Chapter 1 - Storm

Kiana Cooper stared out at the ocean's water with a slight smile on her lips. The small waves, and fading light as the sun began its descent, causing a myriad of patterns on the water. Sounds of birds and ships along the coast disappeared as her family's sailboat moved further away from the port. All these things escaped her notice as she continued to stare without seeing at the water. Memories came to her mind, often starting new ones before she had fully processed the old. It had taken far longer than she originally planned to get her family sailing together again since their parents were gone. She turned away from the water and studied her older sister. She was constantly in awe, and a slight bit envious of Drusilla. Dru not only knew what she wanted out of life, but she had the plan to achieve it all in the shortest time possible. She also took care of the rest of them for the past two years since the car accident that took their parents from them.

If that weren't enough, Dru was also the epitome of beautiful, inside and out. Kind, almost to a fault, and always helping others. She resembled their mother with her dark, wavy hair, hazel eyes, and tan skin, while Kia resembled their father with her light auburn hair that was more frizzy than wavy, bright blue eyes, fair skin with freckles covering her cheeks. However, Dru inherited her tall, skinny build from her father, while Kia received her slightly shorter but curvier build from her mother.

Kia shifted to look at her younger sisters as well. Her sister Ashley, just over a year younger, shared Kia's fair skin and freckles, but was just as tall as Dru at 5'10" with a similar skinny build that she maintained with all manner of sports and activities. Her dark blond hair set her apart from her sisters, as well as her blue eyes that leaned toward gray. Her sarcastic humor often kept Kia laughing, Dru exasperated, and Teresa annoyed. Teresa, the youngest at 17, while sharing coloring with Dru in her dark hair and tan skin, only stood at 5'4", with her hair straight as a pin and hanging in a braid down to her waist. She had a more muscular build than her sisters with her time in ROTC as well as all the training she was doing, though Kia still wasn't sure what the 'training' was for. Reese was known for her competitive and aggressive nature, but quick to not only root for the underdog, but jump in to help them.

Kia smiled as she looked at each of them, not hearing the joke that Ash had said, but seeing Dru shake her head while smiling, and Reese snickering. She noticed the one thing they had in common, given from their dad; they all shared his dimples in both cheeks when they smiled. Yes, it had taken longer for all their schedules to align so that they could take this week out on their family's sailboat. She found the plans among her mother's notes, and decided they would go ahead with them, once Reese was out of school.

"Kia?"

She blinked as the voice penetrated her thoughts. "Um, yeah?" she said, looking at each of her sisters, as she wasn't sure who had spoken.

"Oh, I see." Ash smirked and continued, "Kia's dreaming about being a pirate again." She gripped the wheel in a mock of getting ready for something. "C'mon Kia! Let's join the monkeys and find the fleece!"

Kia scowled. It was so like Ash to only remember random words from her stories about her favorite anime. "Ash, it's Monkey D. Luffy, and he's trying to find One Piece! That's why it's called One Piece!" she snapped back, but with a smile. It's like Ash got it wrong on purpose, but it never failed to make Kia smile in the end.

"Ha-ha! My bad, Kia!" Ash laughed and asked, "well I was just wondering if you planned specific places to go, or if we are simply exploring?"

"I have a back up plan if needed, but I figured I'd leave it up to everyone." She replied.

"Let's just sail all the way around the world!" Reese yelled from the other side of the boat, "I've got plenty of time!"

"You may, but some of us only have the week." Dru added matter-of-factly. "How about we stop at bird island for lunch?" she continued.

Kia looked back at the oversized rock that they had continuously called an island since they were younger. She smirked at Dru, "Nice idea, but we already passed it a while ago."

Dru followed Kia's gaze. "hmm, that was faster than I remember."

Ash laughed and said, "that's because we are much more competent sailors now."

Dru smiled as well, "you're right about that." She paused, looking thoughtful, "well let's keep going then! Let's see how far we can get!"

"Woo-hoo!" Ash and Reese cheered. It wasn't very often that Dru was spontaneous, so they were taking full advantage.

Kia giggled and thought to herself, 'off to adventure, just like One Piece!'

All four girls were shaken from their thoughts as a huge gust of wind almost blew them over. They looked around surprised, as the sky quickly grew dark. "Seriously?!" Kia said as she looked at the coming storm. "Where did this come from? It was bright and sunny two seconds ago!"

