"Educating yourself does not mean that you were stupid in the first place; it means that you are intelligent enough to know that there is plenty left to learn." – Melanie Joy
Soon enough, the grunts in the immediate area were no longer standing. The greedy eyes of violet started scanning the surroundings for more prey again.
Seeing that there were none in the vicinity left standing except for a single man that was overlooking the battle from the prow, the wolf grinned. He was built more heavily than the others, emphasized by a thick captain coat hanging off his shoulders and exposed biceps that bulged.
Taking off after the prey immediately, it bit into the shoulder of the man, eliciting a loud exclamation from the victim and one other voice from behind.
"Oi! Why did you snatch my prey for? You stupid wolf!" Tensing, it spun around quickly face to face with a scrawny kid with a straw hat.
Violent eyes stared down the kid at shoulder height, although he was a head shorter and showed almost no visible physical poweress, an aura of danger emanated from his body.
The wolf growled, sensing hostility and anger from the boy. Taking the growl as provocation, he readily shot out his arm as it stretched out as a long distance punch.
Ducking beneath the punch, he dodged a sword swipe from the bleeding captain and proceeded to headbutt the hinderance. Distracted by a split second, the wolf barely dodged the next few punches, increasing in speed. Unable to approach the attacker, it leapt around the place, dodging behind crates and jumping off surfaces. Throwing and kicking random articles back in the direction of those flying arms instead, splinters and debris flew through the air in all directions of their paths.
They stood across each other on an open area of the boat, their fight had gone two full circles and caused much more damage to the enemy ship instead of each other. In fact, neither of them had actual injuries to prove, only the rivers of sweat and dust on them indicated their past activity. They glared as each other, waiting to see who would make the first move as they panted and tried to recover their breaths.
"Would you both stop ignoring me!"
The aggravated man had recovered during the long exchange of destruction on his property to sneak out a gun, pointed and shot at the straw hat boy while drawing out his saber with the other towards the wolf.
The gunshot rang out. "Why you..." The same exact words were spoken from both opponents as they charged as one towards him.
The wolf widened its eyes as it caught an incredible scene from the edge of its vision; the bullet stretched its flight through the boy's skin by a good two meters then, losing its velocity, sprang back out in the opposite way twice as fast without resistance.
The victim never stood a chance; the rubber man reflected his shot while punching his stomach in as the wolf leapt forward and twisted his neck at the same moment.
"Shut up and stop interfering!" They ended their attacks on the same line as well.
Relief and adrenaline filled the both of them after a landing successful attack after a long cat and mouse race. Their grins lowered when they stared at each other, standing no more than two meters apart.
"..." Now that the wolf has calmed down from its bloodlust and saving its own hide, it had noticed that the boy standing in front of him had a familiar scent. Not to mention that the ability of arm stretching seemed to click something in its memories
The smell of rubber! That kid was the Alpha here! (*)
The wolf inwardly groaned for making such a basic mistake. It had only ascertained their starting positions and forgot to check regularly. It also didn't help that it had attacked him the first time they met.
Deciding on a best course of action, the wolf started to provoke the young teen again. Finally glad that he would have a proper fight without the chasing, the scrawny kid let out a grin and stretched his dominant arm far out in the opposite direction for one of his favourite moves.
"Gomu gomu no-" He drew in his breath as he timed his attack with its name. The large wolf stood bristling with a wide stance as it waited for the strike.
"-PISTOL!" His arm snapped forward in a snap as elasticity and muscle coordinated to throw as much power and speed as they could together at the tip of his fist.
The strawhat tensed as he prepared himself for a counterattack from the waiting opponent, snapping his hand back in a ready pose, barely registering that the obvious and direct frontal attack was actually successful and taken on fully by the recipient.
The wolf gritted its teeth as the punch shot cleanly to its chest, knocking almost all its breath out had it not been bracing itself, it refused to cry out as the impact forced it to be pushed backwards by at least fifteen meters, almost the other end of the boat, despite crouching and digging its claws into the wood. Needless to say, the amount of pain was proportionate to the impact, it felt like a rough drill had went through its center and dug a hole through its rib.
After taking several deep breaths to compose itself as the boy stood stunned, it slowly padded its way over. Snapped out of the shock with the wolf approaching, he decided to brace itself to be hit cleanly with one of its attacks as well, which would only be fair.
