here's the next chapter! We get to see Aela in action a little bit here.
Enjoy!
edited February 19, 2021
Luffy began demanding the key from the dog again. "Luffy it's no use. We're stuck here for now," I said grimly, and my hands twitched at the fear that flooded through me from the idea of being trapped. Luffy turned towards me, opening his mouth to argue, but before he could say anything, Chou Chou began wildly barking at something. I felt two blots of energy coming this way. A wave of nausea came over me and I paled a little. Bad energy made me feel sick.
My mouth dropped open in shock as a man riding a giant lion came into my view. "Well what do we have here?" the man, Mohji asked. He stopped in front of our cage, jumping down from the lion gracefully to land in front of us and Chou-Chou, who had not stopped baring her teeth at the strange looking man.
"I'm Mohji, Buggy's first mate," he started. "They call me the lion tamer." "No shit," I muttered, sarcasm coming through strong, and Luffy chuckled a bit. "I see your nakama have deserted you both."
"What's that weird thing on your head?" I pointed at him, trying to rile him up. "Shut up!" he shouted, and I grinned victoriously. That didn't take much.
"As I was saying," he cleared his throat, "It's too bad that they've deserted you. Just after you managed to escape as well. Captain Buggy was pretty worked up." He grinned at us ferally when finished with his speech.
I glanced behind the man to see the lion begin shifting from paw to paw as if readying himself. "You guys stirred up a real hornet's nest."
"What's with the weird animal suit?" Luffy's question broke the tension in the air and I snorted. "This is my hair!" the man shouted back, hands flying up to cradle his head. "If you think you're safe in that cage, then you really don't know who I am."
I feel the opposite of safe in this thing.
At this point the man turned his attention to Chou-Chou, who growled lowly at him. "There's not an animal on Earth that I can't control. I can even control that mutt." He reached his hand to the dog, intending to shake her hand, when Chou-Chou reacted by reaching out and biting the man's hand roughly with her sharp teeth.
I winced in sympathy when the man yelled out in pain. That one hurt. The man reached out towards the dog and in retaliation, kicked her away.
"Hey!" I shouted, furious. Nothing pissed me off faster than animal abuse.
Mohji huffed and climbed back on to his lion. "Tell me where Roronoa Zoro is," he demanded, and my face darkened. "No way in hell," I spit out, and he narrowed his eyes at me. "Who might you be?" he questioned, and a smirk grew across my face. "Like I'd tell you. You're no one special."
The lion man sputtered out in indignation. "Why you! Tell me where the pirate hunter is or die!"
"No!" Luffy and I shouted out at the same time, voices sharp.
"Then die!"
"Get 'em Richie!" he commanded, and the giant lion was running at us. Before I could make a shield, Luffy curled his body around me, and I grit my teeth when the lion shot his giant paw down at us.
The force of his paw caused the cage to bend until it eventually crumbled beneath the beast's paws. Pieces of the cage flew everywhere.
"I'm free!" Luffy shouted, and I laughed out loud with him. "Yeah! Thanks lion dude!" I responded, and the man growled at me, "I wasn't helping you!"
Just then, Richie's paw shot out, ramming into Luffy. I watched in shock as his body soared through the air, slamming into a building.
"You jerk!" I shouted, and my body automatically responded to my tone, shifting into a fighting stance. "Nobody could survive that," Mohji commented airily. "Serves the boy right."
"C'mon Richie, let's go find Roronoa." They took a step forward and I snapped. "Hey bastards!" my voice came out as a growl. I jumped in front of both man and lion, and they stepped back a bit surprised. Anger flew through me even more when I realized they didn't view me as a threat.
"Don't take another step," I commanded, and Chou-Chou appeared beside me, barking wildly. The man smiled at us snidely. "Take care of these fleas, Richie."
The lion swiped his sharp claws at us. I jumped to the side, rolling smoothly on to my feet.
"YIP!" A pained whimper.
"No!" I shouted out, watching the puppy get swatted away. I ran towards the lion then, hoping to stop it before it attacked the guard dog again. Chou-Chou stood no chance against the beast, and there was no way in hell I was just going to allow the poor thing to get hurt after all she'd been through already.
