Authors' Note
The cuteness continues! Here's chapter ten, have fun! :)
Review Responses
akdjhs: Love the review, it was hilarious (and we agree, Katakuri doesn't deserve such slander) Glad you're enjoying the story! Since you were so disappointed that Carrot and Jimbei weren't going to show up in this one, we are reconsidering our choices...we shall see...
Jordansdevil: You're right, that's one of Luffy's gifts, he makes everything more entertaining...for us anyway...poor Ace is going to go grey early with all of this stress. Appreciate the review!
Jui-Imouto-Chan: Hello again! On the cat ears and tail...we were just...enhancing his cuteness, as is our sworn duty as One Piece fans ;) Sometimes Zoro can be more protective than Ace and Sabo so we had to put him in there, definitely a fun scene to visualize. It's a good thing that Mihawk is so chill, having to deal with this particular group for this long. The others will turn back eventually but Luffy is special...read on and see :)
Final Syai Lunar Generation: We completely agree with you that Luffy is too precious and adorable for words. It will only get better ;) Thanks for the review!
Warnings
- Torture
- Death
- Distressed tshirt
- RIP Marco's coffee (and Garp's favorite mug)
KATAKURI'S POV
Katakuri didn't think he used to hate going to meetings quite as much as he did now.
"What do you mean the Whitebeard Family is targeting us?" he asked and Mont d'Or sighed,
"It seems that they believe that we, or more specifically, you have the kid that's been missing." he replied, "Apparently they took it personally as the boy is Fire Fist Ace's little brother." Katakuri groaned and buried his face in his hands,
"How many times do I have to say it? I DO NOT HAVE THE KID! I have no interest in him nor do I have any reason to have taken him!"
"Yes," Mont d'Or said, "but apparently everyone, including the Whitebeard Family, believes that you have him. We must be prepared in case the situation escalates further, this is grounds for war after all." Katakuri frowned,
"I will not let that happen. A fight with Whitebeard would endanger all of you and, as your older brother, it is my duty to keep you safe. Do we know which members of the Whitebeard Family are in the city?"
"It is unclear exactly how many but at least three of the commanders have been seen. The Phoenix, Fire Fist, and Twin Blades."
"Contact the Phoenix." Katakuri ordered, "He's reasonable enough. Tell him that I wish to meet him and the others. We need to clear up this misunderstanding before more of our people are hurt."
"Of course," Mont d'Or replied and Katakuri turned his attention to Cracker,
"Cracker, what have you learned from Morgan?"
"Nothing new." came the response, "I think we've learned all we can from him, though that wasn't much."
"Then I shall dispose of him for you." Katakuri said, "I'm in the mood to kill someone. Anything else to report?" He nodded at the lack of answers and stood, "Meeting adjourned."
Katakuri walked back to his room, a bit anxious to see how King was doing given that he'd been glared at for leaving earlier that morning.
"It's really not fair how cute cats can be when they're angry." he mused as he opened his door.
He was surprised to find one of his tshirts crawling along the ground, meowing in distress.
"King?" he asked, scooping the bundle up into his arms and extricating his kitten from the fabric, "What were you...did I leave this out?" King, of course, had no answer for him, diving into his scarf the moment he was free of the shirt.
Katakuri reached up to pet the cat as he went to return his shirt to the drawer where it belonged, ending up accidentally kicking his phone across the floor as he went.
"...why is my phone in the middle of the floor?" If the phone hadn't been unlocked he might have assumed that King had just knocked it off of the nightstand while exploring but the device was unlocked and open to the list of recent calls, the most recent having ended only a few minutes before he'd walked into the room. Katakuri frowned at the unfamiliar number wondering which of his siblings had had the nerve to enter his room and mess with King...as well as how they had known his password.
"I'll have to have words with Brulee, our younger siblings need a reminder of what is not acceptable in this house." He took King with him as he stalked out of his room in search of Brulee. When he found her in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast he carefully pulled King from his scarf and said,
"I need you to look after King for a bit while I dispose of our friend."
