Abel had to admit that waiting around, just sitting on the sandy shore doing nothing, while not unbearable to his senses was still pretty damn boring. He liked to think himself a patient person, but even he had his limits. Or at least, he assumed he was a patient person.
A grunt of dissatisfaction left him. This whole memory loss business was such a pain in his ass. Sure, he'd retained some basics, and managed to regain the equivalent of table scraps, slowly, but the omnipresent blank spots were really thrashing his vibe.
'Vibe?' Did he use to use a word like 'vibe' in his vocabulary? Sounded a bit too young for his blood, so he hoped not. He was...what? In his mid-twenties, at least? Late-twenties? Somewhere in that range. That felt right-ish.
And now he felt like an old man, complaining at relatively nothing to one but himself. God, he needed someone to talk to, stat!
Fates would have it their way, that was unlikely. But damnit, he could hope!
To pass the time until a certain being decided to wake the hell up, Abel had done some tests. During the chase with the damned tiger, he'd noticed that his body felt off from his own assumed baseline of what constituted an 'Average Human Being'. So to curb his boredom he'd tackled the questions he could answer right this second.
The results...just confused him further and gave him a headache.
Discovery #1: His body felt light. Well, as it turns out, it wasn't just adrenaline turning his meager muscles into overdrive! Just by making some stationary jumps it was clear he was able to leap quite high with comparatively little effort. And now that he had enough presence of mind to pay attention to it, his bodily movements in general felt faster and smoother than he'd expected.
Notable, but not really mind-blowing. So he weighed less than he'd thought and as a consequence could move with more grace and fluidity. It was nothing too insane.
Oh, the bliss of ignorance...How he would come to miss it soon.
Discovery #2: He could hold his breath for an absurdly long time, apparently. He'd decided to command his lungs to stop breathing on a whim at one point, on the basis that he hadn't felt out of breath despite running at maximum speed for a prolonged period of time. Just to see if he could.
The result: over 20 minutes of not even a single inhale. At around the 10 minute mark he'd mixed it up by performing physical activities. Backflips, cartwheels, walking on his hands, and some such. And even after all that, he felt like he could keep going!
-Discovery #2; Addendum: He could only conclude he didn't actually need oxygen to function. His 'breathing' seemed to be just an ingrained reflex, nothing but aesthetic for appearance's sake. Which made absolutely no sense and just raised a god damn mountain of questions! What the hell was wrong with him?!
After learning things he felt like he probably shouldn't have, Abel felt like he was losing his god damn mind, but held firm to the remnants of his mental stability like a vice. He still had a few things to test out.
You know, like the fool he was, tempting fate.
Discovery #3: As he'd passingly realized while swimming, being in water tired him out really fast, but his energy came back after he made his way to land. So he sat in the shallows, ocean water up to his neck, to see if he wasn't just imagining things. And after a bit he could feel his vigor gradually leave him. Soon after his mind started to feel lethargic, followed by what he'd experience before as his mind was almost forcibly lulled to sleep.
He resisted the urge through sheer will, even as his body lost its ability to remain seated, bringing him under the waves. Unlike before, he didn't inhale the water and just...stayed there for a good moment, abusing his newly found quirk of not needing air. He could feel his iron grip on his wakefulness slacken second by second, but he held on as long as he could.
To figure himself out. To get answers to the burning holes in his mind.
Also, for science!
Then, something happened. As if hitting some hidden threshold, every fiber of his being screamed. An erratic panic, unlike anything he could have ever prepared for, surged through his system, and before he could even respond to it, Abel found himself back on the sandbank on hands and knees, gasping for breath he now knew he didn't need.
He didn't even recall getting out of the water. An utter blank.
The intrinsic sense of primordial fear did not vanish immediately, lingering like a malign parasite before its hold gradually faded. But the imprint of it remained, leaving Abel's entire form shivering.
"T-t-that..." His words barely came out as a wheeze. His mouth felt dry, his tongue heavy. He swallowed to wet his throat, but it did nothing to make the sensations haunting him disappear. "Is t-that...what dying feels like?"
Putting voice to the feeling...Abel shook his head, straightened his back and while still on his knees, slapped himself in the face as hard as he could. Even with his wimpy arms, it hurt, and the sharp sting of pain brought his mental state back to a grounded level.
"Haah...right...breathe," he instructed himself, drawing in air into his lungs, even if for the psychosomatic effect more than anything.
Discovery #3; Addendum: DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, STAY IN WATER FOR LONGER THAN 3 MINUTES!
Right! That's enough curiosity for today!
Oh, hey! Is that a human tiger waking up to serve as a distraction from his sudden onset of existential nightmares? BOY IS IT!
X~ = = = = = = = = = = = ~X
⸶Imagine Dreamers!⸷
...
Episode 2
Discovery; The Patchwork of Our Pasts!
X~ = = = = = = = = = = = ~X
The first moments of wakefulness must have been disorienting for the poor tiger. The light swaying beneath it probably addled its drowzy senses, leading to confusion. When it finally opened its eyes, mind still groggy from rousing, the first thing that registered was pretty obvious.
That being: it was surrounded by water on all sides. So, even in its currently human configuration, the tiger sprang up on its extremities, back arched and releasing a sharp hiss as its fur covering stood on end.
