One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Skylar belongs to me

-Chapter Four-

I didn't know if it was better for me to stay right where I was or to back away from the three women that grew closer with each step. My decision was ultimately made though when the man that laid sprawled out on the ground began to whimper, pitifully sobbing as he attempted to crawl away. It wasn't until the women were close enough did I finally take a step forward and block their way, causing the blonde in front to come to a halt. Her hand lifting up to signal to the two women behind her to stop as well. Now that we were up close and personal with one another, I became aware of just how much taller these women were compared to me—even the short one of the group had a good inch or two over me.

"Hm?" the blonde tilted her head, her green eyes lighting up in curiosity as she stared me down while her hands now coming to rest on top of her hips. "Excuse me, but you're in our way" her voice no longer sounded high pitch and shrill, instead it sounded melodic as if how she had spoken earlier was just an act.

"I know" I didn't even bat an eye as I continued to stand there and stare right back at her, forcing myself to maintain eye contact even though I would have loved to look away from her intense gaze. Her eyes slowly narrowed upon hearing my response and soon she pursed her lips in thought, quietly humming to herself.

"Do you perhaps wish to claim this man as your own?" she suddenly asked.

"Uh…" I owlishly blinked, taken aback by what had just been asked and didn't really know how to respond other than with a slow nod of the head. "Sure, if that's what it'll take to get you to leave him alone" I shrugged, maintaining eye contact for just a little bit longer as the woman's gaze seemed to intensify, and her eyes narrowed even more into a hardened glare. It was as if I had said the wrong thing or something. I was surprised when she suddenly smiled and gave a joyful laugh.

"You know what? I like that fire in your eyes, kid!" she laughed, smashing one hand down onto my shoulder and giving it a tight squeeze as the townspeople around us sputtered on in shock because of the blonde's reaction—like this was the first time they had ever seen her react in such a way. "Alright, you can have him, but…" suddenly that smile of hers dropped as a look of venom crossed her features. "Next time you stand in our way, kid, you won't be getting off so easily" there was a threatening tone in her voice as she said this, giving my shoulder one last painful squeeze before turning away and leaving. Taking the other two women with her.

"Okay then?" I was at a lost, confused by the events that had just taken place before slowly shaking my head and allowing myself to turn my attention towards the man that still laid on the ground. There was a look of pure awe on his face as he peered up at me, not even bothering to acknowledge the two men that rushed to his side to help as his gaze stayed solely on me. "Are you alright?" I asked with the tilt of my head.

"H-how…how did you do that?" he asked in a bit of a daze, automatically clutching at the arms of the men that helped him stand.

"Do what?" I raised an eyebrow before frowning in concern as the man's body suddenly shivered and was overtaken by horrendous coughing fits. Painful groans left his lips and blood dribbled down his chin as it seemed that whatever adrenaline that had been coursing through his veins earlier was now starting to ebb away and leave behind only the agonizing pain and tiredness of today's events.

"We need to get him to a doctor" the man on the right muttered as he shifted the damaged male's arm over his shoulder and wrapped an arm around his waist to help steady him.

"Hey, lady" the second man spoke up, causing my attention to now be directed towards him. "I'd be careful walking around here from now on, those Crystal Tigers aren't exactly the kind of people you want to go pissing off" I nodded, giving a slight wave of farewell to the three as they finally took their leave and carried the injured man away. My ears perked up to the sounds of low whispers and quiet mumbles as those around me started to gossip over what had happened while slowly returning to their activities.

"The Crystal Tigers, huh?" I muttered to myself as I started off back towards the edge of town. "I wonder what their deal is."

-Later-

The edge of town was pitch black, and the further down I went the fewer lights I saw. It seemed that only the moonlight above was the only thing lighting up the path before me. I also became aware of how the houses out this way were spread farther apart from one another, unlike how the houses and buildings near the center of town were built close to one another. Every now and again I found myself squinting in an attempt to get a better look at the houses I passed by. I only came to a halt when I discovered that my path was now blocked by an iron fence that stood tall with spiked tips and seemed to surround the whole perimeter of a large, cozy two-story home.

Just by looking at the house I could tell that it was in far better condition than those around it and seeing how this was the only home out this way with a fence surrounding it, I could only assume it belonged to Roy. Though it could have also just belonged to another wealthy individual that enjoyed their privacy. I followed the length of the fence all the way to the front gate and wrapped my hand around one of the metal bars, immediately pulling at it without a second thought. I had expected it to be locked, to rattle and deny me entrance, but instead I was pleasantly surprised when the gate creaked open with ease and allowed me to enter the well-kept yard on the other side. None of the lights inside the house was on which wasn't surprising due to how late into the evening it was, but that didn't stop from strolling right up to the front door and loudly knocking.