"Quickly, get your jackets on, and let's get out of here!" Dru said urgently, having to raise her voice against the wind. "Ash, you've got the wheel! Reese, Kia, the sails!" she yelled as she ran for the back of the boat. All three jumped into motion and tugged on their life jackets. Ashley ran to the steering wheel, prepared to steer them to safety.

"I can't see anything!" she shouted. "and it's getting darker by the minute!" She looked down at her instruments and had to take a closer look. "Something's wrong guys! It's showing the wind at 60 miles per hour, but our speed is almost non-existent! And the GPS…" she looked again, not sure she believed it, "says we've made an XTE. We're off course 20 miles starboard!"

It seemed that Kia and Reese ignored her, but they were focusing everything they had on getting the sails tied down, so that they wouldn't tear.

"How is that possible, Ash?!" Dru yelled, even though she was only a foot away. "This just started!"

"I don't know!" Ash yelled back. It didn't make any sense! Something had to be broken with her equipment and was corrupting the other pieces.

It seemed like hours as the girls were blown in the wind, unsure of where they were heading when it seemed almost as suddenly that the wind was letting up. They stood and glanced around, and saw the light returning to the sky slowly, as the sun peeked out of the clouds.

"I can see the shore!" Ash cheered as she swung the wheel towards her new destination.

"Um, Ash? That doesn't look like anything near the Port." Kia said. "Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to land.

"It's a better idea to be stationary while I try to figure out what's up with the equipment," Ash replied as she drew them nearer to the island. "We'll be hopelessly lost if we can't figure out what's wrong with it."

"Agreed." Dru added. "Though, this whole thing is very strange. I wonder…" a loud scraping noise interrupted Dru's musings. It was followed by an even louder cracking. The girls looked at each other in shock as the boat began to fill with water. "… did we just hit, something?" Dru finished.

"We're not near enough to shore to hit anything." Reese argued. She jumped over to the railing and peered over. "It's some sort of… coral? I think."

"Perfect." Ash scrubbed her face with her hands, and then looked up at her sisters. "I have absolutely no idea how to deal with this. But with the way the water is filling in here, we've probably going to have to swim to shore. We'll have to try to contact the coast guard or something, we're not all that far away from the port, maybe 5 hours?"

Dru, squeezed her shoulder. "It's not your fault Ash. No, it's not" she reiterated at Ash's incredulous look. "Grab what you can, emergency kit, backpacks, food. We don't know what's waiting for us over there." Her sisters were quick to follow her orders and ran through the galley to gather what they could as the water level rose.

"We're out of time!" Reese called as she came back to look over the railing, cinching the ties on her backpack. "Let's go! Looks like we're going to swim to shore." With that said, she jumped into the water, avoiding the coral. "Not too cold, so you'll survive, Kia!" she yelled as she surfaced, knowing Kia's aversion to the cold.

"Great. Just great." Kia mumbled, as Ash joined Reese in the water. "Guess there's not much choice."

"Guess not." Dru replied, as they shouldered their own backpacks, and joined their sisters in swimming to the nearby shore.

He paused. There was no way that he heard voices, but he silently waited anyway, just to be sure. When he didn't hear any sound besides the normal animal life after a couple of moments he continued his journey through the forest. He must be nearing the shoreline, if his calculations were correct, this island wasn't that large.

He stopped again. He heard something that time. There was no mistaking the voices that came, so there must be others on this island. But why? There was nothing of importance here. In fact, the island was so isolated that most people did not even know of its existence.

He contemplated his choices and decided to learn more before simply destroying the intruders. Leader was constantly telling him how important information was, and after all, he could simply destroy whomever it was afterwards.

He moved silently, his incredibly large size providing no hindrance. As he got closer, he could tell that there were multiple people judging from the voices that were… arguing? It seemed more than simply talking, however it was difficult to tell since the voices didn't seem angry. He continued forward, though much more slowly to not gain attention as he moved the foliage away so that he could view the people before him. And he stopped again, and simply stared.

