Chapter 3: The Cat Gets To Come Too?

"Where are they?!" Raymond stomped through his giant mansion followed shortly by his entourage of servants and bodyguards. His incredible speed was difficult for them to follow. Why was he so angry, they thought? "Get me the monks!"

He busted through doors and doors until he came into his own office. There were two men in red sitting leisurely on his sofa.

Their red outfits were specifically of Chinese origin and fell to their shins. The older looking man had long dark hair and a small sharp beard looking bored with his tea. His younger partner, who had only just woken up from his nap, was clearly larger than him and only had a black Mohawk atop his bald head. They both snapped their heads to the angry man who had burst in.

Raymond angrily sped straight past them and slammed his palms on his desk. He flinched away seeming to regret his angry lashing out, and in the next moment tried to calm himself down.

Whipping back around after taking a deep breath, Raymond addressed the men who didn't seem all that interested in his moody attitude. "It seems I need to use you sooner than I had first thought, esteemed monks. That damned woman needs to be put in her place!"

"You mean Lucy," the older man replied, "Well, she's never been very compliant in the first place. We would like to thank you again, Mr. Raymond."

"Yeah, but we should really give her some credit, Yutora," the youngest laughed, "Looks like she's still as feisty as ever. We should be proud of her!"

"Hardly."

"I don't care!" Raymond exclaimed pacing in front of his desk. The livid man's shoulders trembled as he rounded the desk and stopped right in front of these two men. "I want her out of the way! With you two, Black Beak Yutora and Iron Arm Yakumo, that will happen, right?"

Yutora laughed standing from his seat, "Of course. That girl has been out of touch for a year now. She'll be no match for us."

"We'll snap her neck no problem," Yakumo added, holding a finger to his neck and sticking his tongue out. A look of distaste appeared on Yutora's face as he moved to walk out the door and his underclassmen followed behind.

The angry real estate man turned to another man who had been following him the whole way through the mansion along with the other servants. He was a giant man bigger than the previous two bodyguards of his with short brown hair and a square face. "Ivan, go follow them. I don't trust them yet. Make sure every obstacle is taken care of."

Ivan silently nodded his head and makes a sharp turn to follow the two monks who were leisurely strolling down the hall.

Two monks and a giant bodybuilder, and they are all after one girl.

Lucy.

Lucy couldn't help but reveal her bright smile. She had always wanted to go out to sea ever since she had moved to the island, but she didn't think an opportunity like this would come to her so soon! She most definitely hadn't expected a pair of pirates to come and ask her to be a pirate along with them, but either way she was happy.

After old man Raymond left, pity was rained upon by their neighbors. The diner was closed for the day to the regular customer's dismay, and the Arga had the younger employees go home.

Lucy, Arga, Emily, and the two men watched them reluctantly walk off with worry in their eyes. Lucy smiled sadly at them hoping to cheer them up. All four of them were even younger than her, and they must have been questioning if they would even have a job tomorrow.

The last five in the diner began to make preparations. Arga went to her office to secure both the money and the deed while Emily said her goodbyes to Lucy in the kitchen.

"You guys make sure to be careful." The woman told Lucy holding her shoulders. Despite her usual stoic countenance, there was a small wrinkle in her brow this time. Lucy patted her hands and chuckled.

"Don't worry, don't worry! We'll be just fine."

Emily was quiet for a second before sighing, "Lucy," she said, pulling Lucy away from the two boys' ear, "I know the straw hat boy said he'd take care of Raymond, but how exactly is that going to happen?"

"Hmm?" Lucy crossed her arms appearing to think, "Well, you know how that stupid old man works. He just loves his big bad muscle men. You can bet he's coming with some sort plan to get rid of us with force."

"Well, yeah, but how are they going to fend them off? Who knows how many of them there will be. We only have three people who can fight, and two of them aren't exactly as reliable as the other to me."

Lucy laughed a bit nervously, "Um, to tell you the truth I have no idea, but it'll be a nice story for reference, right?"

"Lucy!"