The book I had been carrying around with me was now tightly pressed against my chest as I held it close, slowly starting to gnaw at my bottom lip as I waited. I heard nothing but pure silence on the other side of the door and just as I got ready to knock once again, I stopped when the faintest sound of footsteps moving around inside reached my ears. "Yes, who is it?" the voice on the other side was gruff as the man didn't seem to bother opening the door at all.

"I'm sorry to bother you so late into the night, sir. But, I must know, does a Mr. Roy Wright live here?" I swallowed the lump in my throat. Attempting to be respectful and calm in hopes that I wouldn't be turned away.

"That's me…" Roy grew silent for a moment as if he was mulling over something. "What do you want?" he finally asked.

"Well, you see, Mr. Wright. There's something that I need to discuss with you…it's quite important and I think you're the only person that can really help me" I chose my words carefully, but slowly my voice seemed to grow quiet near the end as I started to feel ridiculous for coming to seek help from a complete stranger just because he wrote a book on the unnatural. Just as I was ready to apologize and take my leave, I stopped at the sounds of locks being undone reaching my ears and soon the door was pulled wide open. Before me stood an older man who's hair was graying and whose tired brown eyes stared at me in curiosity. Slowly he stepped to the side and gently motioned for me to come in.

"Is that so? Well then, come on in."

-Everyone's P.O.V-

Zoro frowned as he felt his ears twitch, lifting his head when he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps loudly moving about on the deck. Giving a quick sweep of the room, he found that the others were once again tucked away on Skylar's bed in the girls' room. He didn't seem to be the only one woken up by the ruckus coming from the deck though as even Sanji, Robin, and Nami were starting to stir from their sleep. "What's with all that racket?" Nami yawned, tiredly lifting her head and looking around the darkened room.

"Sounds like someone's moving around on the deck" Sanji muttered, standing and stretching out his body as his tail lazily swayed back and forth.

"Must be Skylar then, wonder why she's moving around so much this late at night" Nami tiredly mumbled as she lowered her head and slowly started to doze back off before flinching with everyone else at the loud sound of something crashing to the floor—most likely a barrel or crate being tossed and shattering on impact—then followed by three sets of giggles. A sound that made the four cats tense and further wake-up.

"What's all that noise?" Chopper sleepily asked as he and the others that had been asleep were now starting to wake up.

"Seems like we have intruders" Robin calmly answered, already quick in thinking to use her Devil Fruit powers to peer onto the deck and see what was happening. What she saw was three women—a tall thin blonde, a short chubby raven-haired woman, and a tall masculine redhead. All three of them seemed to have what appeared to be the tattoo of a tiger on their stomachs and wore very little clothing. They all moved about the deck, looking as if they were searching for something.

"This a pirate ship, is it not? Where is the crew? Where are the men?" the blonde lightly growled as she moved about. "Since that brat made us lose out on our chance at having a new servant around the base to help replace the others, we need to make up for our loss."

"Perhaps the men on this crew can be better servants than the last batch, at least more durable" the raven-haired woman commented, causing Robin to frown in confusion as she continued to listen in on their conversation. "Then again, it was Ruby's fault that the last batch broke so easily since she kept being rough with them."

"Hey now, it's not my fault those men were weak pansies" the redhead—Ruby—huffed as she crossed her arms. "I told them multiple times to be careful with those lilacs, damn right I wasn't going to let them off easy for ruining my garden like that" she lightly growled.

"What do you see, Robin?" Franky softly asked, snapping the woman out of her concentration as she quietly looked towards the blue furred feline.

"Three women" she answered almost immediately. "They seem to be looking for us—or more importantly—they seem to be looking for the men" she revealed.

"What? What do they want with us?" Usopp frowned.

"From what I can gather, it seems like they need new servants" the archeologist said.

"New servants?" Nami frowned, ready to question the black cat further before she was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps coming towards the room as Ruby came to a sliding halt in the door's entryway. Her gray eyes seeming to just widen at the sight of the nine kittens that were piled up against one another in the middle of the bed. Silently she gasped as her eyes seemed to just sparkle the longer she stared at the cats and the more her mind processed what she was seeing.

"Kitties!" she seemed to just squeal as she rushed further into the room and drop to her knees, getting as close as she could to the animals. Her red curls seemed to just fall into her face due to all her movements and despite her masculine features, she looked quite beautiful. Her hair framing her sharpen facial features just right and her muscles didn't even seem to fully take away or hide the slimness of her body. But her excitement over seeing the kittens did frighten and surprise the Straw Hats as they quickly backed away from her, some hissing and looking ready to pounce at any minute. Especially when she started reaching out to grab one of them.

