One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Skylar belongs to me

-Chapter Five-

I searched every nook and cranny of the ship looking for those cats. I couldn't sleep as my anxiety was now going through the roof. They were nowhere, there were no signs of them still being on the ship—someone had literally come onboard while I was away just to steal nine cats and nothing else. Which was odd, but also nerve racking as I feared what they might have planned for such animals. When I had finished searching the ship, I soon began to spread out towards the town and started asking around.

It was so late into the night by that time the town itself was already starting to settle and the only people out now were drunks who were either making their way to or from the bar. It was odd, earlier the town had treated the night like it didn't exist and now there wasn't a soul to be seen as they all finally decided to retire for the night. None of the drunks were of much help, most of them not understanding what I was asking and others that seemed to answer in slurred and disjointed sentences. I felt at a loss, my feet dragging against the ground as guilt now started to eat away at me. If I hadn't had left them alone they would have been safe and still on the ship, they wouldn't have been left all by them lonesome selves—defenseless and at a disadvantage to their captors.

But then again, why would anyone really want to steal a bunch of cats off of a pirate ship? I would have thought they'd at least steal whatever valuables we had on us, but instead, all they did was create a mess of the deck and took the others. The only places still open that had people inside it were the bars and they've already proven to be useless by this point and just as I felt the urge to turn around and head back to the ship to sweep it once more in hopes that they truly were just hiding, I stopped. Just across the street was another building that appeared to still be open, or at least it looked like it was still open what with all the lights still being on. It appeared to be a pet shop and with nothing else to lose, I crossed the street and walked right in without a second thought.

-Everyone's P.O.V-

"Where are they taking us?" Chopper whimpered as he curled himself up against Robin's side, they had each put up a respective fight. But a cat's body wasn't made strong enough to fight against a full-grown human and it hadn't been long before they had found themselves being stuffed into a box the women had taken from the ship. It was dark inside the box to the point that they couldn't really see anything, and they weren't really sure how much time had actually passed since they were taken. They also couldn't really hear much of what was going on outside of the box thanks to Luffy's constant shouting to be let out along with him and a few others hitting themselves against the box in an attempt to get out. But, despite not hearing much they were sure that at some point two of the women had left to go do something.

"I don't see why Robin can't just use her Devil Fruit powers to get us out" Usopp muttered.

"I could, but how well do you think it would turn out?" Robin calmly asked, having already thought about it, but she knew that problems would possibly arise if she did such a thing. "As long as we act and pretend to be just regular cats we'll be fine, imagine what would happen if they found out that some of us have Devil Fruit powers. They'd make quite the killing" her logic wasn't wrong, just as there was a possibility that the women would run away in fear of how abnormal they were, there was also the possibility that they'd want them even more to sell for a profit.

"When Skylar returns to the ship and finds that we're missing, she'll immediately be looking for us, all we have to do is just wait" Nami said.

"Yes, but she doesn't know where we are—hell we don't even know where they're taking us—and how well do you think she'll do against three people by herself?" Usopp frown.

"Hey! Have some faith, she's just as strong as the rest of us!" Zoro growled.

"I'm not saying that she isn't strong, I'm just saying that she's at a disadvantage" Usopp argued, not wanting the moss colored cat to think that he was insulting or underestimating the swordswoman.

"Alright, lover boy, no need to get defensive. We all know Skylar's strong, but you have to admit that she is at a disadvantage, one against three doesn't look that good" Nami added as all Zoro did was grumble and huff in response. It grew silent after that, save of course for Luffy's shouting as he continued to throw himself against the box before stopping as they finally seemed to come to a halt and the box was gently sat down. They all stood still and waited, squinting their eyes when the lid to the box was lifted and Ruby peered down at them with a wide smile.

"Okay, we're here!" she seemed quite cheerful as she announced this, stepping back and waited for the cats to crawl themselves out of the box. "Welcome to your new home!" she smiled, spreading her arms out which were covered in long scratches and bite marks that she didn't seem bothered by. But, her smile seemed to soon falter just a bit when she saw that none of them made the move to leave the box. Curiously, she bent down and peered inside at the group, watching how they seemed to push themselves further down into the box and away from her. "Aw, how cute, you're shy."

"That's not it at all!" they all snapped, their voices coming out as nothing more than hisses that the woman wasn't bothered by at all as she reached down and plucked one of them up with ease. The one she had grabbed had been Chopper, who uncomfortably squirmed around in her grip and bit at her hands before finally he was put down on the ground as Ruby was already reaching back into the box to pick out one of the others. Looking around, he felt a bit intimidated with how big everything was compared to him, the home was spacious and looked like it had gone through lots of renovations to accommodate the three women that lived in it. It looked to be filled with junk—junk that wasn't really needed other than just serving as decoration.

