DISCLAIMER
This is my first FanFiction. You're welcomed to review my work and comment on it. I'm curious to hear what you all think. I do not own One Piece , but most of the characters do belong to me. And now without further ado, let's start our brand new adventure known as ONE PIECE:NEW CENTURY
Chapter 1: Introducing Lucy
It has been 100 years since the death of the second Pirate King, Monkey D Luffy. Since then many pirates tried to claim the title for themselves, but to no avail. The World Government has dramatically increased it's strength , making sure that no pirate would ever become such a threat again. Many people have just given up on their hopes and dreams, never daring to challenge The World Government. People are now living in The Era of Justice, but a new era was on the horizon.
A thick fog was covering the ocean floor. Nothing could be seen, but in the distance a melody could be heard. A slender shadowy figure was sitting on a rocky shore playing the melody with a violin. A tear fell from the figure, and landed on what appeared to be a hat that was resting on it's lap.
"…please….come back…." Said the figure with tears in it's eyes.
(In the Eastblue)
On an island there was a town called Golden Town. It received this name because it was the largest town in the Eastblue. So large, it is almost classified as a city.
"Pirates!" screamed a man that was running through the town. "Run! The pirates are coming!" everyone was in panic, running to their homes and other buildings trying to hide themselves from the pirates.
The group of pirates were now making their approach. Something was odd about this group. All crew members appeared to have webbed hands and feet. It looked as if there were also scars on their necks. But these weren't scars , they were gills. This was a group of Fishmen pirates. The captain was in front, leading the group through the town. He was a big muscular great white shark. He had wild shoulder length black hair, wore an open black vest, on the back was a white circle with the Japanese symbol for 'shark' on it, a black dorsal fin was sticking out of his back , he also wore black shorts and sandals. He had pale white skin and had a tattoo of a red sun on his right hand. This was Jiro Zama, one of The Four Emperors of the sea.
The pirates were walking quite a bit before they stopped in front of the building they were looking for. A bar. While they were entering the bar, a small figure was watching them from one of the alleys.
There was not a soul in the bar, except for the young bartender standing behind the counter. She nervously kept her eyes on the pirates when they entered, waiting to see what they would do. Jiro walked right up to the counter , and then sat on the bar stool right in front of her. The towering fishman look down on the women with a friendly smile. "Pardon me miss, I hope your not too busy. But me and my crew would like something to drink, if that's alright.
"Uh….s-sure." She didn't answer immediately, because she was stunned by how polite he was. "Don't worry about the money. I'll pay for everyone." Said Jiro with a smile, hoping the bartender would become less nervous. As the bartender was walking towards the kitchen, the bar doors suddenly flew open.
At the entrance stood a small girl around 5 or 6 years. She had long black hair, and she was wearing a light blue dress and sandals. While she was catching her breath, everyone look at her with confused faces.
She looked at Jiro with anger and determination, and she screamed "I'll show you that I'm strong!" She immediately charged towards the fishman with arms flailing. Then suddenly she tripped and began to roll, she continued to roll until she made contact with the counter. She was completely dazed because of the spinning.
"UWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" The whole crew started laughing after seeing the comical scene. Jiro then picked her up at the collar with one hand. "She sure is a funny one isn't she?!" said Jiro still laughing.
"Please don't hurt her!" pleaded the bartender with fear in her voice. "I won't let some stupid pirate eat me! Put me down and fight like a man!" screamed the little girl with arms flailing around, still being held up by Jiro. "Don't you worry, there's no way I'd eat someone as fun as you." Said Jiro to the girl still laughing.
Upon hearing this, the girl stop flailing and look at the smiling fishman with confusion. Jiro then placed her on the bar stool to his right. "Miss, why don't bring something for her as well. She'll be my guest" said Jiro to the bartender. "Oh…right away." said the bartender with shock before she went into the kitchen.
