One Howling Adventure! 3 (Patreon)

Chapter 3: One Hell of A Meeting!

“Are you a mystery wolf?!”

I present to you the first words between myself and the woman that would become King (Queen?) of the Pirates, ladies and gentlemen.

“No, I’m just a guy who ate a Devil Fruit. I’m guessing the same is true for you?” I asked rhetorically.

“Yup! I ate the Gum Gum Fruit and now I’m a rubber woman,” she said while hooking a finger into her cheek and pulling it out.

“Dammit Luffy, don’t go running off like that!” a pair of voices shouted from the two tiny sailboats that had just beached themselves.

Turning to face the rest of the newcomers as Luffy let go of her cheek, I could help but blink in surprise. Either I’m remembering things wrong due to being on this island for fuck knows how long, or Nami’s got her post-time skip curves. She’s still wearing a shirt that looks like what she wore in her first appearance, but with a much more… endowed chest. Zoro, because who else could the guy with green hair and three katanas at his side be, had his hand at his blades, ready to draw them in a moment. I had something else in mind.

“I know we just met, but could I borrow some clothes?” I asked sheepishly.

Nami and Zoro both blinked in surprise, before Zoro cocked an eyebrow and snarking, “You’re quite a bit taller than I am, I don’t think any of my clothes would fit you.”

“Devil Fruit, I can turn back to human. Clothes change to fit the new form, but I’ve kinda lost track of how long I’ve been here. It’s been long enough that the one pair of clothes I had have long since become scrap rags.”

“Fine,” Zoro said as he reached into the boat and tossed a pair of pants my way.

Catching them, I turned to Nami and was about to ask if Katara could borrow some of hers when she interrupted me, “I don’t care how long you’ve been here, you aren’t seeing the girls without some serious belli.”

“Okay, firstly, that’s not at all what I was going to ask. Secondly, if my clothes haven’t survived, what makes you think I have any money? Fifthly…”

“Third.”

“Thirdly, I was actually going to ask if you had some extra clothes as well.” Nami’s eye started twitching, prompting me to hurriedly explain. “Not for me! I’m not alone on this island!”

That made the three Straw Hats pause, before Luffy let out a yell of excitement as she ran off into the jungle, “ANOTHER MYSTERY WOLF!”

Staring off after the woman who ran off in a random direction, I turned to look at the two remaining Straw Hats. Nami was facepalming while Zoro sighed and made to follow before Nami grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

“So where is the woman you were marooned with?” Nami asked.

“Over here!” Katara called out, staying behind the shrubbery while Zoro was on the beach.

“Wonderful!” Nami said with a wide grin. “Zoro, go help wolf boy find our Captain.”

“Dammit Witch don’t tell me what to…” Zoro began, only for the glare Nami leveled at him to end any arguments.

As soon as Zoro and I were out of line of sight of Nami and Katara, I shifted back to human and slipped on my borrowed pair of pants. My fur in hybrid form acted as a loincloth while everything was tucked away, so being naked in front of strange women wasn’t such a big deal but I didn’t think Nami would appreciate being flashed.

“Thanks for lending me a pair of pants. Name’s Logan,” I introduced myself as I shifted back to hybrid form and started sniffing the air, trying to track Luffy.

“Zoro. So who’s the girl you were here with?”

“Katara. I’m honestly not sure what to call us. We met after the ruins of the ship she was on were washed ashore so we haven’t exactly had the opportunity to go on dates or get married, but we’re having a baby.”

“Huh. Congratulations, I guess. Personally I never saw the appeal.”

“Kinda hard to practice safe sex when there’s nothing to do so with.”

“Fair point.”

[hr][/hr]

Zoro and I eventually found Luffy on top of the highest point on the island, and convinced her to head back with us. I stopped by the cave first and grabbed the one thing worth taking: our poop-shell music player. But once I had that, I all but dragged the two Straw Hats back to the beach. I’d been stuck on this island for too goddamn long, there was no way I was letting Nami sail off without me!

