Chapter Text
After sailing without any sight of an island for a whole week, the Strawhat crew became restless. Perhaps that was why, when an uncharted island appeared in the distance, they docked at it without much thought. Or maybe it was because it was late at night and just wanted a place to stop. Everyone, however, was far too tired to leave the boat. They all went to bed after they decided to explore the island tomorrow. Zoro stayed on watch throughout the night, though, right before dawn, his exhaustion wore out and he fell asleep. What was there to worry about? They've faced other uncharted islands before and everything was fine. This place could hold no candle to the strange shit they have seen.
...right?
"WHAT THE SHIT!?"
Zoro was awoken by a scream coming from the woman's quarters. He immediately identifies it as Nami's voice and hurries towards the sound. As his mind begins to fully wake up, he begins to notice how loud everything is. The waves crashing against the Sunny sounded like gongs ringing through his skull, but he pushed forward. He was right outside the door, and he could clearly smell the stress that came from his nakima. Wait, wha—?
Before he could even process that strange thought, a frazzled Nami burst out of the room, only to stop and gape at Zoro. The swordsman's mouth was also hanging wide open as he observed Nami. On the top of her head were fluffy round ears that blended in with her hair and a bushy tail attached to the small of her back. What the hell!?
"Zoro...?" Nami muttered. He opened his mouth to respond only to be met with a mirror being shoved into his hands. "Look..."
When Zoro processed what he saw in the mirror, he threw it before he let out a loud screech that woke up the rest of the crew. Nami was too shell-shocked to even get mad at the man for the shattered mirror on the floor. Besides, it's a pretty fair reaction to waking up with real cat ears.
|♡《•》♡|
"Fascinating."
The entire crew were on the deck as they attempted to figure out what was going on. Well, most of them did. Luffy hung from the tangerine trees with his new monkey tail, enjoying the strange transformation.
"I've read about this in one of my books before." Robin's words gained the attention of everyone, anxiously awaiting her next words. "This is la Isla de la Garra, otherwise known as Claw Island. Long ago, its occupants were cursed by the Natural Gods due to their lack of respect for the land. The curse causes anyone residing on the island to become hybrids, part animal, part human. If one ventures to far into the center of the island where the Gods reside, they will slowly lose themselves to their new instincts until they become more beast than man. That would be quite an interesting way to die, no?"
When everyone stared at her with horrified expressions, she merely giggled. Nami took a deep breath, her hand smoothing out her new raccoon tail, before she was ready to speak. "Okay, so we just wait until the log pose resets, leave the island, and then we'll be back to normal?"
"That should be how it works, yes." The crew visibly relaxed at the confirmation, especially Usopp, who was messing with his new floppy bunny ears.
Zoro fidgeted with his hands as Nami and Robin came up with a plan for what they'd do on this island. He observed his palms which were covered in pads that reminded him of Kuma. The thought made him tense up and accidentally press down on the center pad. The pressure caused claws to extend from his nails. His ears perked up in interest as he examined the tips of his fingers. They were like tiny swords. He flexed his fingers back and the claws retracted. He continued this switchblade like movement as he watched them appear and dissappear depending on how he contracted his hands. His tail swayed slowly as he wondered how strong they were. If they were really like swords, could he sharpen them? How much damage could they do? Were they on his feet as well?
Movement on his left snapped him out of his thoughts and his ears turned towards the noise. He drew his sword just in time to block a kick from an angry Sanji. "The hell are you doing, shitty swordsman?" The blonde's own cat tail flicked back and forth in frustration. Ugh, why'd he have to match with the love cook of all people?
"I am learning how to use this new body to defend the crew. Some of us have a job to do, instead of ogling women all day."
"I am simply appreciating Nami-swan and Robin-chwan's beauty! The ears and tails make them extra cute!" He does a little spin then turned back to Zoro. "Not that a brute like you would understand."
"You—"
Nami's disciplinary fists descend on both of them. She gained the attention of the men who held the comically large bumps on their heads before she spoke. "Stop fighting, idiots! You two are in charge of restocking the galley as usual."
"Again? Being stuck with him—"
"NO COMPLAINING! Franky," she pointed to the metal man who now had dog ears on his head. "You and Usopp are finding us a place to stay while on the island in case we'll be stuck here for a bit. Luffy, Chopper, and Brook will watch the ship—"
"Aw, I wanna explore!"
"SHUT IT! They'll watch the ship while me and Robin try to find out more about these transformations. We'll also find out how long the log pose will take to reset."
Chopper, who was unaffected by the island since he was already a reindeer, asked, "Why will us three watch the ship?"
Nami sighed. "You and Brook aren't affected, and Luffy doesn't seem to give a shit," she gestures towards their captain who was hanging from the sails with his new tail, "So you three would probably be the most helpful in a fight right now. The rest of us would be thrown off our game. NOW GET MOVING EVERYONE!"
Zoro had to resist covering his ears and groaned. Goddammit, the witch was loud. He fell into step next to Sanji. Hopefully the log pose resets quickly.