"Of course, Brother," Brulee replied, carefully taking the kitten from his hands, "I'll see if he would like any of our leftovers."
"Oh he will," Katakuri snorted, "I'll leave you to it then, and I want to speak with you later."
A few minutes later, down in the interrogation room, Katakuri studied the man he had captured. He wasn't looking quite as awful as he could have been, given how long he had been trapped in there with only Cracker for company, but he definitely didn't look great. He was surprised by the presence of another person in the room,
"Oh! Dellinger, I forgot you were still here." Katakuri admitted, "How have you been? Enjoying your stay?" of course, he received only silence as an answer so he kept talking, "You should be happy to hear that your suffering will end today, though it will likely get worse before it gets better."
Katakuri moved over to the wall that held a number of torture implements and picked up a container that sat on a table in one corner, contemplating how he should go about this now that he had two people he could have fun with instead of one. He turned back to his guests and opened the container, pouring a bit on the legs and feet of each of them.
"Don't mind this, just...you look a bit cold." he commented, setting the container down before taking a matchbox off the table and lighting one, "this should help."
The flames spread from Morgan to Dellinger, burning what was left of the pants they had been wearing before settling in to eat away at their skin. Katakuri nodded, seeing that the flames showed no signs of going out, before turning back to his wall of weapons and selecting a rather nice, leather cat o'nine tails.
"You know, there are a few different versions of this weapon." he informed the suffering men as he circled around behind them, "those the sailors use are made of rope. I suppose that was so that they wouldn't be too worn down by the salt from the sea air. The leather ones were used by the military for corporal punishment." he swung the whip through the air, bringing it down hard on Morgan's back, "care to guess which one I've chosen?"
Katakuri did his best to ensure that both of his guests received the same amount of attention, making sure that their backs were both completely raw and ruined before he found himself bored with the activity. He sighed and returned the whip to it's place on the wall before moving to the hose they kept for cleaning up the room and turning it on, pressure as high as it could go. He sprayed both men down, watching the last of the flames flicker out of existence before grabbing his trident and swinging at the ropes holding both of them in the air.
"Well, it's been fun." he said, turning to leave. He shut the door firmly behind him and flipped the switch that electrified the floor of the room, allowing cleanup to be a bit easier. If luck was on their side, Dellinger and Morgan would have already been dead before they experienced the pain of their blood literally boiling and exploding out of them. Katakuri seriously hoped that luck had not been on their side.
Katakuri wanted to immediately go and retrieve King from Brulee but realized that he was covered in blood, a feeling that, ironically, he disliked. After a brief shower and changing his clothes into something more comfortable, he checked the kitchen, frowning when he found it empty. Brulee's room was the next place Katakuri checked but, again, no one was there. Finally, he ended up in the parlor where he was met with an...amusing, sight. Running up to him, was King, dressed in what appeared to be a hooded puppy onesie, the ears flopping around his face as he meowed excitedly.
"Brulee, what is this?" Katakuri asked, bending to scoop his cat up into his arms.
"Do you like it?" Brulee asked, "I've been working on it for about a week now." Katakuri looked down at King's large eyes, head tilted to the side framed by the floppy ears.
"...are you planning on making more?" Brulee smirked at that as she said,
"I can, any requests?"
"...well...there's...there's one.." Katakuri began, gently pushing the hood off of King's head so that he could scratch his ears,
"Yes?" Brulee prompted
"...would it be possible to make a cinnamon-twist donut onesie?" he asked quietly, hiding his blush with his scarf, as Brulee looked at him knowingly
"A wonderful suggestion, Brother." she said, "I will try my best."
Katakuri nodded his thanks, placing King into his scarf where the kitten happily snuggled into his warmth.
"So, how'd the visit with our friends go?" Brulee asked,
"It went well enough, I enjoyed it." Katakuri replied, petting King and enjoying the little purr he could hear,
"Oh good, I take it they've left us then?"
"Yes, they're both gone, someone will need to clean the room they stayed in."
"I'll get someone to do that before anything becomes too...smelly."