Jiro then directed his attention to the little girl sitting right next to him. She was looking away from him and she seemed to be annoyed. "How about this. If you talk to me I'll give you what ever you want on the menu." said Jiro hoping to get her attention.
"Wow really!? Than I want a lot of meat!" screamed the little girl with sudden excitement. Jiro was rather shocked to see that the girl got excited over food so quickly. "S-sure…no problem…" "Shishishishi" the girl started to giggle with a grin.
"I'm Jiro Zama , captain of this crew."
"I'm Lucy, nice to meet ya."
"Lucy huh. So tell me Lucy, why did you try to attack me?" asked Jiro with much interest. Lucy then looked down and seemed rather unhappy. "Some kids forced me to do that." Answered Lucy , not looking proud of what she done. "They said I'm weak and I can't do anything. I said I can, and then we heard about some pirates in the village. So I…"
"….tried to prove them wrong." Jiro then finished her sentence. Lucy only nodded while still looking down. "I like your attitude." Jiro complemented her with a smile. "But didn't your parents teach you not to attack pirates?" Jiro asked her with a confused look.
"I don't have parents." She said flat out. "I live in an orphanage ." The whole bar was then silent for a few seconds, the whole crew had sad expressions on their faces.
"So what kind of people do you eat?" Asked the young Lucy breaking the silence and waking up the captain from his thoughts. "E-excuse me" "Since you don't eat fun people, what kind of people do you eat?" asked little Lucy with much curiosity . "Ha ha… no no, we don't actually eat people." Answered the fish captain with a joyful smile.
"Then why are you here?" asked Lucy with curious eyes on Jiro. "Me and my men need a break, so we've decided to come here."
"Pirates take vacations?" asked Lucy with amazement.
"Everybody needs a vacation every now and then. We're just going to stay here for a while. You don't have to worry we won't cause any trouble for anybody. So you can tell your friends they don't ha…"
"I don't have any friends." Said Lucy plainly , interrupting Jiro's sentence. The bar then got quiet again. The kitchen door opened and then the bartender came out with the drinks."Sorry to keep you waiting." She placed a small glass of orange juice on the counter for Lucy and a huge mug of rum for Jiro. She gave the rest of the crew their drinks, and it was still quiet . Until…
"Now that's a lie" said Jiro in a serious tone. Lucy just looked up at him confused, because what she said was the truth."You have us now, don't you?"asked Jiro with a compassionate smile. Lucy was shocked at what she heard, but her expression slowly changed into a big grin."Shishishishi" Lucy started to giggle with joy. Jiro took his mug and he held it high. "Men! Let us honor our new dear friend! Lucy!" yelled Jiro to the whole crew in the bar.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" the whole crew cheered and the atmosphere became that of a party. Lucy just kept on smiling because she was so happy to have friends
In a few weeks the towns people lost all their fears for the Fishmen pirates ,and began to treat them like normal citizens. The crew spend most of their time at the bar having a good time. Everyday Lucy would come and take her place on the stool next to Jiro. Jiro would tell her all kinds of stories about his adventures, and the pirates before him. Lucy's favourite stories were the ones about Monkey D Luffy, the former Pirate King. She found his stories to be an inspiration. How he was just free , he could go where he wanted to and he could do whatever he wanted as well . He was the strongest man in all the seas , that's what she wanted. She wanted to be free and have the strength to defend herself and her ideals. She wanted to be, The Pirate Queen.
"Come on. Let me have it."
"No."
"Pretty please."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because you've had enough already. You ate a whole chicken. I'm rather surprised that a little girl can eat that much."
Lucy was at the bar with Jiro as usual. But this time she was fighting to get his last drumstick. To no avail. Lucy then looked away and puffed her cheeks in utter defeat. Then , a devious smirk grew on her face. "Oh no! It's the Marines!" screamed Lucy while pointing at the bar window.