Consequently, the sudden motion jostled the makeshift raft just barely large enough to fit its smaller human-form, eliciting even more panic as memories of losing strength and drowning resurfaced.
Abel was just surprised that the raft even held together, having made it in a hurry with branches and driftwood, held together by vines serving as rope. His own hand grasped onto the long vine he'd used to anchor it to the shore so the current didn't carry it away. "Rise and shine, fur ball!"
The man's presence in the distance registered to the tiger, the panic giving way to a laser-focused anger that resurfaced with a ferocious, "RAAAWR!"
The effect of the roar was somewhat diminished when delivered with human vocal chords, which lacked that certain 'oomph'. It was also easily quelled by Abel giving the anchor rope a tug, jostling the entire raft. The tiger's form seized up, grasping onto the raft as if its life depended on it, which it very much did, panic taking reigns without much contest.
"Don't get uppity!" Abel called out, having made it clear who holds the cards here. "Now, I'm not going to just assume how smart of a thing you are, but you better listen up anyway!"
The tiger in human-form tilted its head, eyes nervously shifting between the less than stable raft and the man on the frighteningly distant shore. It probably could make most of the distance with a powerful leap, but the raft was absolutely not providing a solid enough footing to make it without risk.
In simpler terms: all the human-tiger could do was cling onto the loose collection of wood that was between it and the ocean like its life depended on it. Exactly as Abel had planned it.
"Now," Abel started, speaking loudly and clearly, "I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. You tried to kill me, I might have shoved a stick down your gullet, but as is probably obvious if you're paying attention, you're not dead at the bottom of the ocean right now. Know what that means?"
The tiger's head tilted momentarily, before quickly shaking with a vocal, "Ra-agh!". Abel took that as a confused 'no', or close enough that it counted. At least the thing seemed to understand him to a sufficient degree, even if speaking seemed to not be in the cards.
"It means that I dragged your furry ass out and saved your life!" Abel stated. "So here's the deal, and I'm not gonna drag this out! I'd very much like to keep living, and you probably do too. So, at least for now, we call things even. No fighting, no attempts at anyone's life, nothing! Clean slate."
Abel did his damnedest to initiate intense eye contact with the human-tiger, and despite the distance involved it seemed to work as the two late adversaries locked eyes. The man's intense and resolute; the tiger's filled with uncertainty, anger, and more than a bit of fear.
"Now, maybe I did something to piss you off, but I can't recall anything right now, so excuse me for not feeling particularly bad about it. But as long as you can behave we won't have future problems. I'll reel you back in, no murdering happens, and nobody has to drown someone!"
The implicit 'I did it once, I will do it again' at the very least seemed to register after a moment of the tiger figuring out what the man was saying. A furious snarl was swiftly cut off by a yank and tug of the anchor vine, reminding the tiger who was in command of the situation.
"Don't make this any more difficult than it has to be, you dumb cat!" Abel called out. An internally added, 'Or make me waste my time and effort.'
He knew he was agitating the human tiger with every word and threat, even if he didn't know why it was so irate with him in particular. But it still served a purpose. A test of character, and in part, intelligence as well.
Some information that had filtered into his memory informed him that it was known that the Human-Human Fruit granted an animal that ate it intelligence equal to that of a human being. But Abel did not know to what extent the Neanderthal model conferred this same benefit, being based off of a primitive off-shoot of Human. How much of the smarts present was the tiger, and how much was the result of the Devil Fruit?
The answer would remain somewhat ambiguous, as his words riled up the human-tiger, causing it to bare its teeth at him, eyes wide and feral. It's hand clenched tightly as its whole body tensed in rage.
*Crack*
Which apparently made the human-tiger misjudge its own strength and crack the comparatively fragile wood composing the raft, thus compromising its structural integrity.
Abel could only stare blankly, just as stupefied by the sheer idiotic carelessness on display as the human-tiger was suddenly overcome with mounting dread and terror. On some basic survival instinct, the human-tiger jolted on its feet to leap away from the sinking platform.
"No, dumbass, don't-" the sudden motion just caused the raft to fall apart right under the striped humanoid's feet, sending its body crashing into the ocean once more "-do...that..."
The tiger skirted the surface, barely, limbs desperately splashing about in a losing battle against the water, howling in terror all the while. Abel could only slap his palm over his face and drag it down as he sighed in immense frustration at the pathetic display. After a moment of consideration his body moved. "God...damn you!"
Diving into the water himself, it did not take long for Abel to reach the flailing beastly humanoid. "You're really not making this worth my- OUCH, FUCK, WATCH THOSE DAMN THINGS, WILL YOU!"
Perhaps obviously, trying to help a panicking feline(its current shape be damned) not drown was an effort in patience, resolve, and pain tolerance. Arms wildly flailed on him, elbows struck his torso and face, and the gods damned claws were a bitch and a half! At least the assault eased up once the ocean started properly draining the human-tiger of its vigor, but that still left Abel with hauling the dead weight over to the shore while battling his own draining energy levels.