"Hey! Hey, chill," The young woman patted Emily's hair, "They're pirates, right? They must a have a way to fend off the marines at least. I've got a feeling those guys' confidence isn't just for show. And at least I'm here. It'll all be fine!"

Sighing again Emily asked, "Are you sure?"

Lucy backed away as she reassured her poor friend, "Yeah, I'm very sure, and it's the least I can do for all you guys have done for me. So you can go without any worries, okay?"

Emily sighed her final sigh and frowned, but she stepped away. "Alright, I'll trust you on this one. I'll be right back. Don't get the diner trashed by the time I return!"

Lucy laughed as her coworker left through the kitchen door waving a final time before returning to her potential crewmates who were currently... raiding the fridge of all it's meat and booze.

Laughing dryly, she rubbed her temples thinking, *I really hope I'm right.*

Arga came into the kitchen expecting to see three warriors ready to fight, but instead she saw one woman and two men wrestling in front of the fridge.

"L-Lucy?" Her lips twitched as she watched the straw hat boy try to wrench the fridge door back open, but Lucy had finally managed to catch him and the scary swordsman by their necks. "Is now the time to be playing around?'

"Ah-" Lucy quirked a smile as if she were just caught doing something bad, and shot up while taking the men's breathe right with her. "B-boss! Ahaha, is everything secured on your part?"

"Gah-stupid woma- let go!-"

"Ah-gaha- my throu-Ow!"

"Yeah, but I'm not so sure about your part…"

"Hahaha…" Lucy finally dropped Luffy and Zoro like two sacks of potatoes (silently judging them). "Looks like these guys are real gluttons. Boss, can you make sure they stay out of the kitchen while I go get my stuff?"

"Sure…" Arga replied noting that glare her employee had given to the two boys gagging on the floor. She watched Lucy speed walk into the locker room, and then shifted to peer down at the boys still catching their breath. "Sooo, you two can fight right?"

"O' course!" they both barked.

Inside the locker room, Lucy grabbed her white bag and shifted through it to find it. A leather black whip was tugged out rolled up together. She normally used such a thing for...things she'd rather not talk about. It was given to her a long time ago though and rarely used now.

In the time she had lived here, she was able to avoid any serious problems. The last time she punched the shit out of someone was a fourteen year old thief breaking into her apartment.

She sighed at her last thought and lost track of what she was originally doing. In her bag was also a seven hundred page book. It was the first part of The Open Sea. Lucy has already read it before, but since she wasn't very well off she couldn't get very many new books all the time. She worked her butt off trying to grow her little library at home.

By the time Lucy had been lost in her thoughts, Arga had given up on stopping the men from raiding her fridge. She leaned on a pristine white counter and turned away from them. Coincidentally, she happened to be looking at the small bag of cat food that belonged to…

"Lucy!"

Originally off in her own world, the young blonde shot up from her book. Arga barged through the door holding Kiki's bag of food.

"Ah, what? What happened? Is he here?"

Arga stopped at the door, "What? Oh, no it's not Raymond. I meant your cat! We forgot about him."

Gasping, Lucy ran out, ignoring the gluttons savagely eating and drinking, and straight to the back door. She slammed it open to Kiki trying to bite off his leash again.

Happy to see him still there and alive, she sighed largely and stumbled down the stairs coming to crouch down to him. He was currently trying to claw her face again as Arga followed her with the cat food.

"I'm sorry, kitty~ please don't be mad at me! Let me feed you now." Lucy cried rubbing the scratch on her cheek as her boss came crouching next to her. She watched her pour the kibbles into the green food bowl.

"Hehe, here you go."

Well aware that he wouldn't eat if they didn't keep their distance, Lucy grabbed Arga's wrist and retreated back to the stairs.

Suddenly she realized, "What am I going to do with him? I'll have to leave after today. Boss, you don't have time for a cat, do you?"

"Oh sweetie I would love to, but you know how many dogs I have at home…" Arga cursed at herself seeing Lucy's face fall. "Lucy, what were you going to do with it in the first place?

