A/N: Hi guys! I know if you're following me avidly, I have two projects going on at the moment, but if any of you are writers, you know that focusing on one story can get rough sometimes. After beta-ing an SYOC fic by flamesofthebluebird (check it out!), I have gotten in the mood to try it again. I've tried to do an SYOC twice before on a different account and failed. A lot. It's hard and difficult and it requires more in-depth research than an OC insert fic, but if you'll bear with me, I hope you'll enjoy this take on One Piece.

Please submit an OC of any kind (main members of the crew, rival pirate crews, marines, revolutionaries). We will discuss the OC and if I don't like it, I may not take it. There is the chance for that. If I do like it, I'll give you the credit and we can talk about how to implement them into the story. Look on my profile page for further details.

Be sure to check out my other two fics, Fire and Steel (featuring Ace) and Death's Advocate (featuring Law).

Thanks for picking up this fic, and without further ado, here we go!

I

I Am Not My Father! Resolve of Lynch Cassanova!

A young man in his mid-twenties walked along a brick pathway to a hidden shack in the middle of the night. He jogged at a fast clip, the moonlight glinting in his silver hair as he ran away from the spacious mansion that loomed brightly behind him.

Reaching the shack, he burst it open, dust flying out and making him cough. The walls creaked eerily as he cautiously stepped into the old, rotting building, the only light coming from his dimly lit lamp.

The stairs groaned under the weight of his feet as he made his way up, batting cobwebs away from him face. The pictures on the wall of his progenitors glowed ghoulishly in the lamplight. He sneered at them. Royal blood did not make their family lines gods. His father saw himself as a deity, a noble to bring enlightenment to his people. The man didn't deserve his beautiful mother, a concubine, whom the young man loved dearly.

He walked on, determined to find out the hidden figure of crime he knew his father to be hiding. The only place he hadn't explored in the shack was the back room. The young man wasn't afraid of the dark, but he had a bad feeling about the back room. It felt like nothing he had experienced before -there was something evil in there.

Swallowing his nervousness, he made his way into the forbidden room. He grabbed the cold knob with a clammy hand and flung the door open. It was dark, except for the broken window that had cold moonlight streaming through it. The only thing in the room was a disheveled drawing desk in the back.

Cautiously, the young man tread into the room, his startlingly green eyes scanning the room for cracks or traps.

"Whoa," his breath caught in his throat.

A gaping hole sat in the middle of the room, it's jagged edges looking to swallow the young man up. He peered down the edge. There didn't seem to be an end to the hole's massive darkness. He would just have to find a way around it.

He scanned the room for another way across, spotting a thin strip of wood across the way. That would be his only way across. Edging away from the opening of the hole, he placed one foot in front of the other, his feet threatening to slip. He started to perspire, the sweat falling into his eyes. The end was almost near. It was only five, four steps until the end.

CRACK! The old, wooden beam cracked with the weight of his body, unwilling to hold him any longer. The lamp flying out of his hands, he flung himself onto the other end of the hole, hanging precariously over the edge. The young man hissed in pain, feeling the splinters dig into his hands. The old floorboards creaked as he swung, fighting to gain ground and pull himself over. He knew he didn't have much time -the wood at the end of the hole was the weakest part of the flooring.

"Urgh!" he grunted as he pulled himself over, the floorboards screaming as he rolled to the other side of the room, safe at last.

Brushing himself off, he glanced at the hole that had caused him so much trouble. He'd have to remember that next time. The splinters in his hand hurt, but he was here for one reason only, and a couple of splinters wouldn't stop him.

Walking over to the desk, he pried it open. The old, stiff wood gave him some trouble, but he finally managed to get it open. What fell out made his eyes widen in shock.

Sheets after sheets of yellowed paper with the names, race, and age of people scattered themselves around the man, all of them signed with the name of his father. The young man shuffled through them. One of them had the name of his mother on it, signed by his father as the buyer.

"This has got to be a lie," he growled, sifting through more of them.

Looking closer at the papers, there was a second cosigner 'Donquixote Doflamingo'. Next to the name, a smiley face was crossed out.

The man held the papers in a fist, his hands shaking with anger. So, his mother had been a slave. That much he had expected. There was no way his father would've been able to find someone as exotic as his mother on their home island. The Joker was something he had not expected. From the data the papers held, it must have been the way that his father rose up in status. There was no way he could call himself the son of someone who had worked with the Donquixote Family. Now he knew why his father had given him that Devil Fruit when he was younger. The Joker had been known to gather Devil Fruits and make synthetic ones as well. They must've used him as a science experiment. It wasn't to make him stronger. His father had lied. He should've known.

To be part of this family was to condone the actions of Doflamingo. He had hurt that man, that man that the silver-haired young man had secretly looked up to all his life. There was no way he could stay with this family now if he wanted to surpass him. He would leave this family. He would leave and never look back.

XXX

The young man sat on the dock, watching the sun rise as he waited for his childhood friend. It broke his heart to leave his mother, but it was necessary that he leave and tell no one. It was the only way.

He spotted the other man in the distance and waved. He was a tall man, wearing his customary tight-fitting long sleeved dark blue shirt. Along with the shirt, he wore black pants and black jikatabi. Two swords were clipped to his hip and they clinked together as the man made his way to the dock.

"Arashi," the young man stood.

Arashi nodded in greeting and gazed up at the sailboat that floated in the dock. "So, you're really going-bu."

"I can't stay here any longer," he replied.

"I know," Arashi nodded. "I read the message you gave me-bu."

The two men stood silently for a beat, watching the sunrise.

"The Joker was a bit of a surprise," Arashi continued. "It's because he hurt that man, isn't it? Trafalgar Law-bu?"

"He hurt my mother too," the man said. "I can't stay with a family that condones that kind of work."

"You're right," Arashi said.

"Thanks for seeing me off," the silver-haired man stood up. "I'll see you around I guess."

"I'm going with you-bu," Arashi said.

"No-"

"That's final-bu," the taller man placed his hand firmly on the other's shoulder.

"I'm going into the business of pirates, you know that right?" the man asked. "We're criminals now. This is the only way to pass Trafalgar."

"I'm not dumb-bu," Arashi said.

The man almost choked down his laughter. Arashi wasn't dumb, but his verbal tic of "-bu" made the tough guy sound like an idiot. "I know."

"Jon-"

"That's not my name anymore," the man snapped.

"Eh?" the swordsman looked confused.

The man composed himself. "I can't keep the shameful name of my family. My new name is Lynch Cassanova. Our pirate crew is going to be our new family."

"Lynch Cassanova-bu," Arashi said, testing out the name on his tongue. "It suits you I guess-bu."

Cassanova leapt onto the boat.

"Let's go, Juumonji Arashi," he said, using his friend's full name. "We're going to make a name for ourselves and surpass anyone who gets in the way! Monkey D. Luffy is dead. I'm going to be the next Pirate King!"

A/N: So that was the first chapter! How'd you guys like it? Constructive criticism is amazing -please review. Favorite/follow if you like how this story is going. Also, again, please send in some OCs.

The following have been filled:

Captain/Doctor: Lynch Cassanova -mine

First Mate/Swordsman: Juumonji Arashi -mine

Musician: Kurokiba Leviathan - Mekyaku

Cook: Raider Raiden - flamesofthebluebird