In retrospect the effort hadn't taken longer than a minute and a half and yet Abel felt like a beaten, soaked mess when he managed to plant his feet onto the sands once again. Unceremoniously dropping his passenger like a sack of rocks, the feminine man just hissed in pain and stepped away to inspect some of the 'battle scars' he'd gained for his trouble.
Despite his mental comparison to an assault from a particularly pissed off house cat, the wounds themselves were not comparable at all! For one, house cats didn't have claws the size of human nails, so they were much more prominent than mere scratches or flesh wounds. But with their presence Abel could add more onto his alarmingly growing pile of 'what the fuck'.
None of the wounds caused by the claws were bleeding. As in, not a single drop of crimson liquid in sight. The wounds were there, and they sure looked like gouges in his flesh, safe for the of the obvious result of such wounds. Almost as if...the wounds were merely there to make it look like he was harmed...
Oh, it sure hurt like the real deal, no doubt about that! He could confirm with a gentle prod that the pain, if nothing else, was very real. But the damage just didn't quite match the reality of what he felt. It all felt so... shallow and superficial. An imitation of being injured. Something about it all was just so...wrong.
Also, as he kept looking at the injuries he could already see the gashes in his flesh slowly filling in. 'Slowly' being a relative term in this case, as for the rate of healing to even be perceptible in real time meant it was still far too fast. By his rough estimates the claw marks, and all signs of their existence, would be just outright gone in as soon as five minutes.
Which, now that he thought about it, went well with explaining why his chalk-white skin was so darn flawless while his clothing was in ruins. Now if only he could explain why it was happening in the first place?!
"...I'm mentally spiraling," Abel noted, putting a hard stop to that line of thought. All it would do was waste his time and give him even greater anxiety. He added the notion to the shelf he'd by now titled 'The Bizarre Bullshit of Me' and turned to the tiger heaving on all fours on the sandy beach.
He didn't even bother masking the mild level of scorn for burdening his mind with even more mind-shattering revelations about his nebulous origins. Especially because it was unintentional, because he felt petty.
The tiger, she- NO, do not humanize it, that's how you get attached – it finally paid mind to him, leaping back to put distance between them, still on all fours and snarling at him like the animal it actually.
On the plus side, it wasn't immediately lunging at him. Merely...observing him with a lot of anger. But beneath the surface, Abel's intuition could spot hesitance and doubt. A more positive person would view that as progress, but Abel took that with a grain of salt. Reading a person was a whole different ball game than reading a beast, after all.
"Calmed down yet?" Abel asked in a flat tone.
"Rawr!" The human tiger 'answered', and at this point Abel was starting to give up on having intelligent conversation. Clearly, speech was not something this beast had mastered. "Rrrgh..."
"Yeah, thought so," Abel snarked to himself. The downgrade in size had really dulled the impact of any intimidating noises the beast could produce. It was...almost cute. Like a kitten trying to act as if it were a true apex predator. "That's two times I have, against my better judgment, saved your miserable life. I'm not feeling up for a third."
"Grrr..." The tiger growled, but it did not bare its teeth as overtly this time. It started to circle the man, keeping a keen eye on him, but still showed no overt, obvious aggression. Merely heavy caution. But something peculiar caught Abel's eye.
Despite its current human form and bipedal configuration, still the tiger stalked on all fours. But the movements were off; the limbs moved stiffly, with uncertainty. As if the beast was not truly comfortable on its feet.
'It's the lack of a tail,' Abel's mind provided him an answer. 'It's messing with its center of balance, leading to an uncertain gait. But that's something a Zoan user learns to compensate through...experience...'
A thought nagged at him. More of a suspicion, really. But...could it really...?
"Stop!" Abel ordered, and somewhat to his surprise the tiger actually did, though tensing up to fight if necessary. Hopefully it didn't come to that. "Could you stand up?"
"Rawgh?" The tiger tilted its head, obviously confused for a moment before adjusting to stand more firmly on all four of its limbs.
"No, no!" Abel shook his head, before gesturing at himself, standing a bit straighter for emphasis. "Stand up. Like me."
The tiger made a befuddled "Gawr?" sound, confusion clear on its human-like face. Enough that the anger at his general being was kind of tackled aside for the moment. But after a moment it did rear back to stand on its own two feet.
Except it was doing it wrong. It wasn't standing upright like a human being would. It was 'standing up' in the way a four-legged being stood on its hind legs. Body at an awkward angle, knees too bent and standing on its tippy toes, wobblily trying to maintain balance. The fact that its arms were tightly by its torso briefly made Abel think of a really small, dump T-Rex.
'...no fucking way,' Abel thought, staring with narrowed eyes at the embarrassing display that implied so, so much. He snapped his fingers to gain the tiger's attention before shifting his arm so he held his hand in front of his face, palm facing outward. "Do this."
The human tiger mimed the motion, going between glancing at the man in confusion and looking at the raised hand. Then it's gaze stilled on the hand. The tiger blinked with wide eyes. Its hand flexed the fingers once. Twice. It was after a third movement of the fingers that the tiger's whole body recoiled at the sight with a yelp, falling squarely on its butt.
It kept looking at the hand like it was some weird freaky creature it had never seen before.