"Wait! What!" screamed Jiro worriedly and quickly turned to the window where she was pointing. He looked closely to see where the Marines were. "Lucy I don't see any Mari…HEY!"
As he turned back to face Lucy, he saw she was already busy eating his drumstick. "Gotcha. Shishishishishi" Said Lucy with a victorious smirk.
"What are we going to do…(hic) with that Devil Fruit?"
Two drunk fishmen started talking about something that caught Lucy's attention. Luckily, Jiro didn't pay attention to their conversation. "Don't you remember?(hic) The captains keeping it safe in his room."
"Oh yeah, until we leave right?"
"Ssssshhhh….(hic) we shouldn't be talking about it. (hic)"
'That's it! That's what I need!' Thought Lucy to herself, getting a crazy idea.
Later that night everyone was fast asleep ,even the pirates on their ship. In the men's quarters, all the fishmen were sleeping in their hammocks. One of the fishmen started to stir and open his eyes.
"…..huh…." grunted the pirate still half asleep. With half opened eyes, he was staring at the slightly opened door. He then rubbed his eyes making sure what he saw was true. He then turned on his side and continued sleeping. "Man, I should drink less. I mean why would she come here?" said the fishman before falling back to sleep.
"YOU DID WHAAAT!"
The following day, the pirate crew was at the bar in complete shock when they heard what Lucy said. "Like I said. I ate the Devil Fruit that was on your ship, now I can join your crew." Said Lucy with a grin. The whole crew stood in front jaws dropped. The one crew member began to sweat nervously, because he now realized what he saw wasn't a dream.
The bar was dead quiet and the atmosphere felt uncomfortable. Jiro then step forward to speak. "Lucy…. why do you think you can join us?" he asked rather seriously. "Because now I've eaten a Devil Fruit, and guess what. It's was the Gum Gum fruit, just like the Pirate King. Now I can join your crew and become the Pirate Queen." Said Lucy with much joy and excitement.
….
Jiro then let out a deep sigh before he spoke. "Lucy. I'm not taking you with us." Slowly the bright smile began to fade away. The fishman then got on his knees and place his huge hand on one of her little shoulders. "If you're mad about the Devil Fruit, I'm sorry. But please let me come with you!" Said Lucy pleading with Jiro to reconsider. "I'm not mad about that….but…you're still not coming with us" answered Jiro.
"But why?"
"Because this is your home."
"THIS IS NOT MY HOME! EVERYBODY HATES ME, EVERYBODY MAKES FUN OF ME,I HAVE NO FRIENDS, NO PARENTS! WHAT HOME IS THAT?!" Tears began streaming from her eyes. "…I…. I wanna be free. To go on adventures. To find real friends. To be with you guys. To be the Pirate Queen. Is that …(sobbing)…. so wrong?" Said Lucy with tears flowing freely. "It's too dangerous. We'll be constantly attacked by Marines and other pirates. You're so important to us. If anything were to happen to you, we couldn't live with ourselves." Said Jiro with compassion and concern, hoping she would calm down. There was a deep silence before Lucy spoke.
"pathetic .." muttered Lucy
"Huh?"
"It's because you think I'm pathetic isn't it?!" Lucy then burst with rage and anger. "You think I can't do anything, just like everybody else! You think I'm weak! And that I'll never become the Pirate Queen!"
"Lucy I never…"
She then slapped his hand off her shoulder and ran out the bar crying. They stood there staring at the door, not quite sure what happened.
After that incident, Lucy stopped coming to the bar. The bar was anything but jolly. The booze and food didn't satisfy the pirates anymore. They miss the lively energy that Lucy brought to the place. Jiro was suffering the most, as he didn't eat or drink anything. He just kept staring at the seat next to him, missing Lucy's signature grin. Lucy refused to talk to them, and avoided them. This went on for a few days, until it was time for them to depart.
