Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. Hi. This story was worked on by me and ThatGirlOn Mars. Unfortunately school is too much stressing her out. School never seemed to stress me out, but that's because I don't have it as hard as ordinary people. So please enjoy the first chapter and when she comes back I'll work on it some more.

The oldest pirate in the Grand Line didn't have a choice. He had to burn his wife. She was dead now and in three days her decay would spread and he would die of plague. On this little island gofers would rip through her wizen skin. The only idol way of preserving her gracefulness was to burn her body. Eighty years they were married, and in two minutes she was gone. Suicide wasn't an answer for the old pirate. Those who took his wife away from him...they would burn in a fire greater than this small hole.

XXX

" Luffy. Luffy. Luffy where are you?" Nami called, almost angrily.

" What's happening, Nami?" Usopp asked.

" I'm looking for Luffy. I don't think he's onboard the ship anymore," Nami said, clenching her right hand as her face started to twitch. " If that idiot wandered off somewhere I will..."

Usopp put a hand on Nami's shoulder as if to tell her to calm down. " Luffy's around here somewhere," he said. " Why do you think he's gone?"

" It's just I haven't seen him at lunch," she said.

" Luffy missed out on lunch? Weird."

" I know. I just thought he was eating from the refrigerator. I didn't find him there so I looked below. He wasn't there. I looked everywhere and couldn't find him. We just made it through to the Grand Line and already our idiot captain is missing."

" It's okay, Nami. I'm sure Luffy didn't just disappear into fat air. Hahaha. Fat! Get it? Because it was lunch time and he...We heard lots of stories about what happens to people who enter the Grand Line. Some even say that ghosts can be heard in the distance before they come and swallow you. But Luffy's not afraid of the Grand Line just like I'm not afraid of some ghosts."

" You say that, Usopp, but you're just lying."

" I'm not lying. I'm not scared of some spooky story about captains missing in the Grand Line."

" Oh really? And your feet shaking has nothing to do with you being scared?"

XXX

" Are you just going to sleep in that chair or are you going to help me clean the dishes?" Sanji asked, his voice a little sore because he has a bad throat. It wasn't from smoking, but Sanji did have a cigarette in his pockets in case he needed some.

" I'm trying to rest up in case there's a fight," Zoro said. " You wouldn't want me to be tired when we're attacked."

" Did you know there are two passengers on this ship?" Sanji asked.

" Did you know how I'm too tired to care?" Zoro retorted.

" Maybe I should levy every meal you have so you can actually help someone."

" All my money is owed to Nami."

" Don't blame Nami," Sanji said. He blushed at the thought of Nami and his eyes turned pink. " Nami canvassed every pirate treasure across the land to help her family."

" And she sardonically let you pick out her clothes because she knows you're going to carry them for her," Zoro said.

" At least she doesn't sleep for a fortnight. She stays up longer than any of us because she's the one most taking care of our crew," Sanji said.

The two stowaways Sanji was talking about were Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday. the crew didn't know they were part of an evil organization run by the indigenous Crocodile. Crocodile wasn't a sea beast that ripped through yacht's or slept in a swamp. Crocodile was a man. A man who was a hypocrite, a pirate, and a man with a barbarous personality.

" This ship is too small," Mr. Nine said speculating how low of money they had. " Don't they have a shipwright?"

" I asked," Miss Wednesday said. " The one with the blonde-hair is nice. He told me they only have a navigator and a sniper as their main crewmates."

" Are the rest of the crewmates on a hiatus?" Mr. Nine asked.

" No. He said he was the last one to join their crew," Miss Wednesday said.

" I'll grab rope. You take them out and I'll-"

" Hello," Sanji said, he walked into the room carrying a basket in plastic. " I hope you're not talking about me."

Mr. Nine was scared. Did Sanji here what he said? Judging by how giddy he was, Mr. Nine didn't have anything to worry about.

" I forgot to give you this," Sanji said as he pulled a tassel with a fish bone on it. " I made it for you."

" Thank you," Mr. Nine said.

" Not you!" Sanji exclaimed abruptly. Then Sanji gave the tassel to Miss Wednesday.

" Thanks," Miss Wednesday said as she looked at the tassel.

" There's more." Sanji gave Miss Wednesday a teddy bear, flowers, and cream ointment. " And this." Sanji flashed a small card. " A good for one free kiss. Let's test it out."

Miss Wednesday was confused. What kind of childhood made Sanji turn so perverse. Miss Wednesday didn't have a chance to think of an escape route with Sanji putting his lips so close to her. At the last moment Miss Wednesday grabbed Mr. 9 and pushed him to Sanji. What the subtle minded chef didn't know was he was about to have his first kiss...then he would put his mouth in the water to rinse it from the foul taste of what was about to come.

XXX

Everyone wondered where the captain of the ship could've gone. Luffy was a strange boy. People were often incredulous on how he could be a pirate captain, looked at him dumbfounded because his brain was so microscopic they'd have to cut his head open like a pineapple and remove all his insides until they found the little gumball he had.

Luffy was riding on the back of a one hundred and twenty-five year old turtle. Luffy was a joyous spirit. He was never mad about most things, except the strawhat Shanks gave him before he left and never saw him again and people who would hurt it. Some believed Shanks was a drunken playboy. A bachelor who liked nothing but hard liquor and women. He wasn't as perverted as Sanji, Shanks. Shanks masked his perverted thoughts in a subtle, but he liked women.