'You have got to be kidding me.' Abel's own surprise was much more muted. Having had an inkling helped, but it was till weird to confirm his suspicion so resolutely. The only way such an obvious reaction made sense was if he had really overestimated the tiger's intelligence.
Or...
'The transformation has to be a really recent development!' Abel realized, observing at how the tiger kept staring at its own appendage in a mix of confusion and fright. 'Logic dictates then that...the first time she transformed must have been when chasing after me. Adapting to the problems I posed in the moment. A hybrid form to reach me better when her base form couldn't, and the smaller human form to chase me where its bulk could not reach easily.
'She simply hadn't realized what she'd done at the time! It was all instinctual!'
...Aaaaand he was humanizing her again- fuck it! Abel was done with trying to mentally police himself at the moment. He was starting to develop a migraine again.
"Right," he muttered to himself, massaging the bridge of his nose, "that answers some things."
Abel walked slowly towards the human tiger, whom had begun the emotional transition from 'surprised by this weird thing near my face?' to the less optimal 'freaking the fuck out because this is not what my body is supposed to be like!', so he saw a necessity to not have that happen.
Because the only thing more dangerous than a pissed off animal was a frightened one.
Abel crouched in front of the human tiger and sharply slapped both his hands onto her shoulders, grabbing her attention both metaphorically and literally. Abel stared with intensity into those frightened eyes. The tiger was taking rapid, shallow breaths, at the cusp of a flight or fight response.
"Listen to me," he spoke at the human tiger, just short of an order. "Focus on the feeling of what you are. Four legs to stand firmly on the ground; a tail that helps you keep your balance. That image, focus on it, that familiarity! And then become that image!"
For a moment Abel kept repeating permutations of the same message in an attempt to both calm the human-shaped tiger down, and to try guide her on how to return to her base form. His voice was level and firm, his wording as clear and concise as possible. The intense eye-contact would serve to work alongside her animalistic instincts, narrowing her focus to him, to his words.
After a bit the beast started to calm as her body started to shift.
The tiger grew larger, taking back her true animal shape. Abel was forced to stand as it grew into a 'seated' configuration, beginning to tower over him. Not once did he break eye contact, keeping the tiger focused on him, until the transformation finished, leaving Abel in very close proximity to a giant tiger that could maul him to death at any point.
Thankfully, that did not happen. Abel slowly detached himself and took two large steps back as the tiger shook her head like a big cat would. The feline eyes blinked and ears twitched. The tiger's neck craned as much as it could to look at her form. She seemed to need a moment for it to click that she was back to 'normal', before shifting to a lower stance and for a brief moment chasing her own tail, downright frolicking in a circle, seeming glad that such a vital part of her was back.
Abel just watched, arms crossed. A frown was on his face as he hoped that he hadn't just made a mistake. He'd rather not be mauled after all the effort.
Then the tiger paused and just stared at the man, and all of a sudden Abel was braced for anything once more. To run? To fight? Dive into the ocean if he had to? Nothing was off the table when surviving was the main course.
The tiger crouched low, rear end wiggling a little in preparation.
Abel's eyes widened. His gut knew that pose. The feminine man took a slow step back and held out his arm as if were somehow a shield. "No..."
The tiger did not listen and pounced.
"GAH!" Abel yelped as he was bodily tackled to the ground and braced for...being nuzzled by a furry, slightly damp snout. "Eck, no, off! Off, damn you!"
Fortune favors the kind, though Abel might have protested the claim. While a mauling was seemingly not on today's menu anymore, being showered in gratitude and affection was just about as bad as far as he was concerned.
Cain Abel, as he now figured, was not a touchy-feely kind of person, so this was just a lighter form of misery. A part of him also couldn't believe that the tiger's turnaround in her opinion on him was this simple, not to mention so damn fast. But he recalled what they said about gift horses and their slobbering maws.
Escape, as it turned out, was a simple affair. If not a bit embarrassing. With precision and as much dignity as he could salvage out of the scenario, Abel performed the fabled action of giving chin rubs and ear scritches to a big cat that could crush him by pressing on his chest a bit hard. The tiger was purring within moments and was just about putty in his hands, easily being led just so as to allow Abel his freedom.
"The things I do," the feminine man muttered, just barely keeping his annoyance in check as he slowly stood back to his feet.
Detaching his hands from their shameful ministrations, when the tiger moved to follow Abel placed his palm in front of her snout with a sharp, firm, "No! No pouncing!"
The tiger seemed visibly disappointed, her entire body slacking. Abel did his level best to not care.
"Alright then," Abel started, making at least an attempt to relax his...everything. "Now that that's over with, can I assume that no one is going to try to kill anyone for no reason?"
The tiger tilted her head, seemingly pondering for a moment, before giving a discernible nod along with a hybrid noise of a growl/purr.
"Good." Abel nodded in turn. "Now, here's what will happen. I don't remember much of anything right now, so I have to ask you to guide me to some answers. Where did we first meet? Where did you start chasing me?"
The tiger perked up a bit before taking a moment to seemingly think of the questions. Something about the questions seemed to sour the beasts mood slightly. Abel watched the tiger's head start to look in a direction before her form stilled. The eyes widened, seemingly out of some form of realization. A glance was shot his way...