Almost the whole town gathered at the harbor to see the pirates off. Jiro came out of his quarters and walked towards the railing. He began looking in the cheering crowd for a certain little girl. He then turned to one his crew members. "Where is she?" asked Jiro. His crew mate answered "Sorry captain, we haven't seen her today."
Jiro's face suddenly got serious. "Enough"
Jiro then jumped high into the air and landed in the middle of the crowd with a mighty impact. "Who is the caretaker of the orphanage?!" Jiro screamed to the towns people seaming annoyed. The people were a bit shocked by this sudden outburst and didn't say anything. An elderly women walked up to Jiro to looked at him with no fear. "That would be me, my name is Ira." Said the women.
"Miss Ira, can you tell me where Lucy is?" asked Jiro politely. Ira then let out a sigh and said, "If you mean that rotten child who keeps talking about pirates, she's still at the orphanage." Jiro held his anger back after hearing what she called Lucy. "Thank you very much ma'am." Said Jiro trying to be polite before he ran into the town looking for her. "I hope he eats her." Said a young boy with a gap between his upper teeth.
Meanwhile, Lucy was in her room sitting on her bed looking down on the floor. Her room was rather small and there was only her bed, a small stand next to the bed, on it was a lantern and one window. She really wanted to see her friends, but her pride wouldn't allow it. She was about to burst into tears, when suddenly there came a knocking from her door. She looked up to see who was at the door, and sure enough it was her friend Jiro. He walked into the room and sat next to Lucy on the bed. Both were silent and didn't know what to say to each other. Until …
"I can see why you want to leave this place. The way these people treat you because of your dream. And this room, I've only been here for a few seconds, and even I'm starting to feel trapped." Said Jiro trying to start a conversation. "Please don't be mad at us. We just don't want you to get hurt." Said Jiro rather concerned. Lucy pulled up her legs and held them tight.
"I'm not mad at you." Said Lucy rather unhappy. "I'm mad at myself for not being strong enough. Because I want to go with you." She began to cry. "And you're …(sob)… mad at me …(sob)… for hitting you!" Lucy cried with her face in her arms. Suddenly a hand was resting on her head. She immediately looked up at Jiro with watery eyes.
"Now that's a lie." Said Jiro with his hand still on Lucy. Jiro then continued, "First, I'm not mad at you, and second, you're not weak." Lucy looked at him with disbelief. "Do you know any kids that would charge at a fishman and slap his hand?" Lucy just kept quiet. "Don't doubt yourself, you're a lot stronger than what you think. You're going to be the Queen of the Pirates. I just know it." Lucy then hugged him tightly and began to cry again. Jiro didn't expect this action and didn't know what to do. He sat there and placed his hand on her back, trying to comfort her.
What now? He can't possible take her with him, and he definitely didn't want to leave her here. Then an idea came to his mind. "Lucy pack your things. I'm going to take you to a friend of mine." Lucy just looked up, she didn't understand what he meant.
Back at the harbor, everybody was waiting for the captain to return. Accusations were beginning to spread among the towns people. Especially among the kids,
"Maybe the pirate got mad and went to kill her."
"Maybe she's been eaten."
"Well pirates are bad. She got what she deserves."
"That's what happens to people with foolish dreams."
The crew on the ship knew the captain would never hurt an innocent girl. They had faith in their captain, so they all bared the outrageous stories and waited for him.
Up on the mountain, Jiro was fallowing a path through the woodland with Lucy sitting on his right shoulder. She was carrying a bag full of clothes on her own shoulder. While they were walking Jiro asked her, "Lucy, do you know who lives here?" "Just some grumpy old man that no one likes. Why?" "Well he's actually the reason why I came here. He's an old friend who said I should visit him some day." "What does that have to do with me?" "Just wait and see." They continued to follow the path, until they came across a clearing with a traditional Japanese home. Sitting on the porch was an elderly man with short grey hair and a goatee. He wore a black sleeveless gi, with a black belt. Two gourds were tide on his left side. He was well built and had a few scars on his face and arms. He was busy drinking sake out of a gourd in his right hand.
