Cat-Person Brothers

"Get down here, Cat Brothers!" Jango shouted toward the ship.

Two dark shadows leaped from the deck and landed on the beach. The figure on the right was a skinny man with green hair, while the one on the left was a burly, stout man with one black eye socket and one white.

"Are you calling us, Captain Jango?" The skinny green-haired man licked his wrists and struck a comical pose. "We are Sham..."

The burly man finished the introduction with practiced ease: "...and Buchi. Together, we are the Cat Brothers, reporting for duty!"

Jango looked toward Cabaji. "Buchi, Sham, as you can see, there are people getting in our way. Take them out!"

Sham and Buchi exchanged a glance, their faces breaking out in a sweat as if terrified. "We're just the ship guards... how could we possibly do something like that!"

Jango roared, "Stop whining! Go, Sham!"

Sham, nearly sobbing, said with great grievance, "I get it, okay! I'm going right now!"

He tilted his head back, raised his hands high, and ran toward Cabaji with his defenses wide open. "Damn it... I'm going to finish you off with these claws right now!"

A subtle, cunning glint flashed in the corner of his eye... Almost there. Thirty meters left. While he's letting his guard down, I'll disembowel him with my cat claws. This stupid pirate could never imagine that my acting has reached such a masterful level... What's wrong with him? He must have been injured in the previous fight. Good, he's a dead man!!

Catching a glimpse of Cabaji suddenly collapsing to his knees, Sham dropped his head, staring at him like a predatory beast, and let out a sinister grin. "Then I won't hold back!"

His agile body instantly shifted into combat mode. His hands, encased in cat-claw gloves, curled into talons, and he lunged at Cabaji with lightning speed.

Cabaji clutched his chest, his face contorted in uncontrollable agony like a drowning man. The next instant, Sham's hands pierced into Cabaji's body like two sharp spears.

Both of their movements froze simultaneously, as if time had stood still.

Jango touched his black cloth hat uncomfortably. "That move again..."

Buchi watched the scene calmly. "The swordsman is dead."

Squelch!

Where the two met, hot blood erupted like a fountain.

Sham curled his lips into a cunning smile. "It was hard work pretending to be a harmless little cat, but it seems it was a bit redundant. I am Sham of the Cat Brothers, after all!"

"Yeah, it was far too redundant..."

Cabaji raised his eyes. "You'd better realize that this blood is your own..."

Sham looked down at the nearly twenty-centimeter gash on his chest, stunned. A wave of intense dizziness and pain surged into his brain. He stumbled back, unable to keep his footing, and spat a mouthful of blood. "You... you despicable guy..."

"Weren't you the one trying to play dirty from the start?" Cabaji stood up as if nothing had happened and brushed the cat-claw marks off his sleeves. "When you're pretending to be afraid, you can't show even a hint of joy... For someone who wants to play dirty, one must naturally return the favor with 'despicableness.' In that regard, you and I are worlds apart."

"Sham!" Buchi looked agitated and rushed toward Cabaji, intending to cover for Sham. But halfway there, he seemed to see something terrifying. His body reacted with instinctive fear, and he stopped in his tracks, breaking into a cold sweat.

Following his gaze, on the road above the slope, a man in a suit and tie, wearing round glasses, held a long, specialized bag in one hand while the other was coldly tucked into his pocket.

The newcomer pushed up his round glasses with his wrist, looking coldly at the battle below. "It seems I overestimated you. I didn't expect that in the two years since we last met, you would have fallen to such a state..."

"Captain Kuro..." Jango wiped the sweat from his forehead, unable to help but argue. "But... their leader is a great pirate from the East Blue with a bounty of ten million!"

"So what..." Kuro pushed his glasses up with his wrist, veins bulging on his forehead. "Look at your pathetic state. I never imagined you would be so weak and incompetent!!!"

Jango muttered under his breath, "Weak and incompetent..."

Sham clutched his chest wound, struggling to stay upright. He coughed up more blood, his body trembling with rage. "For the past two years, we've defeated countless pirates and trained our killing techniques every single moment. How can you say it so lightly, Captain Kuro..."

Buchi held his clawed hands in front of his chest, the ten thirty-centimeter blades scraping against each other. "You really have the nerve to say that, Captain Kuro. We admit you were strong three years ago..."

"Oh..." Kuro looked at the Cat Brothers coldly. "What are you trying to say?"

"With your three-year gap..." Buchi's bloated body erupted with surprising, contradictory speed. His eyes bloodshot, he charged at Kuro. "I alone am enough to finish you off easily!"

"Don't!!!" Jango's command failed to stop Buchi's charge; if anything, the latter's speed and movements only accelerated.

Watching Buchi draw closer, Kuro raised the long, specialized bag with a calm expression.

"You aren't our captain anymore! Even if I kill you here, it won't matter at all!" Buchi raised his two claws and slashed wildly.

The long bag was shredded into ten pieces, but Kuro had vanished from sight without a sound.

"What!" Buchi's face was instantly covered in cold sweat. He spun around violently. "Behind me!"

There was no sign of Kuro in his field of vision!!!

"Buchi, watch out!" Sham shouted in panic, and with that final word, he collapsed to the ground, completely unconscious.

Buchi's breath hitched. A chill ran from the base of his spine all the way to the top of his head.

"I heard you wanted to kill me." Kuro appeared out of nowhere, his arms wrapped around Buchi. The nearly one-meter-long claws on his hands were pressed tightly against the shivering man's chest. His expression was cold and gloomy. "My skills aren't as agile as they were three years ago, and after three years, my heart seems to have grown merciful... I don't want to stain my hands with any boring evidence of crime. I'll give you five minutes..."

He pulled his sharp claws away from Buchi and said emotionlessly, "If you can't settle this in five minutes, I will send both you and them to hell with my own hands!"

Buchi gasped for air. He exchanged a terrified look with the severely injured, incapacitated Sham, then looked up at Jango.

"Captain... give me unparalleled power! Please, Captain, let me bear Sham's share as well!"