The tiger turned to face away from him. Seemingly ignoring his presence.
"...Huh?"
Abel balked, confused as to whatever the hell the tiger was doing now.
The beast in question glanced back at him. One of her ears twitched. Once. Twice. Three times.
It took a grand total of three seconds for Abel to realize what was happening. His ensuing glare should have been able to melt a hole into the Red Line. "...You have to be kidding me."
The tiger merely gave him a shrewd look. Abel felt his blood boil.
"...No. Hell no! Absolutely, under no circumstances-"
X~ = = = = = = = = = = = ~X
"Curse this meaningless existence."
Oh, how low he had fallen! To be blackmailed by a dumb big cat! The indignity! Would he only have a sword solely for the purposes of falling on it to escape his shame!
Abel, unfortunately, had no recourse but to seethe while riding on the tiger's back, giving all the ear scritches the damn thing could have wanted. The beast meanwhile was traveling at a meandering pace through the jungle, stopping momentarily to observe its surroundings before continuing onward towards some nebulous destination.
Or, as Abel identified it as, wasting time to prolong the power the damned beast had over him.
"Hope you're enjoying yourself, because my vengeance shall be without limit," the man groused, and was ignored. The power of ear scritches was simply too powerful for the tiger to care for his funny words.
He had to endure this indignity for far too long, but eventually it became clear that the tiger had been carrying him somewhere after all.
The mount and reluctant rider broke through a treeline into what seemed to be the demolished remnants of a campsite. Immediately, Abel's mind was diverted from his ill mood into a more investigative mindset, halting his ministrations and hopping off the tiger's back, to the feline's great disappointment.
The campsite was in a small clearing. Present was the shredded remains of a collapsed tent, the remnants of a campfire that was not warm anymore and two overturned logs for seating. 'A campsite for two, maybe three people. The fire was likely used to prepare food, or to ward off wildlife, but was put out after to prevent accidents.'
Perhaps more pressing than that, however, was the large metal cage off to the side of the camp. The door was torn open with great force and a thick metal lock lay broken on the ground. Some of the bars had heavily dented inward. 'Well, no question where the tiger came from,' Abel surmised. 'Seems to have broken out and started wreaking havoc. Indentation on the bars seems like...someone was thrown into them with not inconsiderable force. Was that me? Or someone else? Regardless, no body, so they walked it off and ran.'
His memory gave him nothing on that front, so he moved on to inspect the halfway collapsed tent. Abel ducked in and started to raise the partly collapsed fabric out of the way.
The first thing he found was a corpse. Morbid, but he didn't so much as flinch at the discovery. It was a lanky man with a truly disgustingly colorful half shirt with a large bloody claw mark on the back and pants with an obnoxious star pattern. To call this man's apparel anything but 'loud' in the most derogatory manner felt criminal. With no regard for this... fashion disaster, Abel kicked his body over and confirmed his death with a check for his pulse.
Swallowing his disdain for this late individuals terrible sense in fashion, Abel checked the man for any clues as to his identity. Or valuables. He wasn't too morally stringent in that regard. Not like he was going to use any of it.
The man was traveling light. The only notable things on his person were a map folded into his back pocket and an ordinary compass. Also, a wallet and a bag with paper notes and coins respectively. Abel gladly put those into his bags, because why say no to free Berry? But then he spotted that the man had a tattoo on his left bicep. A pair of purple wings, crossed rapiers, and a skull.
A jolly roger. A pirate symbol. Or so his gut reaction was, but something about jumping on his first instinct felt wrong.
'I need more information. More things to jog my memory,' Abel concluded, continuing his search of the tent.
He found an overturned table and a knife nearby. Remnants of a struggle. He took the knife because heck yeah, a proper weapon! On the ground was also an overturned open chest, empty. But what his eye caught more than that was a white notebook. No text on the cover, just a weirdly familiar wire pattern.
With a spark of recognition, Abel picked the notebook up and dug the ivory lighter he'd found on his person from one of his waist bags. The wire pattern on the lighter and the notebook were identical.
"Jackpot!" Abel gave a mild cheer. Finally, another of his belonging, and a notebook at that! And it wasn't waterlogged to uselessness like the other papers formerly in his possession!
Flipping the notebook open the man skimmed the writings inside. His memory tickled at him, at least confirming that the handwriting was his own. However, his mood was dampened slightly because most of the writing were very sparse on detail.
Location names, times and dates, abbreviations and acronyms. Some passages he could only deduce were written in some manner of complex code. 'Smart. Keeps unwanted readers out of the loop. But fuck me is it frustrating for my purposes!'
Most entries were ended and signed by a Ɵ mark. 'A codename, or similar identifier? Maybe.' However, some entries were ended with a ʘ instead. Those tended to be the ones most riddled with coded messages. 'Transcribed messages from another source? Correspondence from...a partner? Boss? Hmm...'
A cursory glance of the surroundings near the overturned table led his eyes to a partially hidden shell. It was broken, nearly cracked in half. 'A...transponder snail shell? Damaged in the struggle, escaped the area or...deceased. Either way, a dead end.'
Abel continued flipping pages until he found the latest entries. He focused on his own, limited transcripts, since those usually contained less code.
