Tiger… Cat...

Chapter 4

Title: Tiger… Cat...

….

I look at the giant tiger. I honestly didn't expect this. I was prepared to encounter an animal like a boar or something. But an elephant-sized tiger is a whole other deal. 

I look at the giant animal and contemplate it. Should I kill it? I will not be using my knife to stab him in the brain as that would dull it. I look at its tail, it looks strong enough. Maybe if I cut the tail I can use it to choke the animal with its own tail. For a beast like this, around 10-20 minutes in the chokehold will definitely kill it as it will stop blood and oxygen from flowing to the brain. That would be the best way to kill it… but as I look at the enormous body of the beast. I consider my options. 

Well, I noticed that traversing the mountain with my short legs is inefficient and slow. Even if I decided to run, it wouldn't be as fast as a beast can travel in its natural territory. Plus having a pet would be nice, also since it's a ferocious animal I don't have to worry about feeding it or something like that. 

Hmmmm… what should I do? 

Well, I guess taming it wouldn't be bad, if I can't tame it then I kill it. Simple problems require simple solutions sometimes. No need to overthink situations like this. There were only these two viable alternatives all along as dragging a bloody dead tiger along the mountain might attract other ferocious beasts, and I will get tired eventually too. Also, does tiger meat even taste good?

I go and grab a stick, then I come back and start poking the gigantic tiger. I don't want to be too close to that thing if it decides to attack. I poke it a couple of times and it doesn't work. I can see it breathing, so it just means that it's knocked out. Or is it trying to trick me to get closer? Animals in this world are quite smart after all… compared to animals from my last word at least.

In the end, I take a different approach and just whack the tiger in the head, breaking the stick at the same time.

Baam!

That immediately wakes him up and looks around with a trace of alertness in its eyes. The tiger's body just seems ready to leap into action at any time. But as his gaze catches mine I can immediately see a reluctance to fight me as he moves a little backward.

I frown at this and act angry. "Oy! Tiger, you finally woke up. I thought you died or something. Anyway, I wanted you to be my pet what do you say?"

The tiger just growls as he seems to understand that I am demeaning him. 

"What? You wanna fight me again?" I ask him as I smile at him maliciously.

*GROWL* 

He growls at me and he shows me his teeth.

"Sure you wanna do that?" I ask him once again. "Next time I will actually kill you."

As I say that again, I can see the beast whimper slightly and lay down on the grass. He has his tongue out and wags his tail.

Oy, are you a tiger, so don't act like a dog. It's not cute at all. It's downright terrifying, I don't even like owning animals. They sound like just work. And honestly, I am not used to seeing giant creatures like this tiger.

Still in the end. I just get close to the tiger, though still a little scared. 

I pet him on his snout, his fur hair is soft, but I can feel the dense defense that this must have. Suddenly I notice that the tiger opens its mouth.

Immediately I jump backward as much as I can.

*ROAR*

He roars with full power, but I am already far away from the creature and except for the slight loud noise, the tiger doesn't do anything else.

I look at it and see that the feline has a small smile on his face. Immediately I understand what this little cat was up to. 

I look at it with an angry look on my face. "You think that was funny, did you? You didn't think through that much… because now I am about to beat you up so bad you will turn into a cat."

Immediately the tiger whines a little and shifts his body into a pitiful position. That is when my angry look morphs into a smile.

"Bahahahahaha…" I laugh out loud as I point at him. "You fell for it too stupid cat."  

He looks annoyed at that and turns his head around. 

"Bahahahaha… you are also a sore loser." I laugh even more at the animal as I see it show surprisingly a lot of emotions on its face. "Anyway, I will get on your back now so let's go and catch a boar together."

I jump on its back, but as I do so I see that its fur isn't a good foothold so I slip and fall on the ground.

Baam!

The tiger just laughs at this but shits up immediately as he sees the murderous look on my face as I look at him.

I get up immediately, as I didn't fall that hard on the grass. I then once again climbed on top of the tiger and this time I climbed up by holding onto his fur.

"Hmmm… what should I name you?" I question out loud. Then I get an idea. "I know your name will be Cat. Due to your feline race and it's easy to remember."

I just see the tiger give me an unimpressed side glance once he hears the name. 

Boink!

I bash him in the head. "Oy! No need to act so high and mighty Cat!" 

He growls in annoyance as I do that, but I don't listen to him as I point in one direction. "Let's go that way and hunt some food."

….

The travel time is so fast as Cat runs quite fast and very quickly we arrive on the other side of the mountain.

That is when we see a brown colored medium-sized boar. 

"Cat I chose you!" I call out loud, trying to entertain myself slightly as I see Cat just bash the boar to death, and its intestines land on my face. Now I was pursuing medical school in first life but this is a little too gross so I threw up due to the smell of intestines. I am fully covered in them, and I was only a 1st-year student, I hadn't even had any practical exams yet. "Cat, you need to learn to use less power. We need the corpse intact to cook. You can eat this one, but be more gentle in the next kill."

….

Around one hour later we find another boar and this time Cat is gentler as he only holds down the boars and uses his claws to decapitate them.

We just take that boar back to a cave where Cat lives since it was closer to this place. We decide that we will get a bunch of food first and then transport it back to Dadan's Bandits place. 

….

-General POV-

But while Ace was hunting and messing around. Hours pass and Dadan return home once she sees that Ace isn't there she immediately yells out in panic. "WHERE IS ACE!?!?!?!"

"Dadan what is wrong?" Ask the other bandits.

She turns around and looks at them with a scared face. "Ace is gone, we need to find him and never let Garp know of this or we will be spending the rest of our lives in prison. So go and search as your lives depend on it!... because they actually do!"

….