One Piece: The Power System

The Strange Cat grinned after hearing what Nojiko said, its face was already stuck smiling so it was even more creepier. The cat had been watching everyone's trial from start to finish, it was watching them before it begun. The cat's grin was very wide to the point where it seemed that its lower face could be opened up, it revealed sharp triangular teeth. It looked at both Nojiko and Erica with interest, they were the ones that solved its face on a puzzle, after all, but it was more to it than just that.

Rein couldn't help but recall what type of creature it was, it was a legendary creature. "Oh my goodness, it's a Cheshire Cat, how is this possible!?" Rein had seen this type of creature from Alice and wonderland but it had appeared here in the one-piece world. The cat was about the size of a hippo for some reason.

"You two, you two are worthy to be chosen as one of my masters!' The Cheshire Cat looked deeply Erica and Nojiko, it was mainly looking at Nojiko with interest.

"W-What? The two of us?" Erica was a bit surprised, she did recall the puzzle but what did that stand for. Nojiko was just as surprised but remained silent.

"Ah! It's such a cute fluffy cat, how about you come serve me, we can make travel the world together!" Nami looked at the cat and blushed from its cuteness.

"You? Nah, you're too greedy for my taste! The Ninja is too secluded and ambitious for power, the Gunman is confused about which path is right, the swordswoman has to much doubt in her heart, which leaves these two amazing people here." The cat smiled deeply again as it stared at Nojiko and Erica.

"What!?" Everyone except Erica and Nojiko yelled out in surprise, did this thing just tell us our flaws.

"C-Confused? W-who the hell is confused?" Blacklines appeared on Vindicate forehead, who did this cat thing think it was to tell him his flaws.

"Checheche!" The cat laughed but didn't say anything.

"I-I do have some doubts." Kuina felt dispirited hearing those words because they were so true, she had many doubts about her improvement but still tried. Rein didn't say anything and only listen to what the cat was saying, was he really like that?

"Why are we qualified to be your master or something like that?" Nojiko asked curiously.

"Erica does what she does selflessly, she is truly a good-hearted person who fight from a certain someone." The cat looked at Rein from the side of its eye then it looked at Nojiko. "You are also the same but you also have very good luck, the highest I've seen in thousands of years."

Nojiko didn't say anything, she didn't know what her fortunate was or what it meant. "Then what do we have to do to win this match to be your master?" Erica asked bluntly, she actually liked this cat unique look.

"Hehe, simple, all you need to do is tell me a funny joke! I haven't had a good laugh in so long that it's killer just living in this pyramid doing nothing."

'What the hell? Did this cat have some type of King Kai vibe to it?' Rein had many thoughts looking at the cat, it was a good thing to have as a servant, he had to say. Why it was looking for a master, he didn't bother to ask.

"A joke? So if one of them tells a joke, you'll end up joining our crew?" Vindicate sneered looking at this annoying cat.

Dared to call him confused!

"Checheche! Not only are you confused about your path, you'e literally confused about your path!" Ouch! The cat was now talking about his sense of direction, what a burn! Nami covered her mouth as her eye bulged out of her face, she tried to stop herself from laughing out loud!

"You little shit!" Vindicate pulled out his gun and fired at the cat, he only shot at the ground to scare him.

"AH!" The cat jumped away in fright and went invisible when it leaped away.

"Guhaha! Did you see that? The poor excuse for a deity ran away, wait, how did it go invisible like that?" Vindicate stopped laughing but was soon tripped off his feet by the invisible Cheshire Cat.

"Uhg!"

"Hmph! Now, where was I again, yes, talking to my beautiful sisters over here!" The Cat's huge figure teleported back to where it was and began to talk like nothing had happened.

"That little...!" It was clear that if this cat did join the crew, it wouldn't have such a good relationship with Vindicate. Oh, how funny this journey was going be! Rein didn't mind the cat joining one bit, he always was fascinated by the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.

"Stop it, let's see what happens for now." Nami helped Vindicate up and said in a low voice. Vindicate looked at Rein and he gave him the green light that it was okay.

"Just you wait you little kitten!" Vindicate whispered to himself. Kuina chuckled softly seeing Vin's irritated face.

"Why would you want any of us as your master, it doesn't make any sense." Nojiko had to a conclusive answer from this cat, why would it need a master?

"Checheche! It boring sitting in the pyramid, it can make one a little crazy. In fact, all of us are a little crazy on this Island, even myself." Nojiko and Erica, along with everyone else were speechless.

"With a mouth like yours, I would go crazy too!" Vindicate said under his breath. The cat had good hearing but ignored Vindicate. It had plenty of time to play pranks on him later for revenge.

"Ah, okay then, let's start, you both get two jokes each!" The Cat said bluntly.