Wildegreen Isle
Ɵ x Raksha
2 x Baroque (X & Tue) w/Item
Trade
Eliminate? [Foul]Unleash Beast [Fair]Depart w/Item
-Contact; Report-
Abel pondered on what was obviously a brief mission statement for the trip to this island. But some of the it did spark a few memories to come forth.
The tattoo on the man! It wasn't a pirate jolly roger, not really. It was the insignia of a bounty hunter/criminal group called Baroque Works! And the man, he was one of their higher ranking members. They were called...Frontier Agents? Yes, that sounded right.
'I was conducting an under the table deal,' Abel could pretty safely surmise. 'One...'Raksha' for some Item of interest. Raksha...'Unleash Beast'...why does that...'
Then, with an almost painful flash, he recalled.
Rakshasa Tigers. Apex land predators from the Grand Line, the New World specifically. Feared for their prodigious size and unparalleled ferocity in battle. Incredibly rare and damn near extinct in this day and age. The value of their body parts and pelts in the black market was astronomical. But a live subject...
On the ground, Abel managed to spot a cracked case alongside shards of glass. A container of what he surmised were the shattered remains of syringes, their contents long since absorbed by the earth.
In a mild daze and a pounding headache Abel exited the tent, notebook firmly in hand. He cast his eyes to the cage. The tiger, the Rakshasa Tiger, was seated in front of the metal construct, peering at it with an air of melancholy.
'I wasn't just doing a shady trade. I was trafficking a near extinct species!' Abel realized now. But something was still wrong. A piece of the puzzle was still missing. 'The Rakshasa Tigers are infamous for their incredible endurance, strength, and ferocity. Realistically, there is no way I could have captured one, least of all ferry one all this way.' His mind reminded him of the sedatives he found. '...No, that feels too small of a dose. Even concentrated it couldn't hold a monster like a Rakshasa Tiger down for long. Something else is here...I just can't see it.'
He struggled to remember. The Rakshasa, they were touted as truly massive beasts. The Sea Kings of the Land, some poetically called them. This he recalled...but...
'That one...' Abel thought, observing the beast before him, the one he'd previously managed to wrangle with, albeit briefly. 'No matter how I look at it, she just strikes me as 'pretty darn big'. Not 'massive'. But the only way that could be the case...'
His mind rolled back some of the recent memories. The chase, in which the tiger had just used pretty rudimentary tactics, more or less just rushing him down. No ambushes or tricks, just a straightforward chase. A brute-force method of hunting, something an experienced hunter would avoid because it wasted energy.
He then recalled the beasts alternative form. In retrospect it was clear to him that in her human form the tiger was, by some miracle, even shorter than he was! And Abel was not afraid to admit to being on the short side at 5' 2'', well below average height of a human male, though looking as feminine as he did made it less obvious.
Also, now that he thought about it, the tiger's human form also seemed quite...well...'under developed', if that was an acceptable way to put it. Not only was her human form short, it also felt...young...
'...Oh gods damned Me!' Abel cursed himself as his mind came to realize the answer. He gave the tiger his undivided attention. 'It's not that it looks small; it IS small! I didn't just capture an endangered animal, I kidnapped an honest to god child!'
The tiger must've been a pretty young member of her species. It explained everything! Why she could be captured in the first place and why the sedatives worked for as long as they did. Also, a younger specimen could fetch for an even higher price, because then domestication was actually an achievable option. And many a rich asshole would pay out the nose for the sheer power and presence a monster like the Rakshasa Tiger could provide.
'But, somehow, the sedatives stopped working,' Abel continued his line of thinking, eyeing the cage's broken down door. 'Perhaps its young age allowed it to adapt more easily and build up a resistance, and my past self mistimed the injections to keep it sedate? Possible. After that, it broke out and wreaked havoc. The Baroque Works agent got killed, and I escaped and was chased after.'
It made sense too. Of course the tiger would have a bone to pick with him specifically! He'd captured her and removed her from her birthplace, away from its parents, and into a foreign place it did not know.
Abel didn't feel like as much of a monster as he probably should. Since he didn't remember doing that, it might as well be some stranger with his face who performed the motions. And, at least for now, that particular hatchet seemed pretty buried, so he'd take a win where he could.
'Still,' Abel's mind continued unabated, 'what exactly could be so valuable to require a specimen like a Rakshasa Tiger in trade?'
His eyes did not leave the tiger, who had just shifted into its human form of its own initiative this time and was curiously feeling out its new configuration, as his mind got an idea.
There had been an empty chest in the tent, wasn't there? If so, then... Well, as he had previously noted, this current state was a very recent change. 'That's right! The 'Item' must've been the Ancient Human Zoan! In the chaos of its escape the tiger must've accidentally devoured it! It all adds up!'
Abel was ecstatic! Finally, some questions he could actually figure out answers to! It wasn't much, but it was a pretty damn solid start!
In summary: He was here to conduct a shady deal with Baroque Works, trading the rare and near extinct Rakshasa cub for an Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit. During the negotiations, the tiger got out, at some point accidentally consumed the Devil Fruit, massacred the Baroque Works Agent, during which the person Able used to be ran for it, until he fell from a great height and lost his memory.
