Chapter 12 - The Dog


~At the bar~


"WE'RE THE BUGGY CREW! UNDER OUR FLAG WE'RE KNOWN FOR OUR RAIDS ALL OVER THE WORLD!" Buggy was heared shouting. "WOULD IT DO TO BE LOOKED DOWN UPON BY THREE COMMON THIEVES?!"

"No, it would not." The crew said. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU! AGAIN!" Buggy countered. "NO, IT WOULD NOT!" The crew shouted this time. "SHUT UP! WE HAVE TO TEACH THOSE PEOPLE JUST HOW SCARY IT IS TO MAKE A WHOLE PIRATE CREW THEIR ENEMY! OH-KAY LET THE BEAST SHOW BEGIN!" Buggy yelled out grinning maniacaly. "WHOO! It's The Vice-Captain, Mohji!", "It's Vice-Captain Mohji's Beast Show!" The crew minions shouted. "Did you call me, Captain Buggy?" Said Mohji, sitting crosslegged atop of a lion. "May I have the honour to take Roronoa Zoro's head?" Mohji asked calmly. "Do whatever you want." Buggy replied grinning menacingly.


~With the Strawhats~


"We're now quite far away from the pub." Shiro commented still dragging along Luffy's cage. "They won't be able to catch up with us immediately now..." Roger panted, his wound throbbing. "Our escape was done okay but this cage is starting to annoy me!" Zoro said in the same conditon as Roger. Shiro nodded and looked covertly around him. *I feel like someone is watching us...* He thought. "Yeah. If this thing doesn't open then, even though all those bad guys come, I can't even attempt to fight them!" Luffy commented. "Shit!" Roger cursed as his knees finally gave in. "I think they really can't walk any longer or they risk to die of bloodloss." Shiro mused before stopping and sitting down besides the cage. Zoro has fallen over. Before he suddenly noticed the small white dog sitting besides him. The dogs tongue was lolling out. "What's with this dog...!?" Zoro asked a bit freaked out. "Dog? Hey, it is a dog!" Roger commented airily. Shiro let out a long suffering sigh. "What is this is it really a dog? Hey look guys, the dog isn't moving at all." Roger commented. "Whatever..." Shiro mumbled his strawhat shielding his eyes from the sun. "What it does is up to the dog. Right now you've got to think of a way to get out of that cage, Luffy." Zoro commented somehow thinking that Rogers question was Luffy's. "I wonder if it's dead..." Roger thought to himself, before he poked the dog in the eyes.

Of course the dog was enraged by that and bit Roger in the face which caused Roger to dance around yelling quite a lot. Then he begun to fight with the dog. "YOU STUPID DOG, What the Hell d'you think you're doing?!" Roger shouted his injury spurting quite a bit of blood. "Woof Woof!" The dog barked. "YOU IDIOT, DO YOU EVEN KNOW THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE SITUATION HERE?!" Zoro shouted, causing his wound to bleed too. "That will do nothing..." Shiro murmured, before the other three suddenly lie down. Shiro just blinked at them. "Dammit... I don't have enough blood!" Both Roger and Zoro shouted out, while Luffy lied down because he had been laughing so hard. "You four, what on earth are you guys doing... if you just lie around here in the middle of the street Buggy will definitely find you!" Nami commented seemingly appearing out of nowhere. Shiro's eyes narrowed at the girl. *So she was watching us, huh?* He thought suspiciously. "Hey, it's the thief." Roger stated coldly. Nami recoiled a bit at the cold tone. "I just came to repay my debt to you because you saved my life back there." Nami stated boredly. *So she is giving me the GLM?* Luffy thought before tossing the thought away. "Repay?" He just asked, sitting up. Nami threw a key in front of Luffy's cage. "THE KEY! YOU STOLE THE CAGE KEY!" Luffy and Roger shouted. Shiro kept the blank face and Zoro stared at the key dumbfounded. "Yeah...even if I think so myself it as a really dumb thing to do... because of that I couldn't steal any of the treasures." Nami sighed.

Shiro glared at her with such velocity that she begun to shiver. *What's with him?* Nami thought still recovering from the shivering. "Hua-! The cage was such a problem I thought we were gonna just die from the headache it gave us!" Luffy laughed. "Phew...making such a difficult escape's reward is finally shining through." Zoro said, a beat of sweat running down his forehead. Of course most of their joy went down the train as when Luffy wanted to pick the key up the dog was there first and then swallowed the key completely. The four pirates and the one thief stared at the silent dog in shock. Roger snapped first and strangled the dog. "You Stupid Dog! Spit It Out, That Thing You Just Swallowed Isn't Food!" Shiro's eyes turned blank at that idiocy, while Roger and the dog were fighting again.

"OI! YOU PEOPLE! DON'T DO ANYTHING TO SHUSHU!" An older man with strange hair cut and a spear on his back shouted at them. "Shushu?" Luffy asked raising an eyebrow before looking at the dog. "Who're you, Mister?" Shiro asked politely. "I'm the village's leader, or in other words, the Chief!" The man stated.


~A while later~


"How are those two?" Luffy asked concerned. Shiro sitting calmly besides Shushu. "I let them sleep at my house since it's just next door. Even though I told them that there's a doctor at the shelter, they wouldn't even listen and said that it'll get better after sleeping. Even though it's an enormous injury on both of them." The Chief replied. "That's typical Roger..." Shiro sighed out. "Is this dog's name Shushu?" Nami asked. "Yeah."

"What is he doing here?" Shiro asked curiously. "He's guarding this store. I just came to give him some food..." The chief said while looking at Shushu as he ate. "Aa! You're right. Now that I'm looking carefully it's a store..." Nami said thoughtfully. *Hmph! As if the sign 'Pet Food' didn't say it, Miss Obvious.* Shiro thought degradingly. "I see, it's a petfood store." He said outloud. "The owner of this place is my friend, and ten years ago... He opened this store with Shushu. "The precious store is filled with cherished memories for the two, although I like it too..." The chief said fondly, while smoking a pipe.


