Night, on the hilltop above Syrup Village.
Usopp stood beside a villa window, perched in a huge locust tree. One arm clung to the trunk while he gently tapped on the window with the other, whispering, "Kaya, Kaya..."
A light came on inside. A frail figure gently pushed open the window.
"So it's you, Usopp!" Kaya, dressed in pale yellow pajamas, wore a sickly, delicate beauty. A smile curled her lips, revealing two shallow dimples. "You finally came!"
"Sorry for disturbing your sleep." A hint of guilt crossed Usopp's face, but he quickly hid it. "Now isn't the time for that, Kaya. I have to tell you something. Klahadore is a pirate—a notorious one with a 16-million-berry bounty. You have to get away from him! He'll kill you!"
Kaya's smile gradually froze. "Usopp, you smell strongly of alcohol. Have you had too much to drink?"
"No... Kaya, I'm not lying to you!"
Kaya looked at Usopp as if he were a complete stranger with no connection to her. It was as though a crack had formed in their relationship in that instant.
"Usopp, I... I liked the lies you used to tell, but... but why would you say something like this?"
"No, that's not it. I'm not saying this to get back at him... Wait, I have his wanted poster!" Usopp hurriedly rummaged through the brown bundle he carried with him, his anxiety growing more and more obvious. "Where did it go...? I left it by the shore!"
"Kaya, you have to believe me." He quickly leaped down from the tree. "I'll go find proof right now. I'll prove it to you!"
With that, he dashed through a hidden opening in the bushes and out of the courtyard.
"Usopp..."
Kaya watched Usopp's figure disappear into the distance, then finally closed both windows. Her frail body, seemingly ready to collapse at any moment, leaned against the windowsill for support as her thoughts wandered.
"Klahadore is a pirate. How could that be...? You're going to come back and tell me you were right, aren't you? I'll wait here. I want to know whether what you said was true..."
A moment later, a knock sounded at the window again. Kaya swayed as she opened it, then pressed a hand to her drooping, feverish forehead and asked weakly, "Usopp, are you back?"
A man with a rather shifty-looking face leaned against the trunk, his hands behind his head. "He hasn't come back."
Kaya looked up, saw the man before her, and let out a frightened cry. She quickly covered her mouth and took two steps back.
"Don't be so loud. I suppose you could call me Usopp's 'friend.'" Buggy glanced sideways at her. She looked much as she had in the original story—a very frail young woman. Buggy wondered if even a gust of wind might knock her over.
"Did Usopp... send you here?" Kaya asked softly.
"No... I'm a pirate," Buggy said nonchalantly, crossing one leg over the other.
"But..." Kaya's gaze fell on his empty lower leg, and her face filled with pity and concern. "It must hurt, right? Your foot is gone..."
"..." Buggy rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation, then pulled out a wanted poster. His right hand detached from his body and set the poster on the windowsill. "Usopp left this with me, so I'm doing him a small favor and bringing it over..."
Kaya stared at the strange hand resting on the windowsill, her pupils suddenly widening. She screamed, "Ah!!!"
Footsteps quickly sounded in the villa's hallway. A suited man wearing round glasses pushed open the door. He glanced at the window blown open by the wind and Kaya sitting on the floor, shaken and distraught, then warily surveyed the room. With a flustered expression, he hurried to her side. "Miss Kaya, are you all right?"
Kaya lowered her eyes. She clutched the crumpled wanted poster in her right hand and hid it in the gap between her thigh and the floor. Her pale face managed a faint smile. "I'm fine... Klahadore, please leave for now. I feel a little uncomfortable with someone else nearby."
"..." Klahadore pushed his round glasses up with his wrist and glanced at the large tree outside the window. A cold glint flashed in his eyes.
Buggy had long since reattached his floating body to his feet on the ground. He picked at his ear with his little finger, then glanced back at the lit room.
"A woman's scream really is hard to take. This countryside backwater in the East Blue really is something. They've never even seen a Devil Fruit."
He walked a few steps, then looked toward the shadows in the bushes beside him. "You haven't seen one either, have you?"
The bushes remained completely still.
"Actually, I saw you in that estate's tree just now. But you were quick to hide, Cat Burglar Nami." Buggy sauntered over. "I didn't know you'd taken up climbing trees."
Leaves rustled down from above. A figure suddenly sprang from the shadows and lunged at him like a streak of lightning.