“Boat arrangements!” Nami declared as the three of us returned to the beach, standing next to Katara who had one of Nami’s shirts rolled up over her pregnant belly. “Katara here rides with me and the treasure, the rest of you share the other boat. Ya got a problem with it you can swim to the next island!”

I had no arguments, I was just too happy to be off the island. So, after kissing both Katara and her belly, I shrank down to human form and joined Zoro and Luffy in the boat.

“So, Mystery-Wolf-Guy!” Luffy started as Zoro and I started to row out to deeper waters.

“For future reference, my name’s Logan,” I interrupted.

“Oh, right, my name’s Monkey D Luffy! What can you do besides turn into a mystery wolf?”

“You are never going to stop calling it that, are you? I’m good with math and kicking the shit out of people.”

“Shishishi!”

Huh, so that’s what it sounded like.

Once we were out in the open sea, I carefully watched as Zoro and Luffy untied the small sail so it could catch the wind. The only knots I was familiar with were in shoes and my other forms, so once it came time to bundle up the sails I’d definitely be asking for help. When the inevitable questions came up, I already had an excuse: I’d only ever been a passenger on a ship and grew up pretty far inland.

With the wind filling the sail, Luffy and Zoro both leaned back and I strained my ears. It wasn’t as good in my hybrid or feral forms, but my hearing was better than it used to be. Over the sounds of sea birds and the fluttering of fabric, I was able to make out the conversation on the other boat.

“Thanks again for loaning me some clothes,” Katara said, the smile clear in her voice.

“It’s fine. I couldn’t let you go naked. You asked for the date earlier, how long were you marooned?” Nami asked.

“A year and a half. I’m not completely sure how far along I am, I lost track of time a few months in, but I think it’s going to be soon.”

“Well winds agreeable, we’ll be at the next island in a week. You’re lucky we got blown your way, otherwise we’d have sailed right on by and not even seen the island.”

“Thank Yue.”

The conversation after that kind of petered out, or at least it wasn’t the sort of thing I felt comfortable listening in on. The noises Nami made as Katara gave her a back rub (“I’m sure you have back pains, let me help with that”) threatened to give me a boner. Sure, I’d jerked off to the idea of Nami back on Earth, but not only was she an actual person instead of a drawing on a page now, but I was with Katara.

[hr][/hr]

Sure enough, a week later (most of which I spent in hybrid form, no sunburn for me!) we came to a stop at an island. Almost immediately, we were shot at as a punch of flags popped up behind bushes, rocks, the cliff edge, you name it.

“That’s so cool!” Luffy shouted.

“Is this where we’re supposed to be impressed?” Nami asked from behind one of the boats.

As the “mastermind” moved out into the open with what he probably thought was diabolical laughter, I lifted my nose up into the air and took a few whiffs. A lot of small smells from his bag, probably specialized slingshot bullets, but also four distinct scents, three of which smelled… younger, for want of a better word.

“I am Usopp, leader of the invincible nation of pirates who reign over this island!” the bad liar boasted. “You stand before a living legend, the most revered pirate who ever lived! I am the great Captain Usopp. Surely you know that plotting an attack on this island would mean certain death! My army of eighty million men would crush you like bugs!”

“You’re an idiot,” I drawled, making Usopp glare at me. It just might have been intimidating, if his knees weren’t shaking so badly they were nearly hitting each other. “Have you even taken a look at all of us?”

That made Usopp pause, his gaze looking over each of us, before settling on Katara, “You bring a concubine to my island!”

… I was going to punch him in his Pinocchio nose, “Right, I was willing to let this charade go on, but for that, no. You have three brats, not eighty million men. And from the way you’re acting I’m also going to guess that you’ve never even left this island.”

“Gah! How can you possibly know that!”

I gave him a blank stare, before lifting a claw up and tapping the nose on the end of my muzzle. The three kids, realizing I knew they were there, screamed and ran off, while Nami leaned down to pick up one of Usopp’s slingshot bullets.

“A pirate with a slingshot, huh? Now I’ve seen everything,” Nami mused aloud as she blew the sand off the slingshot bullet.