~In memory~


"Listen! When I'm not here, you're the owner! Don't eat our stock!" An old but brightly smiling man said patting Shushu on the head. "Woof!" Was the reply he got.


~Back to Present~


"Lock at these wounds. They're definitely from fighting those pirates and protecting this store." The chief said. Shushu has indeed quite a number of cuts on him. Shiro inspected the cuts with his eyes and nodded thoughtfully. "But then, no matter how precious it is, what kind of thing is making a dog guard a store with pirates as the enemy? The store owner is with the other people at the shelter, right?" Nami asked bluntly. "No...that guy... he's already gone to the next world because of a sickness. Three months ago he was hospitalized and then.." The chief stated sadly.


~In memory~


"While I'm in the hospital, you look after the store, Shushu!" The old man this time with a suitcase told the dog. "Woof!" The dog answered.


~Back to present~


"Then... could it be that the dog's continuing, just waiting for his owner to return?" Nami asked having leaned against a support beam for the bungalow of the store. "That's what everyone says... but I see it in a different way. Since Shishu's an intelligent dog, he knows that his owner's already passed away." The chief said looking proudly upon the eating dog. Shiro and Luffy were quitly staring at the dog. "Then why still guard the store...?" Nami asked, walking around a bit. "Obviously, this store, is a treasure to Shushu. He loved is owner so much and since this is the only property left by the owner, I think he'll continue to guard this store. It's an unendurable thing. I tried to take him to the shelter a few times, but, he won't take a step away from this place... If I just left him here, I think that he'd stay until he starved to death." The chief blew the smoke out violently. Nami smiled a bit at him and Shushu. Before they were taken aback by a terrifying roar. "Wh..what is it, That Roaring Noise...!" Nami shouted fearfully. "Th...that is that guy! The Beast Trainer Mohji!" The chief shouted his jaw almost landing on the floor. With that the two ran away, leaving the two pirates and Shushu where they were. Shiro was actually sleeping leaning against Luffy's cage. "Oi, now something's coming up, give me the key please, you little thing." Luffy sighed out. "RUN AWAY..." The chief and the thief shouted while running. Shushu only replied with a soft bark. "Well I found two guys... I'm Buggy's pirate crew member, the beast trainer Mohji." The guy atop the lion said.

Shiro having finally woken up looked at the lion and just stared at the person sitting atop it. The lion of course was growling. "Hohoho...So the other people you two were with just ditched you? Poor thing, and you tried so hard to run away..." Mohji stated menacingly. Shiro stared at him for a moment before turning to Luffy, who was still inside the cage he was leaning against. "Captain Buggy is pretty mad... you guys have committed a pretty serious crime." Mohji said, the lion was still growling. "What the heck are you supposed to be, wearing a weird fur cap like that?" Luffy asked. "WHAT...! YOU IDIOT, WATCH WHAT YOU'RE SAYING! THIS IS MY HAIR!" Mohji shouted pointing at is 'hair'. "That just makes it even weirder..." Shiro mused. "SHUDDUP! You two...you're in the cage and you are half asleep... so you don't know how scary I am." Moji grinned meanly at them.

"These guys... they want to die, don't they..." Nami said shakingly from where she and the chief trembled and watched it play out. "These idiots..." The chief said.

"I'm telling you, there is no animal in this world that won't obey me! That includes that dog over there." Mohji said, pointing at Shushu. He then got off the lion and was approaching the dog. "Shake a paw..." He begun to say before he was bit into the outstretched hand of Mohji, who screamed at that. He was suddenly again riding the lion. "You're just nameless common thieves." Mohji stated. "You gave up on the dog?" Shiro asked innocently. "I have no reason not to kill you two, tell me where Roronoa Zoro is." Mohji stated menacingly, his lion also growling. "I don't want to." Both Luffy and Shiro stated in perfect unison. "Kill them, Richiee...!" Mohji shouted. The lion attacked Luffy first, thus he ripped apart the cage like it was made of cheese, not steel.

"The Steel Cage!" Nami shouted shocked. "Crap, Those kids are gonna die!" The chief shouted.

Shiro grinned maniacally. "Finally." was the only word he said. "Yahoo, the cage's opened!" Luffy shouted stepping out of the demolitioned cage. The lion has already pulled a paw back and punched then Luffy, who then crashed into Shiro and took him with him. Luffy managed to roll so that he would go through anything first also managing to shield Shiro, before they went crashing through an entire house.

The lion stood again. The only thing seen was a halfcollapsed house. "That was instantaneous! They talk back to me ant that's what they get. Okay Richie, let's go find Roronoa Zoro 'cause if I kill him I'll earn an even better reputation." Mohji stated. Richie was turning towards the store Shushu is guarding. "What's up?" Mohji asked, before he saw what kind of store it is. "Look at that... it's a petfood store. Goodness, Richie... hurry up and finish your meal." Mohji contemplated. Shushu was growling at the lion.


~At the other side of the house~


"Hua...what a shock. We ended up all the way here at the other side." Luffy stated. "Thanks for protecting me there, Luffy." Shiro huffed before spitting out a globe of blood. "Hey, you okay?" Luffy asked worried. "The impact was a bit hard to withstand, but it will heal quickly enough..." Shiro said, finally standing up, having been lying atop of a sitting Luffy. "But now that you are out of that cage.." Shiro grinned meanly. "Okay, from now on after I get rid of those people, we are gonna steal the Grand Line Map!" Luffy grinned pumping his fist.


I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Ygg