"If that's all then, I'm going to retire to my room. Thank you for looking after King and for...you know..." Katakuri said and his sister laughed,
"It'll be done soon." she assured him as he turned to leave.
"Oh," he stopped and turned, "would you happen to know if any of our younger siblings went in my room?"
"Not if they value their lives." Brulee responded, "I have made it extremely clear that no one is to enter that room except for me or you. Why?"
"I have reason to believe that someone entered my room, used my phone to call someone, and stuck King in one of my tshirts…" Katakuri said, feeling King tense up in his scarf at that. He reached up to pet the kitten, "Don't worry, King, whoever it was is gone now and they wouldn't dare try something so brash again." he assured him, though that only seemed to make the small creature shake harder.
"I'll speak with Mont d'Or and see if there's any possibility of an intruder." Brulee said, "And I'll be sure to warn our younger brothers and sisters not to enter your room...again."
"Thank you." Katakuri said, leaving the room and heading for his own, attention focused on his distressed cat.
Katakuri shut the door behind him and gently took King out of his scarf, moving to sit on the bed so that he could remove the onesie, which he carefully folded and placed on his nightstand. Katakuri pulled the kitten close as he lay back on his bed, hoping that he would begin to calm down. Whoever broke in obviously scared King and no one scares his cat, not on his watch.
SANJI'S POV
Sanji fought back a yawn as he pulled on his jacket, preparing to head to work. He was straightening his tie when a loud thump came from next door, followed by a string of curses. He snorted and banged on the wall to get his neighbor's attention before shouting,
"Oi Marimo! Some people are still trying to sleep! It's only five a.m., why are you even awake?"
"None of your business, Swirly Brow!" came the reply. Sanji wondered, as he did every morning, how they hadn't been kicked out of this apartment complex yet from noise complaints alone. He grabbed his keys and left, kicking Zoro's door as he walked past...a bit too hard as the door flew open.
"You have a crappy door, Moss Head." he commented,
"WELL MAYBE IF YOU DIDN'T INSIST ON KICKING IT EVERY MORNING IT WOULDN'T BE SO CRAPPY!" Zoro shouted, "GO TO WORK, LOVE COOK, STOP BOTHERING ME." With that, he slammed the door in Sanji's face as he did every morning.
Sanji snorted and continued on his way, pulling a packaged breakfast biscuit out of his pocket to eat on the walk to work. He'd found it on Zeff's desk and taken it when the old geezer had told him to throw it away. How dare the old man waste food! Sanji studied the thing, noting that, while it appeared to be a bit stale, it had been packaged well and should therefore still be good to eat. He took a bite and didn't even have a chance to grimace at the texture before he was suddenly a lot shorter and tangled in fabric.
"What the-" Sanji wiggled around, trying to get out of the mess of fabric and froze when he actually succeeded, finding himself staring at a pile of his own clothes. He looked down at his body and let out a yelp of surprise when he found himself staring at paws instead of his own feet.
"WHAT?! WHAT IS- WHAT?!" Sanji yelled, though all he could hear was the distressed yelping of a puppy echoing off of the walls. He then did the first thing he could think of, running back down the hall to his neighbor's door, throwing his tiny body against it and watching in shock as the door fell off its hinges.
"...maybe I did kick it a bit too much…" he mused, taking a few steps forward to sit on the door.
"WHY DON'T YOU JUST GO TO WORK DARTBROW!" Zoro shouted as he stomped into the room, stopping short as he stared at the scene before him.
MARCO'S POV
Marco had to admit that Garp liked to live...lavishly. He was enjoying staying at the man's estate much more than he had enjoyed living in a hotel, however expensive that hotel had been. That being said, the mood surrounding the breakfast table was not so nice. Ace had had a narcoleptic attack and was currently sleeping in his cereal. Meanwhile, Sabo looked as though he hadn't slept in years and was currently combing through three maps of the city at the same time. Smoker had been able to track the cellphone's signal to three different towers, only narrowing their search marginally. Marco took a sip of his coffee, nearly spilling it as Thatch burst into the room,
"GOOD MORNING WHITEBEARDS...AND GUEST!" he exclaimed happily, "ISN'T IT JUST A BEAUTIFUL DAY?"