“W-well you’ve seen how good I am! So get…” Usopp paused, his slingshot pulled back halfway. “Um… why would pirates raid an island when one of them looks eight months pregnant?”

“Took you long enough to notice!” Katara shouted up, and only the sheer amount of time I’d spent with her let me pick up the amusement hidden under her insulted tone.

“In my defense…”

“I don’t want to hear it! You’ll make up for being so oblivious by being our guide while we restock our supplies, and show Logan and I where to get some decent food!”

Let it never be said that Usopp was stupid. A liar? Most certainly. An idiot? Sometimes, but that was just par the course for this group. But not stupid. So when a pregnant woman starts giving orders, you obey. I took up the rear with Nami while getting a list of the supplies on the dingy that she and Katara had taken so I’d have a better idea of where we were as far as supplies.

Much as I didn’t really want to, I shrunk down to human form before we entered town. In this part of the world, an open use of a Devil Fruit was liable to cause more trouble than it was worth. We did some basic shopping, but before we could get too far ahead of ourselves, circumstances demanded that we get something to eat.

I have to be honest, I thought pregnant women having a craving for pickles and ice cream was just a stereotype. But, while Katara was having her combination of sweet and vinegary, I was having a different issue.

“Back off Luffy, this roast is mine!”

“But it’s meat!”

“Exactly! It’s the first red meat I’ve so much as seen in a year and a half, you aren’t taking this from me!”

[hr][/hr]

In the end, I managed to fight off Luffy long enough to have the pork roast. The bone was picked completely clean, the tendon and gristle used as distractions against the rubber-girl that tried to take my meaty goodness away from me. The fact that our scrap made Katara giggle was just a side bonus, not a reason to keep up my antics, no sir.

“Give us back our Captain!” a voice distracted me from trying to decide if a food-coma was in my future.

Oh right, Usopp’s brats. Luffy and Zoro had a little fun at their expense, though when they mistook Katara being pregnant as her having eaten most of Usopp… well, let’s just say they were soon “corrected” of their misconception. I never thought I’d see a switch made of water.

While the three brats (they introduced themselves, but there was no way I’d be able to pronounce their names) took most of the crew to the mansion, I focused on supplies and seeing about getting our future ship properly stocked and supplied. Katara looked like she was going to stay behind with me, but I encouraged her to go with the rest of the crew. I figured the chance to talk to another woman would be good for her.

There was also… something else I wanted to get without Katara knowing about. In our year and a half on that island, she told me about her choker, the one with a bunch of swirls on a tag. It was originally her mother’s, but there was a tradition on the island she grew up on. When a man wanted to propose to a girl, he’d make a choker and put a personal symbol on the tag. Traditionally, whale bone was used for the tag. I was hoping that the shops in the village would have whale bone.

Which led me to this moment, “For the last time, this is all the whale bone we’ll be getting for the next four months, I can’t sell you all of it!”

“And I know that I’m going to fuck up a lot before I get something I can look at without cringing, I need the practice material! There’s barely five pounds here, that’s nowhere near enough!”

“Well that’s too damn bad! I can sell you half of it, but that’s it. This stuff comes from North Blue, it’s too expensive for me to sell in one go like this.”

“I’ll pay double what you’re currently asking.”

“I’m ‘asking’ for half, you aren’t going to fool me like that! Two and a half pounds!”

“Five.”

“Two and a half!”

“Five.”

“Two and a half!”

“Five.”

“Two and a half!”

“Two and a half.”

“Five!”

“Done. Pleasure doing business with you.”

I walked away with a smile on my face while the bewildered shotkeep tried to figure out how he’d been conned into selling all his whale bone instead of the half he’d been dead set on. Nami was going to get on my case, but explaining what I wanted it for would spare me from the worst of her wrath. Hopefully. Maybe. Possibly? A guy can dream, at least.

If I have any left over from my scrimshaw practice, I should try to make some armor out of it. Assuming Nami doesn’t kill me for the unapproved loan.