"Kijin. I knew you'd be busy drinking." The old man then looked at Jiro with an arrogant smirk. "Heh. I thought you were already gone. Why are you still hanging around?" replied the old man. He took another sip of alcohol , he then noticed Lucy sitting on Jiro's shoulder. Kijin then asked, "Who's the kid." Jiro placed Lucy gently on the ground next to him before he spoke. "We need to talk."
They began to stare at each other intensively. There was this aura around them, that felt uneasy. Lucy began to be afraid, not sure what will happen.
Until Kijin gave in sounding annoyed, "Fine. I'll listen. Hey kid, why don't you go and play somewhere else. This is adult time." Lucy just got annoyed herself, "You're not the boss of me old man!" Jiro quickly stepped in before things got out of hands. "Hey Lucy, do you know what koi fish are?" Lucy then looked up at Jiro confused and nodding no. "Well go take a look at that pond over there." Jiro pointed at a pond that was at the far right. Lucy immediately forgot why she was angry and went on the new adventure to the pond. "Wow there so pretty!"
Kijin stared at Lucy who was enjoying the koi. "She's an odd one." Jiro just smiled, " I know." Then his face got serious as he turned to Kijin. "Let's talk inside." Kijin just nodded in defeat and the two went inside. Lucy was too busy having fun to have noticed.
Both Jiro and Kijin were sitting on their knees across each other. Between them was a table with two tea filled tea cups. "I see, so that's what you want from me." Kijin took a sip of his tea trying to contemplate what he just heard. "I know I'm asking a lot. But please can you do it?" Jiro pleaded with Kijin to carry out the favor. Kijin didn't seemed willing to give in. "You're soft Jiro. If it was a pirate, marine or anybody else I'd understand. But a kid, with a crazy goal like that? Seriously what are you thinking? If you bring someone out of pity to me, then I wo…."
"I DON'T PITY HER! I BELIEVE IN HER!" Jiro slammed his hand on the table with anger, thus breaking it. He continued his roar of anger. "SHE HAS STRENGHT! SHE HAS SOMETHING THIS WORLD NEEDS! AND THAT'S HOPE AND A DREAM! SHE WILL BE THE PIRATE QUEEN WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IT OR NOT!" Kijin just sighed in defeat and finally agreed. "All right, but you need to pay for my table."
The sun was setting when they came out of the house. Lucy heard the sliding door and ran towards Jiro with a smile. "Jiro those koi are so cool! Hey are there any koi fishmen?" Jiro smiled at Lucy then got on his knees and looked Lucy in the eyes. "Lucy, do you want to get stronger?"
"Of course!"
"Do you want to become Queen of the Pirates?"
"Yes!"
"Do you trust me?"
Lucy didn't expect that question, so she didn't answer right away. "Of course I trust you." "Then listen, you need to get stronger. Kijin here will be your teacher. He'll teach you how to fight and how to use your Devil Fruit. Train for at least ten years. Okay ?" Lucy didn't really like the fact that she had to stay with a grumpy old man. But. She did want to become strong. She then looked up at Jiro with a determined glare. "Just you wait. I'll be so strong that you'll be begging to join my crew." "Really? We'll see about that."
"Shishishishishishi"
"Wahahahahahaha"
While Lucy was still laughing, she felt Jiro putting something in her hand. She stopped to see what it was. It was a black arm bracelet with a pink shell on it. She thought it was so pretty, and came back to reality when Jiro spoke. "That's a gift from all of us. Let's meet again when you're a great pirate." This was the first time anyone has given her a gift, she was about to cry but held it back. She is not the weak cry baby anymore.
"See you in 10 years Jiro."
The ship finally sailed after sunset. Jiro was at the front of the ship looking at the ocean with a smile. "Why so happy captain." "I'm excited. Because a new era is about to begin."
End of Chapter 1