They were… children. Though after further study, the eldest looked almost old enough to be of age but barely. He continued to study each of them in turn, gathering data. The eldest had dark, curly hair that hung to her shoulder blades, a slightly darker complexion than the others and he couldn't see her eyes due to her sunglasses. He guessed her height couldn't be more than 5'10" at most, and she seemed more… elegant he supposed. Though the word he wanted escaped him, he supposed that it didn't matter. He shifted his gaze to the girl next to her. There were similarities, yet everything was slightly off. Her hair, while also dark, shone red in the sunlight, and was not straight, but not quite as curly as her companion's. She was also a few inches shorter, around 5'8". The biggest difference he could see was the bright blue of her eyes and the smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. He shifted his eyes again, to the third girl. Younger, with lighter, almost blond hair that was straight and cut at an angle. Down past her chin in the front, yet short enough to be non-existent in the back. She had freckles as the second girl did as well as blue eyes, though not quite as bright in either case. She seemed younger as well, but was as tall as the eldest girl, and had a slender build, like a runner. He turned his gaze to the final girl. She was younger and shorter, 5'4" at most, and seemed to be a collection of features from them. Her skin was more akin to the eldest, rather than the fair skin of the middle two, and she sported no freckles. Her hair was the darkest, reaching the small of her back. It seemed that her build was also more muscular, like a brawler, though still feminine as well. As he took in the sight of all of them together, he concluded that they were most definitely related, most likely sisters or cousins. At that moment, they smiled at each other, and he noticed they all had identical dimples in their cheeks. Sisters then, he said to himself.

He started to process these findings with what the conversation, well argument really, had given him, but he still didn't quite understand. It was understandable that crashing into the coral trap would sink their ship, and understandable that they didn't know what island they were on, but how could they be so surprised at the foliage before them? They acted as though they had never seen palm trees before. Where did they come from that that could be reality? Palm trees existed on practically every island in the Great Blue. True, maybe not winter islands, but by their dress of shorts and t-shirts, they obviously didn't come from a winter island. They seemed to defer to the eldest girl, though by the constant arguing, perhaps they were all equal? It was not a logical situation, when decisions were to be made, someone needed to be in charge.

Did he just hear that correctly? How could they not know where in the world they were? Did they not bring a navigator? Did that mean they were just sailing randomly without a log pose? As far as he knew, that meant certain death. Then there were the words that meant nothing in context, like Washington. Was that a place or a person? Should he have heard the name before? He wasn't sure, but he'd be sure that put that in his report. And what exactly was anime, and why was the girl so upset about not having it? Was it really worth having? Perhaps it was something Leader would want. They also were extremely upset over the loss of their boat. That was more understandable, as they were now stranded. There was not another island anywhere near, and as far as he knew, no one came to this place, ever.

He noticed that the girls were quiet now, all sitting and taking some sort of inventory. One girl held a small square… device. She alternately would raise it in the air and face in different directions while staring intently at it and trying to speak into it. What could she be trying to do? And what was that device?

He came to a decision. While they most definitely were not a threat, they would eventually perish on this island, so it would be a kindness to eliminate them now, rather than letting them starve to death. However, it may be worth bringing the eldest back to base for interrogation. Yes, that would be best. So, decided, he stepped forward out of the brush, ready to quickly put down the younger three. He heard their gasps and screams, but that didn't cause him to stop as he so suddenly did. What froze him was the word he heard from one of them.

"Kuma?!"

Kia slapped her hand to her mouth. Why did she say that name? Sure, the gigantic man looked exactly like the character from One Piece. He was at over 20 feet tall, with the same dark, long, curly hair, and the beanie with the cute little bear ears. His clothes even had little paw prints on the cuffs, and he was carrying a bible, but still! It wasn't possible! And by the way the man had frozen and was staring at her (in fact everyone was staring at her) she wasn't sure if she had somehow insulted him or not. So, she simply sat there, with her hand over her mouth, staring back at the man.

"You know who I am?" the man asked her. "Tell me, how do you know me?" He continued calmly. Much too calmly. Like, scary calm before the crazy started.

Kia found that she couldn't speak. Not that her brain had figured out what to say.

"You know him, Kia?" Ash ventured quietly. "How exactly?"

"One Piece," Kia responded. That answer had all her sisters reeling. They all knew Kia's obsession with the anime and manga, the posters covering her walls, and the statues lining the shelves in her apartment. There were times that she chose buying One Piece items over food and had to come begging at their doors.

"Well sir, this may seem crazy, but it seems that where we are from there is a story about a boy who is trying to become the king of the pirates," Dru spoke, remembering at least the general plot line of the story. "and my sister recognized you, because you also are part of the story."

"As strange as it seems, it's true," Ash added. "While we haven't read the story, she has told us about it several times. I cannot see however, how this would be possible!"

"Indeed." The man they knew as Kuma answered. It seemed that he was not much of a conversationalist. They waited for him to continue, but he didn't.

