One Piece: It's always been you

Chapter 80 is about pirates directly stealing.

"Give me back my puppy!" a child's voice suddenly rang out from the street.

Breed looked down at the child from the previous day, her previous "kindness" completely gone. "Go away, go away. This is my pet, who just happens to look a lot like you."

"This is mine! You said you could train it for me, that's why I brought it here." The child looked at the small dog behind Breed that no longer recognized him. "Give it back to me, I don't want you to train it anymore!"

Tears welled in the child's eyes. He had thought he could train his puppy to be more obedient, but the puppy was taken away. And no matter what he said, the puppy acted as if it didn't recognize him.

“Little friend, this is my puppy. You can come see him again tomorrow if you like. My performance is over for today, and I need to take them home.” Breed waved and pushed the child out. “I need to take them home to rest.”

The child was completely helpless against Breed. The moment Breed left with his pet and disappeared from sight, tears streamed down his face, and he sobbed softly.

He shouldn't have thought his puppy was naughty, and he shouldn't have brought it with him; now he's going to lose his puppy forever.

“I remember you; you were here yesterday too.”

The child looked up and saw a pink-haired girl about his age holding a string of candied hawthorns. "Hmm, do you want some candied hawthorns?" He couldn't give her the candied hawthorns, but he had some candied hawthorns on him.

"who are you?"

“My name is Yu. I watched the show here yesterday too. I saw you talking to the animal trainer after it ended.” Yu swallowed the candied hawthorn. “So why are you crying here?”

When she touched on his sore spot, the child cried even louder, and You looked at him in a panic, not knowing what to do. She asked him a few more questions, but the child cried even more sadly. You reached out her hand to comfort him, but it didn't have much effect; instead, he cried even louder.

"Don't cry, I didn't bully you." You felt like she was going to cry too if this continued. Are kids really this difficult to deal with?

You was flustered and confused. Giving him candy didn't work. When asked what was wrong, he didn't answer. Patting him to comfort him only made him cry louder. You almost gave him your own candied hawthorn.

"What's wrong?" Katakuri's voice came from behind, and Yu felt as if he had found a savior!

"I...I don't know either. I saw he was all alone, so I came up and asked him, and he cried even louder." Yu thought that Katakuri, with so many younger siblings, should have experience dealing with children. "Why don't you go? I don't know how to handle kids..."

"You have quite a few younger brothers too, and I remember you weren't like this when you were coaxing Pudding before." Katakuri deliberately brought up the very thing he didn't want to hear.

While these are true, Pudding, Ice, and Luffy are all older than this child.

"Why don't you give it a try? He's crying really hard..." Yu poked Katakuri's leg, her tone sincere. "Did that beast tamer bully you? Why don't you tell us? Maybe we can help you?"

Yu asked the child again, without much hope. But whether it was Katakuri's presence that gave him a greater sense of security or the child having cried enough, he answered.

"Big brother." As soon as those three words were uttered, Yu knew it was because Katakuri was there, and she felt a great sense of security. She could only think that she was too small for him; if she went with him, she would probably just be thrown out like a child.

Yu felt like cursing. After all, she used to be tall with long legs and pretty. Although her fighting skills didn't seem very high, they were at least better than they are now!

Look at her now, so kind-hearted, yet overlooked because of her appearance. She's been known as the "Little Navy Witch" since she was six, and everyone who sees her is intimidated!

How embarrassing...

"That animal trainer stole my puppy. Can you help me get it back?" The child looked at Katakuri pleadingly, his eyes red and swollen from crying. "After he put that green pet collar on my puppy, it did whatever he told it to do, but it doesn't recognize me anymore."

Katakuri looked down at the child, making no further move. Yu gestured for him to reply, explaining that he had only helped someone get the puppy back; if it belonged to a child, the animal trainer's actions would be considered robbery.

Following Yu's instructions, Katakuri had no choice but to comply, no matter how unwilling he was. "Are you sure that puppy is yours?"

"Mmm." The child nodded. "It's a stray dog. I found it when it was very young. Its tail only has half a tail."

"Then do you know where he is? I'll go get him back for you," Katakuri said patiently.

If Yu's expression had been more restrained, anyone would have guessed that Katakuri was patiently helping the child. He was definitely not forced, really!

The little soldier on the side couldn't hold back his laughter any longer. The usually aloof and serious Lord Katakuri was now patiently facing a strange child. Without Lord Yu present, Lord Katakuri would have left long ago under normal circumstances.

"I don't know where he lives, but I saw him heading in that direction." The child hesitated and pointed in the opposite direction from most of the town's residents.

Katakuri understood, handed the person over to the foot soldier, and led Yu in the direction he was pointing.

"Katakuri, didn't you notice that the kid from earlier actually liked you?" Yu leaned on his shoulder. Since she didn't know how far it was, and Yu's short legs couldn't compare to Katakuri's long legs, she decided to free her legs and happily hitch a ride.

Katakuri replied irritably, "No..." He should have already returned to the ship.

"..." Yu sighed helplessly at Katakuri's tsundere attitude. "Do you think that animal trainer might be a Devil Fruit user? The kind who can make people obey his commands?" Yu remembered Buck, whom he had met before. Buck's Devil Fruit ability seemed to have a similar effect, but it seemed to target humans. Could this one be effective against animals?

"You suspect he's an animal controlled by his powers?" Katakuri understood perfectly what she meant.

"The child mentioned pet rings, which should be the green rings around the necks of those animals. They shouldn't be ordinary rings," You analyzed. The main reason is that those green rings are hard to miss, and based on the child's words, it's easy to make that connection.

"It's not important. Just bring his puppy back, and we'll go back to the ship." Katakuri didn't want to cause any more trouble.

The two left the town and continued forward, but still saw no trace of the animal trainer. Perhaps the child had remembered the wrong place.

Just as they were about to give up and go back, they heard barking dogs, cursing, and even the sound of whips hitting the ground from not far away.

It turns out that what seemed far away was actually right in front of us; we were heading in the right direction.

A small dog with a broken tail was being whipped, and it had shallow wounds on its body.

The whip was held in the animal trainer's hand as he scolded the little dog, his face contorted with rage, a far cry from his amiable demeanor during performances.

Yu had sensed something was wrong before, and it turned out there really was a problem. Looking at the animals that had performed behind the trainer, they stood neatly to one side, their eyes filled with reluctance, but they dared not take a step forward.

Seeing the puppy so pitiful, You forced herself not to act impulsively, knowing that impulsiveness would only lead to trouble. "I just felt there was something wrong with this person. This isn't animal training; it's clearly abuse."

Katakuri nodded symbolically, lingered his gaze on the puppy in front of him for a moment before looking away and taking a step forward.

"Katakuri? Katakuri? You have a plan?" Yu asked hurriedly. Judging from her understanding of Katakuri, he must have a solution. "Don't leave yet, tell me and let's discuss it."

"What are you discussing?" Katakuri asked, puzzled.

"Of course, we need to plan how to get the puppy away from that person."

Yu would never have guessed that Katakuri, whom she considered calm, collected, intelligent, and powerful, would say such a thing. It truly broadened her horizons!

"Why bother with a plan? We're pirates, let's just go and rob them."