Luffy x Neko!Reader Warm

Chapter 50: Thriller Bark, Island of the Dead

The fog was getting difficult to breathe in, but you endured. Tail wrapped around your thigh, ears pricked, you waited. Not far from your ship was an island, of sorts. According to Brook, it was called Thriller Bark and it was never in the same place twice.

A few of the crew, Luffy included, had gone ahead to see if it was safe to bring the Sunny closer to shore. You'd wanted to go to, but Luffy had sat you down and told you to stay and he did that only when he was deadly serious. So, you stayed. But you hated every second of it.

-time skip to shore-
The second your paws touched land you knew something wasn't right. The whole place smelled like prey that was too long dead. Swiping your tongue across your jaws, you attempted to clear some of the stench away, but to no avail.

"Heeeeey! (Y/N)!" You turned your head and meowed at Luffy, trotting happily up to him and pressing your head to his chest. He laughed and rubbed your ears.

Stepping back, you shook out your fur in an attempt to be free of the heavy weight the fog was putting on you. It didn't work. Disgruntled, you looked around and finally noticed the three-headed beast that cowered a bit away. Two of its heads were dogs, but the third was a fox and its skin was a patchwork of pieces all sewn together into a monstrous work.

Snarling, fur standing up on your spine, you stalked towards it with your head lowered. Luffy patted your flank and said, "It's okay, cupcake. I already tamed it, it won't cause any trouble." You spat at the thing and it cowered further, shaking in its patchwork fur. With a huff, you turned your back on it and sat down, giving your chest fur a few licks.

Luffy gave you another pat and you followed him as he headed onward, three-headed beast trailing meekly behind.

~~~
Another creature leapt out of the undergrowth and once again you caught it in your claws and ripped it apart. They came apart so easily, their stitched together limbs no match for your brute strength. Kicking dirt over the remains, you hissed at it, tail lashing.

"Wow." Usopp gave you a pat on the head and you let him. "How do you always know when they're gunna jump out at you?"

You sniffed loudly in response, acting like you were smelling the air.

"Really? What do they smell like?"

You curled your lip, and wiped your paw over your nose.

"That bad?"

You nodded.

Not far away, Zolo was looking exasperatedly as Usopp. "How can you carry on with a normal conversation when she isn't even a human?"

You gave Zolo a 'you best shut the eff up' look and Usopp crossed his arms and looked offended. The swordsman shrugged and moved a bit away from you, glancing once at your massive paws. You let the claws slide out and he didn't have anything else to say after that.

Usopp laughed and you purred, tail curled up in pleasure. There was a sudden pressure around your back leg and you turned to see that Chopper had wrapped his little arms around you and was shaking all over.

'Poor thing...' you thought, leaning down to nudge the terrified reindeer. He didn't budge. Before you could attempt to comfort the little guy, another dead/not dead thing jumped out and you swatted it from the air, slashing it apart and burying part of it for spite.

Chopper was shaking harder and you gently grabbed him in your jaws, shaking him free of your leg and dropping him onto your back. He curled up between your shoulder blades and stayed there, occasionally whining.

There was a tap on your shoulder and you turned to see Usopp, grinning sheepishly and glancing up at where Chopper lay. Sighing, you let him climb on.

-five minutes later-
You trudged forward with Chopper, Usopp, Luffy, and Robin on your back, grumbling occasionally to yourself. Raising your head, you looked around and caught sight of a large building, castle-like with large black spires stabbing up into the fog-shrouded sky.

Your ears pricked and you started to head that way, stomach growling. Hopefully there was food in there. The way wasn't too hard, but there was still that crow-food stench in the air, like the whole island was dead and those patchwork creatures, man-like and animal-like, continued to show up.

Eventually, your journey required you to pass through a graveyard. Ears flat against your head, you gently shook off your passengers, padding forward at the head of the group with your claws unsheathed. Your feeling of unease was proved correct when corpses clawed their way from their graves.

Hissing, fur spiked up, looking like a demon straight from hell, you stood between the living dead and your crew. Some of the dead seemed put off by this, hesitant to approach, while others straight up hid behind their tombstones. But the majority attacked, throwing themselves forward against your group.

An animalistic rage started to bubble up in you, pumping through your veins like blood and you gave into it, jaws snapping, claws flashing, sending parts flying.

When all was said and done and the graveyard was empty of all but the truly living, you stood, snarling and empty-eyed, body tensed for the next thing it had to kill.

"Oh no..." Luffy took a step towards you and you lowered your head, prepared to jump on him and take him down. "Not again... No one get near her." The last words were directed to the crew behind him and they were more than happy to comply, taking a step back from your furious form.

"Come on, baby, it's alright, they're all gone." Luffy moved slowly towards you, hands held out. The three-headed beast that had followed him around thus far finally just pissed itself in terror and bolted, the movement attracting your attention.

Swinging your head around, you prepared to chase it down, but when your attention was diverted, Luffy dove at you. Roaring, you were knocked on your side, paws flailing. Luffy wrapped his arms around you, tying you up and keeping you from clawing him.

"Come on," he growled. "Stop being stupid, (Y/N), it is not the time for this."

Eventually, your struggles got weaker and your body relaxed, slowly changing from cat to human. Zolo had to look away from that, creeped out by the visible altering of bone structure.

You blinked and said, "What happened?"

Usopp started to cry.

(I'm just gunna go ahead and apologize for if I got anything wrong. I probably did, seeing as I haven't been able to reread the Thriller Bark arc recently, but hey. I tried. If it's super obviously wrong, please point it out and I'll change it. Thanks.)