She happily giggled when one of them swatted at her, not at all bothered by the fact that none of them were pleased with her presence and wanted her to get away. "Ruby, what did—oh!" the blonde stopped just in the doorway as soon as she spotted the cats, all of them now further pressed up against one another and trying to distance themselves from the redhead.

"Samantha, look! Kitties!" Ruby's voice raised in pitch due to her excitement as she looked back at the blonde with wide, sparkly eyes.

"I can see that" Samantha sweat dropped, sighing with a small smile upon seeing her friend's excitement before frowning as she looked back at the felines. "Why would a bunch of pirates have cats?" she suddenly asked.

"Who cares?! Look how adorable they are, oh! Can we keep them, please Samantha! Can we?!" Ruby suddenly begged as she twisted her body around and clasped her hands together, looking up at the blond with her best puppy dog eyes. Samantha looked from the redhead and then to the nine cats, each one tense as their fur seemed to just puff up. Their lips were drawn back into a sneer as they continued to back up towards the headboard of the bed and away from the two women. Slowly, a smirk tugged at the blonde's lips as she locked eyes with her friend once more and nodded.

"Sure, if that's what you want, we can."

-Skylar's P.O.V-

"I see, that is quite a strange predicament to be in" Roy muttered as he set down his teacup, both of us seated across from one another. I was a bit baffled and still a bit surprised that the man had actually heard me out and hadn't just laughed at my face or simply kick me out of his house for wasting his time. "You say this happened just recently as well?"

"Uh…yeah, it was quite strange" I cleared my throat and sat down my own cup of tea that was untouched and starting to grow cold. "I woke up one morning and bam! There were nine cats in the kitchen of the ship, it wasn't hard to piece together that they were my friends since there aren't that many cats out there with blue and green fur" I reiterated, scratching my cheek as I was still waiting for the man to call me insane and kick me out.

"During my journey all those years ago, I never ran across anything as strange as what you're telling me right now" Roy admitted, a certain shine in his eyes as if he was excited by this new and strange discovery. "But, what I'm most interested in knowing is why you were unaffected."

"Me?" I owlishly blinked, just now becoming aware that he was right, why hadn't I been turned into a cat like the rest? What had I done differently the night before? I frowned as I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know really, the night before I discovered them was like any other night. I slept for about an hour or two before waking up from a nightmare and just hid away in the library for the remainder of the night" I admitted.

"Is that so?" Roy hummed with the tilt of his head, looking to be in thought for a moment before slowly nodding his head. "I see, well I think I might be able to be of some help to you" I immediately straightened my back, looking up at him in surprise.

"R-really?!"

"Now what's with that look?" he chuckled as I felt my cheeks suddenly heat up in embarrassment while I directed my gaze elsewhere. "Your situation is quite strange and unusual, just like the ones I would come across back when I used to sail the seas, so I see no problem in hearing you out and lending a hand as I had with all those other people."

"I guess, I was kind of just expecting you to laugh at me if I'm being honest" I admitted, twiddling my thumbs as my embarrassment seemed to only grow when the old man burst out into a fit of laughter.

"I would be quite the hypocrite if I had done that, my dear" Roy smiled as he slowly calmed down. "Everyone in this town mocks me for the things I speak and write of, to turn you away with mockery would make me no different from them" he explained before slowly standing and started to gather up the dishes. "Now, if you wouldn't mind, could you perhaps bring your friends by tomorrow? So that I can get a better look at them and assess the situation."

"Oh…yeah, I can do that" I nodded, standing as well.

"Great, it's getting quite late, so I figured it'd be best for us to start early tomorrow—or whenever you decide to stop by" he smiled as he led me back towards the front door. "I also assume you'll want to get some rest in before the morning sun begins to rise" I only nodded once again and offered the older man a polite smile before bidding him farewell and taking my leave.

-Later-

I was tired by the time I got back to the ship and was ready to just fall over asleep with the others that I barely registered the mess that was the deck when I climbed aboard the Sunny at first. There were broken chunks of wood all over the deck—as if someone had been tossing barrels and crates around, allowing their contents to spill all over the deck and potentially go to waste. I was still for a few seconds, body tensed and hands twitching as I dropped the book in my hands and took hold of my swords. Preparing to draw them as I kept my eyes peeled and my ears opened for any sounds or signs that the intruder was still onboard. I doubted that nine cats could have done something like this.

Upon thinking of the others, my breath instantly caught in my throat and I scampered towards the girls' room, skidding to a halt and grabbing at the doorframe as I frantically looked inside. My face paled and drained of color as I saw the messy state of the room along with the long claw marks that ripped into my bed and the floorboards. But, what truly made me sick to my stomach was the fact that the room was devoid of any cats.

A/N: Enjoy

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