"Shield Construct!" I cried, thrusting my hand forward. A small, circular shield appeared in front of me, acting as a stepping stool for my next trick. I jumped on to my shield, using it to launch myself on to the lion's back. Seconds later, the energy disintegrated away into nothing.
"Shit!" I cursed, my hand reaching out to barely graze against the lion. My jump was too short!
At the last second, my left hand was able to barely grasp on to the mane. I dangled in the air for a second, heart pounding. Taking a deep breath, I reached upwards and grabbed on to the hair with my right hand, beginning to climb on to the lion's back.
Off to the right of us, Chou-Chou was getting up from where Richie had side swiped her. She trembled for a second before getting to her feet completely. She ran with full speed towards the lion, and sank her teeth into the beast's front leg. The lion roared out in pain, shaking its leg back and forth, trying to shake the tiny beast off, but the dog held firm.
"Richie, bite!" Mohji commanded. Richie reached up his right leg that the dog was attached to, quickly bringing Chou-Chou towards his mouth.
"NO!" I shouted out, horrified. He'd swallow her whole! I yanked out one of the daggers holstered to my left knee length boot, whispering a quiet apology to the lion. Grunting with the effort, I swung myself over to the lion's back leg, and swung my dagger down.
The dagger hit deeply, sinking through skin and bone. The lion roared out even louder than before when I pulled it out, and I cringed, feeling sick. I'm sorry.
If I can just make it to his head… My plan was to take out the man controlling the beast. "How dare you!" I heard a voice shout, and quickly looked up. Mohji was glaring down at me from the lion's head, and his face was dark with anger. He obviously didn't appreciate me stabbing his pet...not that I could blame him.
"You'll regret that, girl!" he growled, reaching towards his back pocket. Mohji yanked a whip out from where it was curled into his back pocket, unfurling it and cracking it in the air menacingly. "I'll teach you not to mess with my Richie!" he roared, snapping the whip towards me.
I squealed and maneuvered my body to the side as best as I could, still hanging precariously on to the lion's back leg. I'm gonna fall! I looked down fearfully, sweating bullets. Did he use that on his lion?!
THWACK!
"Ahh!" I cried out, the whip hitting my arm with a snap. I shut my eyes against the sharp pain, involuntary tears leaking out. Glancing at my arm, I winced at the red welt left over.
"You son of a bitch!" I shouted out, furious. Pain made me angry. The man smiled at me, whip snapping towards me again. It hit my arm a second time, and that was it. My body reacted before my mind could, and I let go of the leg.
I hit the ground with a loud thud, immediately curling my body up into a ball for protection. Thankfully I landed behind the lion so he wouldn't be able to step on me. Gritting my teeth at the pain from the fall and the throbbing in my arm, I gingerly began pulling myself up.
"Are you still coming after us bitch?!" I heard Mohji say. I looked up just in time to see Richie swinging a paw towards Chou-Chou, his sharp claws glinting in the sunlight.
"Ena Bubble!" I cried out loudly, thrusting my hand towards the dog. A bubble of energy manifested itself around the mutt just as the claw came down onto her body, but I didn't stop there. I knew it wouldn't hold for long, and I was already running towards them.
I got to the dog and rolled, scooping up the mutt and running towards the store. I kneeled down to her level. "Please, stay here," I pleaded, looking into the dog's big brown eyes. I put my hand on her head and gave her a rough pet before I stood and turned towards the lion tamer and his beast.
My hands clenched into fists as I got closer to them. I knew there was a good chance that I was going to lose this fight. I just wasn't strong enough. But I was going to do everything in my power to win. Zoro would never forgive me if I didn't.
I reached down and grabbed another dagger hidden in my boots, arming myself. "Inner Shield," I muttered lowly, placing my hand over my heart. I felt a pulse of power run through me, and felt my skin tingle as the shield extended itself throughout my body.
With Inner Shield I was able to direct the shield into my body. Instead of the bubble forming outside of my skin, it formed under. My body became much like Luffy's actually. I couldn't stretch my limbs of course, but attacks simply bounced off of me, bullets included.
Like my outer shield though, it took my actual energy to keep the shield going, and I was drained afterwards. I wouldn't be able to use this defense for long.
I stopped directly in front of the crazy looking man and his lion. I smirked at them darkly and got into a defensive stance, body buzzing with energy.
"You're gonna have to go through me to get to this store, asshole," I taunted.