'Oh, I am such a genius!' Abel patted himself on the back for a job well done. Though his mood did have a slight damper put into it because the next thought was, 'What now?'
The tiger...actually, now it felt just a bit reductive to just refer to it- her as, well, 'the tiger'. And considering he was, apparently, about to sell her off as his previous self, dehumanizing her at this point felt...well, more scummy than he wanted to endure right now.
Also, the human tiger was currently spinning in place with her arms out, seeming to have started the motion on accident and was now stuck in it, trying not to fall over and unable to stop.
In hindsight, the fact that this thing was, for all intents and purposes, a child made a whole lot of things make sense.
"Alright then," Abel said to himself, stepping forward and grabbing onto the tiger...girl to halt her momentum. Holding her in place while her eyes swirled and her humanoid body swayed, the man really noticed how short she truly was in this form, merely coming up to his chin. So...about 4' 8'' – 4' 9''? A close enough estimate.
Almost inadvertently Abel's gaze veered down, reminding him that the tiger girl was, still, aside from the thin layer of fur essentially naked. He also was reminded that he still didn't really care for that fact, but there was not much he could do about it.
...Or was there?
"Wait here, don't wander off," Abel told the tiger girl, once she had gained her wits back. "Understand?"
After a bit, the tiger girl nodded with a somewhat subdued "Rah!"
It was an acceptable enough response.
Abel searched his bags, sure that he'd spotted something in passing that he could use for what he had in mind. And his memory did not fail him, for once! He fished out a box, contained within was a basic sewing kit. Perfect for maintaining clothing during long travels! Abel's respect for his past self grew just a tad for their preparedness.
Then the crossdresser got to work.
First, he took his appropriated knife, cutting off large swathes of the brown fabric from the now useless tent. It was better to put it to use than leave it lying about. Gods knew he wasn't about carry it off with him.
After that was done, he collected the bundles of cloth and took a seat on one of the logs by the cold fire pit. He took a moment to imagine the process with his mind's eye, adjusting his plans based on the available material, before pulling out a needle and thread from his sewing kit and getting to work.
Sewing was a job that took patience, meticulousness, not to mention some talent at imagining your preferred end-result. It was mildly surprising to Abel how easily it came to him. He wasn't about to produce a masterwork by any metric, but it would serve his purposes adequately enough.
After twenty minutes of work, the tiger girl was draped in a brown cloak, though it was more of a large shawl in practice. It might appear a bit raggedy('tastefully torn', Abel's mind corrected), but it was functional. Enough coverage when closed up to stop most indecency, but open enough to not impede any movements or be too uncomfortable. It also should, in theory, remain intact and nonrestrictive if the tiger girl transformed with it on.
The being in question played with the fabric, her pronounced brow furrowed and puzzlement clear in her eyes. Clearly, the concept of clothes were new to her. Still, it didn't seem like she hated the garment or find it overly discomforting, so Abel marked that as another victory in his belt.
"From this moment on, I'll call you Tigre," Abel proclaimed, confident in his naming sense. The newly named tiger girl just tilted her head.
Abel regarded her with a serious countenance. "I've got an idea of what happened now. You're far, far from your home, aren't you?"
That seemed to put a damper on the tiger girl's mood, her ears flopping down, her eyes glancing towards the cage. About as clear sign as anything that he was on the mark. And as if remembering just who the man talking to her was, she shot Abel a dark glare and a growl. "Grrr!"
"I know," Abel said with a look that recognized his part in all this. "Looks like my past self was quite the scoundrel." The tiger girl's look morphed into something more puzzled. Abel figured he was using words she couldn't understand. "It means that the me before I lost my memories was not a good person."
Not that the current him was either, necessarily. Just less...motivated? More inclined to do altruism to get a leg up? That worked for now.
Either way, Tigre nodded rapidly in understanding, already seeming to have forgotten that she was supposed to be mad at him. 'So she's not just young, but also a bit dumb? Or is that a side-effect of the Ancient Human Zoan?'
Not enough information. He shelved that thought for later. Besides, he'd already thought on his next course of action as he worked on the cloak.
"To make things right, I've decided to ferry you back where you came from." The tiger girl blinked, taking a moment to register his words.
"...Raugh?" Right, still unable to use words. The question was loud enough though.
"That's right," Abel continued as if he understood. "It's not like I have any more need for any past plans or such. But as things stand, I'm really your only way back home."
Because, in order to travel to this island and transport an young Rakshasa Tiger in the first place, he'd had to have a vessel... somewhere. He only needed to track it down... somehow.
"It's the least I can do, all things considered," Abel continued. "Although I'm going to need your help to manage it, think of this as my way of saying I'm sorry for my past self's actions."
...
Gods, he was so full of shit. Altruism was merely a side-effect of his true aim, which was to have a strong ally to rely on in case he needed it. And a cub or not, that ally was still a Rakshasa Tiger, with a Devil Fruit ability to boot!
Hey, he was an amnesiac with no clue where he stood in the world! He wanted to survive, that was the bottom line! That didn't mean he had to be a goody-two-shoes to do it, but if it helped then by god he'd dangle that carrot on a stick as long as he was able to!