However, when the wolf have arrived a hand away in front of him, it merely looked into his eyes and sat down. Then hesitantly licked him at the side of his jaw before resuming aforementioned position.
"Huh?" The boy sank into further confusion, crossing his arms and tilting his head to the side.
He tried to piece its actions together, hitting his fist on his palm together, he shouted out "Oh I got it! You wanted to apologize!"
"You're a good guy after all!" Grinning immediately, He patted the top of its white fluffy head. It let out a deep breath as let out a wolfy grin. All's well that ends well.
"No, Luffy!" Nami said firmly, her stance firm with her hands on her hips.
"Eeeeeeeeh~ Why~" The boy with a straw hat known as Luffy pouted. His frown extremely large as his face stretched and skin sagged on either side of his chin.
"He's onboard already! It's not like he has anywhere he can go anyway!" He logically reasoned.
"Says the person who practically kidnapped it in the first place! It probably has a family to return to right?" She looked over to the subject in particular.
The wolf shook its head.
"... It probably has a home to return to as well." Ignoring the failed attempt.
It stonily repeated the action.
"Or somewhere to go to..." It tilted its head, then resumed its previous posture.
"Arghh! Chopper, what is it saying?" Nami gave up, pulling at her hair.
Chopper trotted over and stared at the wolf.
It stared back.
"..."
Chopper tilted its head.
It mimicked the action.
Nami, fed up with the queer exchange, cried out "Well?".
"But it's not saying anything at all." Chopper shrugged, he had been listening on the entire monologue, the wolf simply wasn't speaking in the first place.
"See! He wants to stay!" Luffy took the silence as affirmation and ran around cheering.
Nami threw her hands up, walking away, "It's only staying until we reach the next island! We can't keep on adopting any animal you pick up!"
She spun around suddenly with a stern look. "You better take responsibility for it while it's here!" There wasn't anywhere for them to leave the wolf at sea anyway.
"So that's that! I'm Luffy, nice to meet ya!" The strawhat grinned.
Seeing that he was no longer needed, Chopper headed to check on the condition of the others, the wolf had looked the bloodiest at first as the white coat contrasted greatly against blood. Chopper had been frantic to find the source of the wound, blaming himself for not protecting his patient until he realized that none of it belonged to the owner. Exasperated, he gave it a quick spray down to wash off the blood instead.
The enemy ship had stayed in its original position with the deck filled with its battered crew, it wasn't sailing anyway with only patches of cloth left of its sails, masts torn apart, and the main mast hanging off the railing, in fact, it was a miracle that it was still afloat.
The crew had unceremoniously thrown any bodies back to the ship after looting it, surprised to actually find some valuables despite its less-than-capable crew.
"Hey Luffy, are you really sure about letting that wolf stay? It looks kinda dange- doesn't look very safe to me." Brocolli-hair gulped mid sentence as the subject in mention turned its attention at the mention of it.
"Don't worry Ussop! It's a good wolf!" Straw hat boy walked over and patted its head. "See?"
The sniper was completely unconvinced as it playfully bit Luffy's hand after the third pat, then gasped as it flipped him on his back, using him as a cushion and licking him all over.
He giggled carefreely, yelling that it was ticklish.
Ussop ran to the nearest corner and hid instead, chanting something about sharp fangs and wolves in fear.
The wolf observed the environment carefully, noting the smoky smelling brocolli-hair, immediately as the Omega and the tangerine smelling and orange-haired female, as Beta. Or perhaps it was the steel smelling green-haired male whom has been keeping an eye on her instead. It took care to associating their smells with their ranks.
He was an odd human, who was using his limbs to paw around strange metal things and shook them up and down slowly, expending his energy for no apparent reason. Perhaps humans enjoy activities as play...
It walked to the edge of the boat instead, seeing the form-shifting reindeer holding a wooden branch out above the water, sitting patiently while waving his small hooves about. Calling a greeting as it sat down beside, it asked what he was doing.
"I'm fishing! I hope I can get a big one for dinner tonight!" The blue-nosed reindeer smiled cheerfully while hum a tune. The wolf wondered at the strange ways of the reindeer copying humans, since when did reindeers eat fish? Weren't they herbivores?
The thought was interrupted by a tugging on the rod, getting up excitedly, the reindeer strained backwards to pull it in. The wolf stood by attentively as to watch the fishing technique only humans have performed.