When Luffy reached the shore of a tiny island he jumped off the turtles shell and waved good-bye to it. Luffy was so ecstatic about finding treasure...he forgot he couldn't swim in water. It was all "whatever" to him and "something always comes along". Luffy was one of the luckiest pirates, but he just didn't know it yet.

Luffy found himself in a forest, kind of like being in a maze, with small tendrils sticking out of the bushes.

Luffy saw his favorite thing in this little island. Food. Luffy saw a small slice of cake made of soft frosty icing. Luffy wanted to smack his lips into that powdery thin slice of winter heaven. Just thinking of that creamy white cake made Luffy salivate a small water fall of drool. Luffy ran up to that small piece of cake and jumped. did Luffy grab the little thin slice of cake, yes. He had the cake in his grasp. Luffy chased food on a basis. When Luffy chased food he didn't see anything else around him. He didn't see...the gap. His feet were standing on the closed sharp-tooth teeth of a yellow, red-back, scarlet eyed beast. It was a Crocodile-Hippo. The beast was gnawing on Luffy's legs. It would have swallowed Luffy if Luffy didn't stretch his arms, elongating them around the trunks of two trees, and rocket towards the sky. Luffy exit the stratosphere, and then he fell towards the ground, engulfed in a fiery red ball of falling matter from outer space that enters the Earth's atmosphere. Luffy was falling towards the forest. The impact would burn the forest. Five inches from the forest Luffy was grabbed by a giant fist. The hand was blue, like a djinn, it seized Luffy. Luffy gnawed on the blue arm as fast as he could, but was thrown to the ground.

Luffy didn't feel any pain. The hand didn't throw him too hard. Luffy was soon back on his feet and rubbing his hat. Luffy was standing on something very strong, like a tree branch, but it was sticking into his toe. Luffy was trickling a crimson red liquid from the bottom of his toe. Luffy was looking at a long white horn of a bone. Luffy pulled the bone from his leg.

" The funny thing about life is...it hurts."

Luffy got into his fighting stance. There was someone else on this tiny island, and his voice was monstrous. Luffy turned left and right and even stretched his arms out. Luffy didn't see or feel anyone. Luffy heard a rustling sound in the bushes ahead. Luffy darted towards the bushes and...

" OW!"

Luffy stepped on something. Luffy wondered if he stepped on a talking animal. It would be so cool for him. Luffy always wanted to see a talking animal. Luffy looked at his feet, there was no blood on the soles of his sandals. He just saw a skull head on the ground. There was something different about this skull. His eyes were embedded with small blue gems, a long nostril, four horns protruding from his head; two on both side.

" Are you a magic wish skull that will grant me three wishes?" Luffy asked excitedly. " I want to be turned into a clam, then I want all the meat I can eat, and a musician on my crew."

" I'm not a genie," the skull head said. " I'm a man. A man who made a deal with the devil himself. My name is Zody. Zody S Nimrodi."

" Did you eat a devil fruit?" Luffy asked.

" No. I never found a devil fruit. But I did met someone who had. He was the greatest tutelage in the world. His name was Benjamin Hornigold."

" Benjamin Hornigold? Who's that?"

" He is only a small part of the pirate community. And he has the greatest protégé in the pirate world. He wasn't just the captain of Blackbeard. He was also the captain of me. In school every grade were put in the same room. The sixth grades were put in the front while the thirteenth grades were put in the back. Not everyone could go to school, and most of the boys and girls who did go to school dropped out to join despair in jobs that took the lives of hundreds each year."

" I never went to school," Luffy said.

" Was the island you were raised on never given it or did your mayors tear it down? You should go to school. If kids don't go to school how can they learn their A, B, C's? Didn't your father tell you how you should stay in school and become a noble man? Oh, but he didn't. Your father's name is Monkey D. Dragon."

" M-My father?"

" He never introduced himself to you. I know. Don't ask how I know these things. I just know things. Things no man should ever know or they'll grow mad. I liked school. Most boys would take jobs and leave school, but I stayed in school. There was a hefty prize to stay there. And I needed a way to pay for it because I had a impecunious bank. The only way I was going to afford to be in school... was through fighting."

XXX

Zody held a sword lots of times. He used one katana. The blade shimmered as he held it and the handle was green with three black stripes around it. The man was holding two swords. He ran forward. Both attacks colided. He tried attacking Zody with both swords. Zody blocked them with his one sword. He tried slashing his swords into Shawn's eye, but Zody ducked and used his hands to propel the man upwards. The man crashed into a tree.

Zody heard a loud scream in the woods. Another man ran from the bushes and prepared to swing from his hips. Zody dodged the blade and the sword shattered on contact. Zody slugged him in the face. He didn't go down, then Zody slugged him in the stomach, and proceeded giving him an uppercut. Just like the first man he crashed into a tree.

Another man attacked with a flurry of slashes, and dodged to the side. Zody followed the man's movements with his eyes. Zody dashed towards the soldier and put all his strength into the man's stomach. The man was dazed for a second, and Zody knocked him to the ground. Before Zody punched the man in the face, a hand touched his shoulder.

" That's enough." Zody sheathed his sword. Zody was thankful the leader saved him. Zody had an uncontrollable blood lust. One time Zody beat up a tailor just because he requested a fee. It was what Zody did for his education. " You're doing well."

" Not good enough," Zody said, " there were still two left."

" You still get your money." The man gave Zody a soldier made of tinfoil. " Listen to me. Give up on school. We could use your swordsmanship."

" My swordsmanship is not for sale."