they made humans this big. The two guys in front look like they are bigger than two of me!’ She had seen hollows bigger, much bigger of course, but humans? Nah. Tallest she’s seen is Zaraki Kenpachi, or maybe Komamura in his full Bankai.
She shifted her feet, much more awkward now after realizing that these guys definitely are not normal, but crossed her arms under her breasts,“Now, are you going to answer my question, or am I going to have to beat you all up before you do. Just so you know, I'm annoyed right now, so it won’t end well for you kids” she snarked, still annoyed. She wanted to find out the quickest way back to Karakura Town, so she could beat that hat off Kisuke. And probably Tessai too.
The large, broad shouldered old man in front of the entire group coughed a bit to clear his throat. He awkwardly scratched the back of his head, saying “Uhh, we would be glad to tell you where you are, but could you please PUT SOME DAMN CLOTHES ON!!!” he finished, yelling the last part of the sentence.
‘Damn, that hurt my ears. What a loudmouth’ she thought looking down at herself. Yep. No clothes. She smirked and looked at the group a little flirtatiously.
“Why, don’t you all like the view? I’m proud of this body, you know” she said, a smirk crawling onto her face. The old man in front crossed his arms as well. “Girl” he said, looking a bit annoyed himself, “put some clothes on before I find some to stuff you in like I do my grand kids.” he said “Besides, ain’t like you’re the best I’ve seen.” He grumbled. Regardless, he still had a little red tinge to his cheeks, as did the rest of the group in front of her.
Yoruichi bristled a bit. No one gets to call her girl, she isn’t that little, and did he just insult her? Her pride hurt, she took a step forward, rolling up imaginary sleeves.
“Okay that’s it buddy, I’m gonna beat you and all your friends behind you up until you cant even move” she growled, sounding a little bit catlike. It happens sometimes when she gets too emotionally charged right after her transformation.
Most of the group froze for a second, before dashing back into the treeline, seeking shelter. The only one who stayed, was the similarly old man, with a perpetual frown on his face, and dressed like a detective from those old ass crime shows Lisa makes her watch with her sometimes.
‘Good’ she thought ‘they’re running scared. Just my kind of hunt’ she looked to the old man in front, who had pulled out a sleeve of crackers from somewhere.
“Wow, it’s been a while since someone had the balls to start snacking in front of me.” She said, “You should take your friends advice and run too.” Before he had a chance to respond, she took off with a flash-step, ending up right next to the old man’s head. She lashed out with a lightning-fast aerial roundhouse kick, smashing the crackers in the old man’s hand to pieces, and right into his jaw. He got sent flying off to the side, crashing through some trees near the edge of the island.
While that happened, the detective man jumped back to the tree line, sword already drawn.
‘Looks like he wants to protect his friends. Or maybe he is their superior, he seems like the type. They’re all dressed the same anyways.’ She pondered. White shirt, White hat with the blue writing of MARINE on the front, along with a bandana hanging from their necks. That, along with the navy-blue pants, plus the boat, made her think they were some sort of navy.
‘Anyways, I could have sworn I saw something when I hit the old man there,’ she thought ‘It was almost like he was watching me with his eyes, even as I moved.’ He also felt like a steel plate. She thought there was something wrong with his face, but thinking about it there was some black thing in between her shin and his face wasn’t there?
Right after that thought crossed her mind, she stopped. Looking over to where she had kicked that old man, she could see him, sitting up through the trees, holding something in his hand. The feelings she was getting off his Reiryoku, was quite confusing. She could feel sadness, which spiraled into despair, into anger, then sadness immediately after. It then settled into a depressive acceptance, before it kind of froze, like he realized something. Then his presence turned into pure, raw, anger.
She saw him get up, trembling, not from her hit, but from the anger that she could literally see in an aura of Reiryoku coming off him. In the back of her mind, she was very confused at why this seemingly human man had a captain’s level of Reiryoku. But she was too busy staring right back at the man who had his face twisted in anger, eyes locked on like lasers to her. She gulped.
She was about to find out why no one destroys Monkey D. Garp’s crackers.