"According to the, um… story," Kia tried to speak without stuttering, knowing that she didn't exactly portray confidence. "You are Bartholomew Kuma, the Tyrant," the tyrant? Her sisters mouthed, but she continued on, "user of the paw-paw fruit, and one of the seven warlords of the sea. And, well, that's pretty much all I know," she finished lamely. Saying too much could get her maimed or even killed if he thought she was a threat.

"Interesting." Kuma again gave nothing away, his face a mask of indifference and his voice revealing nothing of his emotions. Kia found herself wondering if he was already swapping his body parts for machine parts, or if he was still completely human. She then wondered why she was concerned about that at all. There were more pressing matters after all. Like how to get back home, and… okay, now she started to wonder if perhaps she was dead, or maybe having a livid dream.

"We're not seriously thinking we are in some version of Kia's anime, are we?" Reese demanded. "Has everyone gone insane?!"

"And your explanation then?" Dru asked.

"Well, obviously this is some sort of prank or perhaps someone is building a theme park on one of the little islands off the coast." Reese responded. "I'm not sure exactly, but obviously this is not the real Kuma, because there IS no REAL Kuma, "she finished as if there could be no argument.

"Reese," Dru began, "please, for once, use your head before you let your mouth go. We just spent the last hour arguing about how this can't possibly be an island anywhere NEAR Washington. We are obviously far from home and closing our minds to possible answers will not help us in figuring out the truth." Dru looked around, first at the forest of trees that she had never seen before, the beach, the spot where their boat was half submerged, and finally up to the sky before continuing. "Obviously something strange is happening. First off, that storm was no ordinary storm. Complete darkness with no rain, lightning or thunder, and huge gales of wind with no waves in the water?" She glanced down at her watch, "By the sun's position, I'd say it is around noon, but according to my watch it is just after 5pm." She looked at her sisters again, and turned to Kuma, "can you help us understand what's going on? We'd be very grateful."

Kuma didn't speak at first, nodding to himself for his correct assessment of this girl. She obviously was the eldest, as the others took her words as facts, and all looked to him as if her words spoke for them all. Leader would want to meet her, and probably recruit her as well. They needed more allies that thought before acting. At this thought, he eyed the four of them again. He doubted that she would go if he killed her sisters. He sighed inwardly. Perhaps he could convince them to separate.

"You are currently on Tropska Island, on the northern edge of the South Blue." He began. "There is not much known about it, as I was sent here on a scouting mission to determine its uses, if any. I do not recognize the place you call Washington, but I do recognize one piece, though it is not a place. The One Piece is a legendary treasure left by Gol Roger, king of the pirates, and said to be on the final island in the Grand Line." He stopped there as he could see that all four of them had their jaws dropping with mouths wide open, though only one seemed happy.

"… So, we've what?" Ash began. "Time traveled, no, dimension traveled?"

"No." Reese stated. "We have been in some kind of accident and are in a coma."

"And all having the same dream, at the same time?" Kia deadpanned. "Incorrect, try again."

"Okay," Reese thought a moment and continued, "Then, we're dead."

"And, what reincarnated?" Kia shot her down again, "wouldn't we be newborns then?"

"Aargh!" Reese threw her hands up in the air, "What do you want me to say, that we're in an anime? I WON'T say it!" she snarled at her sister.

Dru spoke before Kia could laugh, "but you just did, dingus."

"I give up." Reese said as she sat back down on the sand with her head in her hands. "So now what?"

"Well," Dru said, "I guess that depends on what Kia tells us." She turned to her younger sister. "give us an overview, okay Kia? We don't want the entire story, and don't even think of saying something like," she mimicked her sister's higher pitched voice, "Don't you wish you had watched one piece with me now?"

Kia snickered. "I only thought it, for like half a second, no worries!" She continued in a more serious tone, "okay, so there are five basic classes of people. Nobles, pirates, revolutionaries, marines, and civilians." Kuma started listening with renewed interest. It's not often you met others who believed they were from a different world after all. As he listened to the girl explain about the relationship between the government, its allies and those opposing them, he heard the angry mutters from her sisters about injustices and corruption. He was correct in his assessment, Leader would most definitely want to meet them. He listened intently while feigning ignorance, taking mental notes to add to his report. This was most definitely a strange situation. This girl, who was speaking, knew much more than the average civilian, or even marine. In fact, if his guess were correct, she knew much, much more than she was sharing with the others.