"I know it's not much, but home is home" Ruby hummed as she started to set the others down on the floor and let them examine the surrounding area. "It's better than our old place, that was a real dump. Luckily, Samantha found this place and the owner was just kind enough to give it to us" there was a certain edge in Ruby's voice as she said this, a strain in her voice as if what she had just spoken was nothing more than a lie. It probably was, they all had their doubts that the women had gotten ahold of such a large space without any trouble.

"First chance we get, let's make a break for the door" Nami muttered as she looked around the place. "Which means no wandering off and no doing anything stupid" she directed her attention towards where Luffy and Zoro had been, sweat dropping as she noticed that they had already disappeared.

"What a surprise, the idiots had already done the two things they weren't supposed to" Sanji sarcastically muttered.

-Skylar's P.O.V-

"Hello?" I called out, listening to the bell above the door ring as I pushed it open. The inside of the store was an absolute mess, shelves were knocked over and animal food was spilled everywhere as there appeared to be slash marks ripping through the wallpaper of the store and the wood of the floorboards. "Uh…is anyone here?" I took cautious steps inside, hand resting on the handle of my swords as I looked around at the mess before my gaze was directed towards the broken counter were the sound of a painful groan and small whimper could be heard. I hesitated for a moment, looking all around the small store for any signs of life other than what I was hearing before nearing the counter and inching my way around it, surprised to find three people huddled up against one another underneath it. There was a woman, a child, and a man that appeared badly wounded as all three of them were curled up tightly against one another, staring at me with wide, frightful eyes.

"Are they gone?" the woman seemed to whimper, her arms tightly holding onto the shaking child that looked so close to crying.

"Is who gone?" I frowned, letting my gaze flicker back up to scan the entire store once again. Looking at the messy state it was left in and found that there truly was no other life except for the three people in front of me. "There's no one else here but you three" I muttered, watching how she seemed to just release a sigh of relief, her tense shoulders relaxing and her tight grip on the child loosening just a little.

"Thank goodness, I thought they'd never leave" she breathed out, her gaze flickering towards the wounded man who was heavily breathing as he clutched at his stomach, his body appeared to be covered in cuts and bruises as if he had been beaten and thrown around. His breathing was slightly shallow, and it looked like he was barely hanging onto consciousness. "Jasmine, I need you to be a brave girl and go get Dr. Gray" the woman calmly whispered to the young child who was still shaking. I was tempted to speak up, tempted to offer to go and retrieve this doctor myself—even if I didn't know who or where they were—but instead kept silent as I watched the little girl nod her head and shakily stand up. She stumbled a bit as she moved past me before quickly bolting out the door, leaving just me and the two adults.

The woman didn't even bother addressing or acknowledging me as she was already scooting herself closer towards the wounded man, shaky hands reaching out to take hold of his face and pulling him closer until his head was resting against her bosom and she was gently stroking his hair in a soothing manner. She looked so close to breaking down and I felt so awkward just standing there, letting my gaze wander around the damaged store once more as I shuffled around on my feet. "Are you…um…alright?" it felt stupid to ask something like that when it was clearly obvious that neither the man or woman were alright.

"We will be" the woman muttered, continuing to hold the man—who I could only assume was her husband—close to her chest. "Such awful women" she suddenly said, a bitterness to her tone as I once again looked towards her and the man. "Coming in here and attacking my poor Johnathan."

"Women?" I questioned.

"Yes, those horrendous Crystal Tigers or whatever they like to call themselves!" she huffed, suddenly growing furious. "I hadn't believed the rumors earlier tonight that they were back—I mean, I had been one of the few villagers that had personally watched them leave the island, I guess that was all just some trick!" she frowned. "A sick one at that, they must have only circled the island and kept themselves hidden out of sight" she venomously muttered.

"The Crystal Tigers?" I muttered, thinking back to those three women I had met earlier tonight.

"That's right, they're nasty little things that seem to just enjoy terrorizing the men on this island" the woman glared, her arms seeming to tense up just a little as she tightened her hold around her husband. "They blabber about how they'd never hurt a woman despite the fact that to hurt a woman's husband is no different from hurting her as well" she breathed out. "Two people become one when married, to hurt one is no different from hurting the other."

"This is a pet store, is it not?" I couldn't help but ask after a moment of silence that had followed the end of the woman's slight rant, watching how she nodded her head and gave a low hum in response.

"Indeed, the only one on this island to be exact."

"Why would a group of women like that come and wreck up a pet store? I doubt there is anything of real value in here for them" the words had left my mouth before I could stop them, who was I to say that there wasn't anything of value in here that they wouldn't have wanted? Maybe this store did have something of value in it once and they had already taken it.

"I'm not sure" the woman quietly admitted. "I was in the back with Jasmine when they came barging in, the only thing I heard was them demanding my husband give them the best cat food he had and a few other things I hadn't quite caught before they started tearing the place apart."

"Cat food?" I narrowed my eyes.

"Yes, I believe that's what they were asking for" she nodded. "They had been blabbering on about some cats they had recently gotten while they were wrecking the place."

A/N: Enjoy.

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