Nojiko and Erica talked for a bit and soon agreed to let Erica go first.

Erica: Ahem! Here I go!

Erica: Why do cats always get their way?

Cheshire Cat: Hmm, I don't know, why?

Erica: Because they're purr-suasive!

"Pfft! Hahahaha!" Nami and Kuina broke out into wild laughter while Rein and Vindicate were struck silent. Rein didn't know she could tell jokes, where did she learn to tell jokes?

Cheshire Cat: Haha, that was a good one but not enough to really purr-suade me!

The Cat countered back, which made Rein smirk a bit, this cat really liked jokes, huh?

Erica: Okay, I got another one!

Erica: What do cats love to do in the morning? "Giggle giggle"

Erica started to crack giggles from here own questioned joke.

Cheshire Cat: Uh, I don't know, what do they do?

Erica had tears in her eyes and said in a cracking voice.

Erica: They like to read the mewspaper!

"Pfft!" Everyone including Rein started laughing wildly, that was a good one. The cat even started to laugh hearing the joke!

"Haha, that's a good one!" Vindicate laughed heartily.

"When were you so good at telling jokes, Bahaha!" Rein shook his and stopped his laughter.

Cheshire Cat: Very good, great, you're next!

The Cheshire Cat looked at Nojiko, she walked forward while Erica walk back, wiping her eyes.

Nojiko: What do you call a cat that tells jokes?

Cheshire Cat: Don't know, what do they call them?

Nojiko: Just kitten!

Cheshire Cat: What!? Checheche!

Nami and Kuina were holding their stomachs at this point, if this kept up, they might have a heart attack! "When have I laughed so hard at jokes before, these two are pretty good at entertainment, Guhahaha!" Vindicate wiped his eyes in a fit of laughter.

Cheshire Cat: Phew, Okay, the next one! These cat jokes are killing me, why do you guys have to do me like that?

Nojiko: Miss cat, you like games, don't you?

Cheshire Cat: Yes, I do!

Nojiko: Then here this one out. Why can't cats play poker in the jungle?

Cheshire Cat: Oh, and why can't they, there's plenty of jungle on this island.

Nojiko: Because.... There are too many cheetahs, hahaha!

Rein eyes grew watery from surprise, he couldn't hold this one in and started laughing from her joke. This included everyone and the Cheshire Cat, it was too good, the timing and all.

Cheshire Cat: I-I s-sorry Erica, but this woman is the one, she is the one! Checheche!

The cat had watery Green eyes, it had laughed too much from Nojiko jokes, from both to be exact. The Cat shrunk in size to the size of a normal cat and pulled out a book. The cat floated in air as it ran through the book before it pulled a sheet of paper out of the book.

Rein looked closely at the book, the title on it said "The Book of Eternity." The book was green-blue so it stuck out like a sore thumb amongst most books. The Cheshire Cat sat on the book as he floated over toward Nojiko.

"Here is the contract, be sure to check it out." Nojiko took the sheet of paper and read through it. She showed everyone else the contract, mainly Rein to see if there were no tricks or exploits involved.

The crew whispered amongst themselves.

"It checks out well, all should be well."

"I have no problem with it"

"Yeah, Looks good to me."

With that, Nojiko signed and a light shot into her head once she was done sighing it.

"Well, it looks like we'll be together to the end, Checheche!"

Vindicate sneered "Yeah, you can be our crew's mascot, this seems more suitable for you, Guhahaha!" Suddenly, a dirty smelly sock shot into Vindicate's mouth.

"Pfft! Blargg! Whose dirty sock is this!?" Vindicate looked angrily at the Cat but it still retained its same grinning face, which was stuck this way. The cat didn't say anything and turned into a fluffy purple scarf the same color as Nojiko's hair, and wrapped around Nojiko's neck.

"Wah, so warm, I love it!" Nojiko's mind was also filled with some information that the Cheshire cat had given here, she knew what the cat was just from that. Suddenly, the Area twisted around them and everyone was warped out of the Pyramid.

They all appeared in front of the pyramid before they had walked up the stairs. Nojiko had gained a contracted beast, so she gained a lot here. Rein had innate strengthening just like Luffy and most of the will of D family.

His stat would go up by themselves through battle and learning from their fights. This was the case for Rein, so he also gained a lot here. Luffy also gained strength through fighting, Luffy's technique wasn't as good as Lucci but his stats were pretty decent, mainly his will which played a big role in Lucci's defeat.

Like all trials, each one had one devil Fruit in it and Rein had one. It was a Paramecia Class Devil fruit that allowed one to control swarms of bugs. You could also have the bugs spy one someone or even attack them with poison, you could also heighten the potency of your bugs poison but you would need some poison for that to enhance them.

