Zoro drags the cage, pulling it through the deserted streets and leaving behind a trail of blood as he does so. Haru walks behind him, always within arms reach of the wounded swordsman, just in case he loses consciousness. Sure enough, when Zoro has pulled the cage up to what looks like the front of a pet supply shop he pitches forward. If not for Haru, he'd have taken a face plant but instead the red-head catches the swordsman with a heavy sigh. "You feel better now?" Haru questions him, shouldering his weight and walking him towards the front of the store.
"Shut-up, Red," retorts Zoro, smirking as he's lowered to a sitting position on the porch.
"Huh? Hey, it's a doggie!" exclaims Luffy, attracting the attention of the two to a small cream colored pooch sitting in front of his cage. Before either of them can tell him not to bother it, he's stretched out and poked it in the middle of its forehead… which results in it latching into his face in response. "Aaah! It's biting me!" Luffy struggles, screaming and yelling as he attempts to pull the dog off, and when he finally succeeds the irritable mutt returns to his guard position in front of the store.
"Did you learn a lesson?" Haru asks Luffy, receiving a glare in response.
"Hey!" calls a voice now familiar to the three, and they watch the approach of the woman from before. "If you three make that much noise, then it defeats the purpose of running away doesn't it?"
"Yo! Navigator!" offers Luffy in way of greeting. "Did you come to help us?"
"Hah, not even! I just came to repay you with this." She finishes her sentence by tossing a key onto the ground in front of Luffy's cage. "I don't want to end up owing you pirates anything."
"That certainly makes things easier, Miss Navigator," remarks Haru, approaching the cage. "I honestly had half a mind to ask you for a bobby pin for the lock. Actually, I don't even know your name." She introduces herself as Nami while Luffy reaches out for the key… and comes back empty-handed when the dog snags it up and summarily swallows it. Everyone stares for several long moments in wide-eyed silence. "Did that… really just happen?"
"Aaaaahhh! NO! SPIT IT OUT! SPIT IT OOOUUUTTT!" bellows Luffy, picking the dog up and shaking it violently.
"Hey! You kids quit bothering Chouchou!" demands a male voice, any old man approaching quickly.
"Who are you exactly?" Zoro questions him, glaring at the armor-clad old man despite the fact that he's half-dead from blood-loss.
"I'm the Mayor of this town, Boodle. Oh. Oh, you're certainly in bad shape."
"Don't suppose you have a place we can put him up to rest, do you, sir?" Haru asks the man.
"Hm, come with me. He can rest at my house."
After getting Zoro to the man's home, and into a bed because he insisted that he would just "sleep it off" the old man, Boodle, sat them down and told them a story about the dog, Chouchou and his owner. By the end of it, everyone was looking at the small dog sadly. A lonely vigil, dutifully obeying his masters last request without regard for anything else… true loyalty in a world so lacking in it. When he has finished his story, Haru approaches the small dog and reaches down to pat it on the head.
"You're a good boy, Chouchou," Haru mutters, scratching the dog behind his ears.
"That's so sad," mutters Nami softly. A loud roar pierces the air, and rattles the walls of the store in front of them. "What was that?!"
"It's Beast Tamer Mohji! Haru!" exclaims Boodle, running away with Nami hot on his heels and leaving Luffy and Haru behind.
"Where are they running off to?" Luffy wonders, holding the bars of his cage and watching them disappear into the distance. Haru offers a shrug in response, unsure himself. "Who do you think that guy the mayor was talking about is?" Again he receives a shrug of the shoulders in response. Hearing a loud thumping approaching from behind, the two look back to find an absolutely huge lion walking towards them with a strange looking back riding on its head.
"Well, look what I've found," remarks the strange man, sliding from the top of the lion's head.
"What's with the weird looking hat?" Luffy questions the man.
"This is not a hat! It's my natural hair!" Both give the man a somewhat skeptical look but decide not to comment further. "I am the great Beast Tamer Mohji! Allow me to demonstrate my abilities!" He approaches Chouchou without a second thought and holds a hand out in the dog's face. "Now, shake." From his confidence, both almost expected the small dog to comply… but weren't all that surprised when instead he clamped onto the man's hand. It took a bit of doing to get him to release but when he did the man acted as if nothing happened… while Luffy and Haru were snickering.
"Hmph. Now… tell me where I can find Roronoa Zoro."
"Don't wanna," retorts Luffy, sounding like a petulant child.
"Wha...? Fine! Kill him Richie!" Before Haru can react, a powerful swipe of the lions claws clip the cage, inadvertently freeing Luffy and sending him sailing into the distance. Haru ducks the rubber missile and glances back briefly before looking at Mohji and Richie. "One down… two to go."
"I wouldn't count Luffy out just yet," Haru tells the man, smirking. "Still… saved me the trouble of breaking him out myself. Guess that house cat of yours has some uses—" Haru's world is spinning the next moment, pain searing through his left side as he tumbles through the air before crashing into the wall of a near-by house. Luckily his fall from there is broken by a number of wonderfully soft wooden boxes that shatter under the impact. Haru lies in the pile of debris, half-conscience and aching from head to toe after his little flight through the air.
He's slowly slipping further and further towards unconsciousness but even so he can still register a voice on the edge of his hearing, though it's dulled and muted, it cries just before he passes out, "Two down! One more to go! Good job, Richie..."