"Wooah! It's gonna be a big one!" He tugged on the rod furiously.
"Woah! Do your best Chopper! Our dinner is riding on you!" The Alpha nearer and started jumping up and down in early celebration.
Bracing himself against the railings and with a large heave, the reindeer lifted out a large object out of the water.
The object that sprang out, was one of the strangest sea monsters the wolf has ever seen.
"AHHH! IT'S HUGE!" Ussop cried out.
"WOOAAAHH! HUGE!" The same yet opposing reaction came from the reindeer and Luffy shouted with stars in their eyes.
A thirty meters tall cross of a dog and fish in blinding pink flew towards them. With scales covering its entire body, paws and tail, it loosened its jaws, intending to swallow up the small humans that fished it up.
"Here it comes!" Luffy laughed carefreely as he stood holding his hat with his right hand and his hip with his left. Just as it looked as if he was about to be fish food, its body suddenly split into pieces, falling into blocks of flesh of 30cm each.
The wolf blinked in surprise at the sudden turn of events, looking at the swordsman behind the rain of food sheathing his sword slowly with a soft click.
"Oi, stupid cook, dinner's here." He laid down against the wall, resuming his previous sleeping position.
"Sanji! Food!" Luffy rushed about, collecting the pieces of meat while rushing into the kitchen.
"Ho? You guys finally caught something? Bring it here!" A masculine voice called out. "Alright, we're having fish steamboat today!"
"Hooray!" Cheers broke out from the boys.
"Artemis my lovely damsel, are the food to your liking?" Sanji slurred slowly, interlocking his fingers while wiggling his body diagonally.
The wolf paused, turned to the right to see Luffy devouring nearby food and started eating as well, crudely sank fangs into the meat spread out in front of it at a speed almost similar.
Not a minute has passed when half of the dinning table was already empty on Luffy's side of the table. He automatically continued invading the remaining areas while having a running commentary on how good the food was. With a stretch of hand, he pulled out a large piece of steak from under the wolf's teeth and swallowed it whole, hardly chewing
It let out an angry growl while Sanji yelled at the unrepentant thief at the same time. It then doubled its current pace and finished the remaining food on the table before Sanji finished his sentence.
A moment of stunned silence hung in the air before being broken by a yell. "OI! I WAS GOING TO EAT THOSE." The unrepentant rubberman was mercilessly hit by the chef, "YOU ATE MOST OF THE FOOD ALREADY!" while continuing his rant about his eating disorder and manners towards ladies.
The long speech was unfortunately ignored as sparks flew between the culprit and victim, only broken when Luffy decided that Sanji ought to cook more food for the crew (him) and started arguing.
A sigh was heard in the background as the orange haired navigator shook her head, dreadfully recalculating the amount of provisions left and their budget
Shuddering and frightened murmuring could be heard from across her as Ussop pulled on his olive bandanna as he contemplated his cruel fate on starving to death amidst crewmates while beside him, Robin let out a soft laugh, "Ufufufu, it sure is interesting on this ship."
~ To Be Continued ~
AN: This chapter was mostly written with the wolf's POV, as you guys might have found out through the odd phrasing of various stuff and events! As the wolf persona is separate from Artemis, not all their experiences are shared between them, thus their attitudes as well. (It will only be revealed much later why.)
(*)Note & some trivia: The Alpha is the leader of a pack and the Omega is the lowest in pecking order. In wolf hierarchy, the Omega also has to be the submissive to the rest of the pack and the 'emotional stabilizer' for them. It is also an important role in maintaining the tension/mood of the pack. (He may not be the weakest in strength or size, just as the Alpha may not be the strongest or biggest though that is usually the case.)
Thank you for all you readers who have continued following this story and reviewed! I really am grateful for your patience with the story! (m-_-m)
To Nyx811: Thanks for your continued support! Glad you're still reading this! :D
To Chieko Namikaze: Thanks for following! I think ZoRo is the best non-OOC pairing too! I mean come on, look at the pairing name, it totally fits already. Besides, who else could tolerat-ahem suit Zoro more?
To UNICORNSPOORAINBOWS: Arhwooo! Thanks! Awww that's cool! Do you have a picture? I want one but I got enough on my hands keeping myself alive now. (Laughs) Maybe I'll be able to in the future...
PS: Does your name equate to unicorns pooing on rainbows? O_O
To Shiranai Atsune: Thanks for following!