Buggy swayed aside, dodging two seemingly fluffy but dangerous paws that nearly brushed his chest. As they passed, his detached hand yanked the figure's cloak right off.
Under the moonlight, the figure's appearance was dimly visible.
Beneath the snow-white fur, a pair of pointed ears poked out above a gray woolen beret worn at an angle. Her bright green eyes, like polished jade, held a somewhat vacant look. She wore a gray-and-white crop top and hot pants...
Why was she so adorable...? No, why was she a cat!!!
Buggy stared blankly at the completely unexpected sight before him. "You... are you Nami?!"
"Give the cloak back, you damn pirate!"
"No, answer my question first. What's your name?"
"I'd never tell a pirate my name, Mikuru!"
She froze, then hurriedly clapped a hand over her mouth.
So... he'd chased the wrong person?
Come to think of it, even if his arrival had caused a butterfly effect, it was unlikely to have changed Nami this much and made her steal treasure from the Marines.
"Did you eat a Devil Fruit?"
Buggy studied her strange face. She wasn't nearly as scary as Usopp had described. In fact, she was unexpectedly cute.
Mikuru bared her teeth and claws. "What nonsense are you talking about? I'm a descendant of the Cat God, you stupid pirate!"
So she wasn't a Devil Fruit User?
A flicker crossed the corner of Buggy's eye. He spotted a bulging cloth bag peeking out from behind the shadow of a thick tree trunk. Turning his gaze away, he said, "Fine. Then give me back the fruit—the thing I left on the Marine ship. We'll be even."
As he spoke, he put a hand behind his back and quietly detached it. After circling around, it flew toward the bag in the tree.
Mikuru's fluffy cat ears twitched without pause. "I don't know anything about a fruit! Tell me, do you know Nami? Are you her friend or her enemy? Did you go looking for her because she stole the treasure from your ship? Hey, use your filthy, lewd, despicable, shameless, mean, malicious mouth and tell me!"
"Actually..." Buggy drawled, while his left hand quickly crept toward the round bundle.
The instant his left hand grabbed the mouth of the bundle, Mikuru turned sharply. Blue sparks crackled across her paw, and she shot forward like a streak of light toward the thick tree trunk where the bundle rested.
Buggy's left hand held the bundle suspended in the air. He cursed inwardly as the paw crackling with blue electricity nearly caught it.
His detached hand twisted in midair, changing its course in an instant.
A faint blue flash passed. With a sharp rip, the top of the large bundle split open. Its heavy contents pulled at the cloth from the other side until the strap tore apart as well.
The completely open bundle fell to the ground, spilling glittering gold and silver treasure everywhere.
"Mink Tribe..." Buggy quickly withdrew his hand and flexed his left index finger, which had gone numb after being grazed by her. He scanned the ground, frowning. "Why isn't there a Devil Fruit?"
"You mean that one? A girl ate it." Mikuru stood guard in front of the bundle, her voice turning cold as her eerie eyes fixed on Buggy. "Now it's your turn to answer my questions, pirate."
"A girl ate it? This cat really did something stupid..." Buggy muttered. He looked up at Mikuru, who had assumed a battle-ready stance, and shrugged.
"All right, I'll tell you the truth. I'm actually Nami's childhood sweetheart and fiancé. But I don't think I've ever heard Nami mention you, and I don't know why you're so fixated on my fiancée."
"Hey, no way! Nami's my lifesaver and my good friend. How could she not have mentioned my name? You must not have been paying attention!" Mikuru hastily protested.
"..."
Buggy rubbed his chin. "So that's how it is. Looks like my arrival stirred things up after all..."
Mikuru blinked, then seemed to catch on. "You lying pirate! Nami doesn't have some childhood sweetheart fiancé. You're deceiving an innocent little cat's feelings. You're a demon!"
Buggy shrugged, tossed her cloak onto the ground, and turned to leave, waving a hand. "Sorry, sorry for the trouble. But you're not who I'm after."
"Hey, wait!" Mikuru pointed at Buggy's back with one finger. "You coward! You're just going to run off like that? Don't you have even a shred of pride as a man? Your soul will go to hell sooner or later. All that awaits you is the endless darkness of the devouring void!"
"She really is a chatterbox..." Buggy continued walking without a care, ignoring her.
Mikuru hurriedly gathered the treasure scattered on the ground and angrily called after him, "I'm not a chatterbox, you damn Red Nose! I'm a great noble! I'm a descendant of the Cat God! Stop right there!"
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