The girl rubbed the back of her neck sighing, "Well, I kind of just found him you know...I wasn't planning on keeping him, but then I got attached."

"So, you're going to keep him."

"Yup."

Behind them, the cat in question, who had finally begun to eat a bit ago, stiffened. He suddenly glared at the women from afar, but it's not as though they noticed.

"He's sooo cute!"

"Haha, cute huh? You back inside with new scratches every day." Arga chuckled, but forced herself to try to be serious, "That's beside the point though. You need to look for a place for him to stay, or set him free on the streets…"

Lucy looked over her shoulder to Kiki. He was slowly and suspiciously eating his kitty kibble leering right at her. However, ignoring that, all she saw was a ruffled, dirty, and injured young tom. He was hurt by people and left to fend for himself. She wanted to help the poor thing in any way possible…

In her heart felt thoughts, Lucy wasn't paying quite enough attention to those increasingly angry claws.

*That cat is definitely not as pitiful as you think Lucy. It seems only you think its cute.*

As her boss chuckled, Lucy let out a big sigh, "What should I do?" She didn't just want to leave him be, but she was so close to going off to fulfill her dream! Was that not more important?

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Luffy's head finally emerged from the refrigerator. "Zoro, where'd Lucy and the Boss Lady go?" He asked between munches.

Roronoa himself was in the middle of a mean pig leg as he looked up to his captain, "Huh, I think they went out that door." The swordsman pointed over to the wide open backdoor.

Poking his head out the door, Luffy saw his newest friend pouting at a dirty ball of fluff. And that fluff sure had a mean glare.

"What is that?" The boy blurted out. Both women turned to him a bit startled at his voice.

"Oh, straw hat boy!"

"Luffy! Finally finished off the food huh…" Lucy mumbled.

"That. What's that?" Luffy said pointing to the angry fur ball.

"Oh that's Kiki."

"Kiwi?"

"No, Kiki."

"What is it?"

"Can't you tell, straw hat?" Arga said light heartedly understanding his inability to tell, "Kiki is Lucy's adorable cat! She just picked him up one day, and he's been staying here since. Be careful though, he has quite the temper."

"No way! That's one weird cat. Hahaha!"

The moment the boy began to laugh, Kiki bared his fangs. Yet it was Lucy who smacked him into the wall. "Don't laugh at him! Can't you see he's sensitive?"

"No, I think you just made it angrier…" Zoro said from the steps.

Lucy snapped back at him, "You shut up!" from below and crossed her arms. Why were these two her only options anyway? They were so insensitive!

As the young woman pondered more about being on a boat with two weirdo men, Kiki was shrinking deeper into his dark corner. His low growl wanted to capture that stupid woman's attention. When was she going to take all these nuisances away?

Arga caught wind of its tiny glare and sighed to herself, *you're all making it worse…You three are giving the poor thing stroke.*

"Geez, can't you see that you're scaring him? I want Kiki to like me at least a little when I leave." Lucy whined letting out a sniffle and dropping her shoulders.

Luffy tilted his head, "Hm? Why do you have to leave it? Isn't it funny?" Walking over to the panicked fur ball, he tried to poke at it resulting in more glaring.

"Are you an idiot?" Lucy asked quickly snatching the boy away from dangerous claws, "You said you wanted me to join your pirate crew, right? That means I have to leave the island."

As he was unknowingly saved from sharp claws, Luffy smiled all across his face, "Ahahaha, oh yea! Hm, but that doesn't make sense. He's your fur ball thing, right? Why don't we bring it with us?"

For three seconds, a silence spread upon the area until expressions began to divert.

"Really!?" Lucy gasped grasping Luffy's hands tightly.

"Luffy!" Zoro shouted right over her head, "In case you haven't notice, that's a cat!"

"T-that's one way think of it…" Arga mumbled trying to imagine Kiki staying still on a boat.

"Duh, Zoro. I know." Luffy replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. By this time Lucy was hopping up and down the alley and ran back inside in a hurry.

"Haha, says the kid who couldn't tell about a minute ago."