And after what he was saying registered, when Tigre's eyes lit up with a joyous glimmer, Abel near instantly felt the cold sense of dread.
"Now, calm down- wait wait no GAAAH!" For the second time he got tackled by a cuddle rocket that promptly began rubbing her face against his. "Damnit, not again! Off, off, I say!"
"RAWR!"
The things he suffered... what had he done to deserve this?
…
THINGS HE DIDN'T REMEMBER SHOULDN'T COUNT!
X~ = = = = = = = = = = = ~X
After wasting some time escaping the gratitude of what he'd just learned was literally an overly excitable child, tracking down where Abel had moored his vessel turned out to be a simpler affair than he'd expected. All that was required was for Tigre to get a good whiff of his scent, then follow his scent trails in reverse to find where he came to the Baroque Works campsite from.
Of course, there was the brief stumble where the dumb tiger followed his newer trail that lead them back near where he first woke up at the top of the cliff he fell from. After giving Tigre a good bonk on the head, returning to the camp and and repeating his instructions with emphasis, the unlikely duo were finally on their way to find their means off this island.
It also gave Abel the opportunity to look over the map he picked up from the dead Baroque Works agent. It confirmed that he was on the so called Wildegreen Island. Which his gradually resurfacing memory intently reminded him was fucking wrong because Wildegreen was a small archipelago surrounding a larger land mass, which was where he currently was.
That aside, he did get confirmation that the Wildegreen Archipelago was located in a far corner of East Blue, bordering the Calm Belt a bit too close to comfort for his liking. Though his gut told him that, if need be, he could navigate sufficiently to avoid going anywhere near that hellhole.
Compared to the Grand Line's specific brand of bullshit, sailing on one of the Four Seas would be a downright relaxing experience.
He'd already mapped out a rough traveling path from island to island, eventually leading them to the closest port to the entrance to the Grand Line, Loguetown on Polestar. After that though...well, he was man enough to admit his plan had some holes.
The biggest one being, what even was his plan?
Oh, sure, he promised things to the big tiger cub, but that was mostly for his own self-interests. To have a bodyguard, in essence. Someone stronger than him to hide behind if he came upon something he didn't have the strength to handle.
Which was, to be fair, a whole lot of things.
But even aside from that...what was his end goal? He didn't have memories to fall back on. He didn't have a motivation besides 'get off this island' and maybe 'reach civilization'. It was, what, twenty or so years into what some folk had touted as the 'Age of Dreams', and he couldn't be arsed about what his dream was even if his life was on the line.
So the big question that haunted his mind as he rode Tigre towards an unknown destination was: 'What do I want to do?'
Ironically, it was the sheer breadth of having far too much choice that halted anything long-term from forming. So he forced the thought down. He had to focus on the immediate; what he could accomplish and do now. Step by step, day by day, until he had something more concrete to work with.
It was a relief when finally Tigre led him to an entrance to a cave. It was actually genius, now that he thought of it. A cave inlet was the perfect place to dock and hide a ship. It wasn't obvious and as long as only you knew where it was, locating it mostly came down to luck. Kudos, past Abel, kudos.
So it was to his great dismay when rather than locating a seafaring vessel to leave this damned isle behind Abel was instead greeted by a charred wreck. The small ship had sunk into the water, what was still visible scorched black by fire. He could still smell the faint scent of smoke contained within the cave's walls.
It was as blatant as one could make it. Someone had, intentionally, set his ship on fire and sunk it.
To call him furious in that moment was putting it politely. Even Tigre could sense it, keeping distance from the man as he stared at the wreckage.
Cain Abel was not simply angry.
Cain Abel was utterly incandescent.
"...Ooooh~," the man crooned ominously.
It just came to him. There was a single dead agent in a camp he now recalled seemed made for two. And if he did not recall incorrectly, was it not that Baroque Works Frontier Agents worked in pairs? That man; Mr. 10. And his partner...
A cold, humorless 'smile' graced his beautiful features, his eyes dull and lacking their usual spark of life. "It looks like someone's in dire need of a some...discipline~!"
Off to the side, Tigre shivered as a chill ran down their spine right to the tip of her tail. Her fur bristled on primal animal instinct that poked at her fight or flight response.
Someone had fucked with him, and at this moment, Cain Abel found his next goal to focus his efforts on. With prejudice...
X~ = = = = = = = = = = = ~X
-Author's Notes-
Aah, there goes doing a shorter chapter! I just can't help myself, apparently!
Some past histories get peeked on, and seems our resident cross-dressing jerk and tiger girl are more closely connected than it initially seemed! Finding out your past self was into some intensely criminal business is the kind of swerve that can only happen in stories...right? Right~.
Abel continues his downward spiral at figuring out what his deal is as more and more bizarre aspects of being him prop up. Oh, if only he were blessed with the blissful ignorance of literally being a child, like Tigre! Real original Abel, Master of Naming Things.
And just to clarify, because someone will eventually wonder, in her human form Tigre is roughly the equivalent of a slightly more mature-looking pre-teen.
And wow, super early Baroque Works?! Yeah it is! Mr. 10 is a canon character with a design who never showed up in the story proper, and at least in this story we find out why. Guy be dead!
His partner, on the other hand...well :p