It was the ability to control and manipulate bugs, which Rein didn't want to sell. This fruit was too good to pass up. "I'll save it for someone else in the future, I can't sell something like this to the system." Nojiko was no different, she found a strange fruit in the treasury as well and just tossed it into the storage ring, it was unknown what type of fruit it was.

At this time, the crew sat near the pyramid with large umbrellas over them to block the intense sun. Nami was looking at the map while Kuina was sanitizing her wounded arm, which needed to be treated fast.

"What do got so far, Nami?" Rein asked

"We're very fortunate, a forest is nearby and the heat shouldn't be so bad there. It just this lion on the map pyramid, I still don't know what it means." Erica took out the emblem and showed Nami and told Nami all about it.

"So it was like that. Does that mean we'll have to go through more trials to get the other pendants?" Nami would rather not do that again if she could avoid it, that place was a nightmare that was made into a reality and too close to death!

"No, it won't be any trial you guys will have to go through. The lion Pendant is the hardest to get. That's why it has been there since who knows when. Oh, and it's an insignia, not an emblem or pendant!" The Cheshire Cat spoke up to inform them, it still stayed in its scarf form around Nojiko's neck.

"Oh, so there will be no more trial then, sounds good to me. If this is the case, we should head to the North to get the Goat insignia then the south has a Snake insignia I'm guessing from this map." Rein had decided. But what they didn't know was that the Snake insignia was already taken by the Flagstar pirates who fled to the North.

"This could work, a little snow to cool us down from the scorching hot desert, so it's good to me." Kuina nodded as she just got done patching Nami up.

"Oh, right, I got a little gift for you Vindicate, check it out! Erica, could you give him the c.h.e.s.t I showed you earlier to him." Erica smiled and nodded, she looked through the storage ring and pulled out the c.h.e.s.t.

"Hoho, I love gifts!" Vindicate was curious.

"Checheche! What a loser!" Vindicate glared at the scarfed shaped cat, his eye glinted for second but he decided to ignore the cat. Erica opened the c.h.e.s.t for all to see, it was the pair of guns she found in the treasury.

"What the hell!?" Rein was shocked seeing the familiar pistol, he knew good a well what these pistols looked like! "This can't be a coincidence, this is just crazy now!" How was this possible, it didn't even have a trigger like Lucian's Guns.

"Wow, these look amazing, but where is the trigger?" Vindicate took the C.h.e.s.t with a smile and scanned the weapons and saw no trigger.

"Checheche! A confused person like you who doesn't know his true path could never shoot these relic pistols!" The Cheshire Cat cut in, it seemed that one would need to meet certain qualifications to shoot these guns. Rein shook his head, these were indeed just like Lucian's pistols, you would require faith and belief to shoot these, a confused and unsure person couldn't do it.

"What does a creepy cat like you know?" Vindicate glared at the cat who had taken form, it sat on Nojiko's head in a kitten form. Nojiko didn't feel it since it could control its weight, its weight was nonexistent on her head.

"He's right, you would need to believe and have a clear mind when shooting these things!" Rein spoke up and assured the Cat was right. He knew all but too well about these weapons, but how did they end up in the one-piece world?

"A-A clear mind." Vindicate seemed to be thinking, he understood what it meant and he didn't have a clear mind, yet.

"Checheche! The ninja leader may be ambitious and secluded, but he understands most things here!" The Cheshire Cat nodded and closed its eyes.

"Sigh, I see! I still have things to work on! Thank you, Nojiko!" Vindicate took the big guns and strapped them to his waist with the other two pistols.

"Hehe, No problem!" Nojiko smiled and said.

"Hmph, Loser!" The Cheshire cat was indeed female as everyone expected but it loved making fun of Vindicate. Vindicate's mouth twitched, but he decided to ignore the cat's words.

"Okay, you guys apparently got a lot of treasure, so we'll sort that out later but for now, let's head north!" Rein pointed in the northern direction until...

"That's east!" Nami chimed in with a chuckle.

"Uh, I knew that, I was just testing you guys out." Rein nodded seriously and said. Of course, they knew he was lying.

"Yeah, sure!" Everyone got up and followed Nami.

Marine Campsite

"Reporting Sir! The pirates came out of the pyramid after a week!" The man was pretty shocked by his own words.

"What? They came out alive, every pirate that went into that pyramid never came out!" Captain Copper was just as surprised, he wasn't sure what was in there but any pirate or marine that set foot in there never came out!

"I want you to gather information on those pirates. I want to see what kind of pirates they are!" Captain copper turned back around and started eating.

"Yes, Sir, will do!" The marines left the large tent in a hurry.

"So, pirates that can survive that hellish pyramid? I wonder who they might be?" Captain Copper shook his head and continued to eat.