But Zoro ignored his captain's lack of brains and came down the steps, "We can't take that to sea-!"

"Kiki! You can come with us. Isn't that amazing?" Lucy said running right back out with a sack currently stuffed with cat food, an unused brush and a toy.

"Don't ignore the obvious, woman!" The swordsman shouted watching her pour the food in the cat bowl down the confused cat's mouth and stuffing it in the bag. She left the cat to munch as she closed the bag tightly.

"You worry too much, Mister Swordsman. It'll be more interesting the more characters we have." Lucy said walking up to the grumpy green man and ended up being just as tall, "And that means I'll have more to write!"

Being inside the diner for the first time, Kiki the cat was not in the best mood.

"So you're really going to take him with you, Lucy?" Arga wondered holding the cat bag her employee had packed.

"Yea!" Lucy replied wearing her best smile, "I know it's kind of weird, but now I can part ways with one less person! And cats are good for the soul, right?"

"Mroww…" Kiki groaned.

"Ow! Kiki!" Lucy exclaimed clamping her thighs shut so he wouldn't get away. She stuck her index finger in her mouth quickly and looked ruefully at her tiny attacker. "Damn cat…"

"Hey, hey," Luffy whined, "When is that angry old man coming? I'm tired of waiting already!"

While Lucy wrapped Kiki's arm in bandages despite it's growling, Arga answered the boy. She looked outside the window where Zoro was beginning to fall asleep. "Who knows honestly...Raymond said he would be coming soon, but who knows what he's thinking in his head."

"Ehh? Why don't we just go to him?"

"Ah, let's not be so hasty."

Lucy looked at her boss's face. She was worried the diner would be bulldozed if unguarded. Luffy huffed in frustration and got up to his feet. He ran off to the entrance saying, "I'm gonna go look for him and then I'm gonna beat him up!"

"What?" Lucy blurted shooting up from her seat, "Luffy wait!"

"Hm, what's happening?" Zoro mumbled from his corner and then realized his captain was suddenly leaving. The doors were left right open as Luffy scrambled down into the afternoon street through the people.

"Angry old guy!" The entire town heard this cry along the streets as Lucy ran to the door and startled the residents.

"That idiot! Does he even know where he's going? Raymond's house is east!" She turned to the green haired one and said, "What are we going to do now?"

"Well, who knows?"

"Who knows?! He's your captain. Don't you know how to deal with him?"

Zoro scratched his neck and yawned, "To be honest, it's only about a week since I met the guy. He's just as weird to me as he is to you, but as long as he doesn't mess with my goal then he's fine as my captain...What are you doing?"

"Banging my head." Lucy scrunched up her side ponytail in frustration. That little bastard just ran off into the city without any clue of where he was going! There was no way he's going to find Raymond that way! His friend over here wasn't helping either! *What do I do?*

"Lucy," Arga began as she set down the cat. Lucy whipped around, not knowing what to say to her boss, "Someone needs to go look for him."

She gasped, knowing that was exactly what Arga didn't want, being separated. "But boss,"

Arga shook her head and approached her. Placing a hand on Zoro's shoulder she said, "No, its fine. I have this strong looking fellow here after all. You go looking for the straw hat boy while we hold down the fort. Right, Mister Swordsman?"

Zoro could clearly tell she was nervous. Despite her smiling face, it was much too stiff. But it was also true that his idiot captain wasn't going to solve anything by running around recklessly. Last time, he had Coby, but this time he was on his own out in this new town. Sighing, he agreed, "It doesn't matter to me. Even if you guys don't make it, that's just more opponents for me."

Lucy looked straight in his eyes. This guy really meant that. Wondering if he was a little crazy, Lucy calmed down and nodded. "Okay, I'll be right back Boss. Just take care of Kiki and hopefully we'll make it in time."

And just like that Lucy grabbed something like a rope out her other packed bag and ran out the door. She ran through the town thinking one thing, *It's good for the story...It's good for the story…* However, she was just really wondering if it was really okay to join a pirate crew with such an irresponsible idiot as captain.