"Shut up, Thatch," Ace growled, waking up to glare at the man, "no one likes your endless optimism."
"Aw, you know you love me!" Thatch responded happily, taking his seat next to Marco.
"You mess up my maps and I mess up your hair." Sabo glowered, sparing the man the briefest of glances,
"You wouldn't dare!" Thatch gasped, hands going up to protect his pompadour. Marco smirked and took another sip of his coffee...just before his phone rang. He put his cup down with a sigh and pulled his phone out of his pocket, glancing at the blocked number. He stood,
"I need to take this, I'll be right back. Don't kill each other while I'm gone-yoi."
Marco walked out into the garden and picked up the call,
"Yes?"
"Marco the Phoenix, I presume?" said an unfamiliar voice on the other end,
"Who is this?" Marco growled,
"My name is Charlotte Mont d'Or, and I am calling on behalf of my brother, Katakuri."
"Dogtooth? Is this a ransom call?"
"No. My brother wishes to meet with you and the rest of the Whitebeards who are in town to clear up the….misunderstandings regarding Fire Fist's little brother." Marco frowned,
"Misunderstanding? Are you trying to tell me that you don't have him? We have solid evidence that you do!"
"Do you want to meet or not?" Mont d'Or asked, "We would like to avoid war if possible."
"How do we know this isn't a trap?" Marco asked suspiciously, "For all we know, you have Luffy and are using him as bait to kill us!" Mont d'Or sighed,
"Look, I know I won't be able to convince you that we mean you no harm. I'm sending you the address of our local base now, come around three o'clock. Hopefully this can all be resolved peacefully."
"...very well," Marco said, "I can't promise that Ace will be as reasonable as I am but...we will attempt to have some semblance of peace talks despite all that Dogtooth has done." he hung up, glaring at his phone as though it had offended him as it buzzed with an incoming text from the blocked number. He walked back inside and sat down, taking a much needed drink from his coffee cup before he said,
"I found the base." Instantly grabbing everyone's attention,
"WHAT?!" Sabo exclaimed, "WHILE YOU WERE OUTSIDE?!"
"Who were you talking to?" Ace asked,
"Charlotte Mont d'OR," Marco replied, "Apparently Dogtooth wishes to have peace talks with us at their base."
"Oh so you didn't find it," Thatch said, smirking, "they told you where it was."
"Details, Thatch. The point is that they want to meet with us at three."
"Do they want to make a trade?" Sabo asked, "Luffy for...what, information? money?"
"Well, they're still holding to their position that they don't have him." Marco informed him
"WHAT?!" Ace shouted, slapping Marco's coffee cup out of his hand in his rage, "LUFFY LITERALLY TOLD US THAT HE WAS IN DOGTOOTH'S BEDROOM!" Marco sighed and Thatch stood,
"I'll get you another cup." he said as the blonde turned his sharp gaze on Ace
"Ace, no matter what is true and what is not, we are meeting with some very dangerous people on their home turf. This could very well be a trap. I need you to promise me that you will not lose your temper during this meeting or I will have Thatch remove you. Both of you." he switched his glare to Sabo, who was trying to look inconspicuous.
"But Marco-"
"Excuse you-" Ace and Sabo began simultaneously
"Luffy's life is at stake here." Marco interrupted seriously, "any wrong moves and…" he didn't finish, knowing he didn't need to. Thatch walked back into the room and handed Marco the new cup of coffee before saying,
"You two are young." he glanced from Ace to Sabo then continued, "you haven't heard the stories of what Dogtooth is capable of. We'll be in his house so no matter how angry you are, you need to keep your wits about you. This is a very serious matter and we may not leave with our lives."
"And that," Marco added, "is why I will be doing all the talking. If all goes well, we will have a peaceful discussion and Luffy will be back safe where he belongs before the day ends."
Ace and Sabo swallowed nervously but nodded their agreement,
"Thatch, update Mihawk, he'll want to know about all of this. Ace, you update Pops." Marco ordered, "Hopefully, this will all end today."