The chaotic atmosphere in Orange Town that had appeared with the arrival of the Buggy Pirates had scattered the townspeople and forced them to the areas surrounding the town. They were all afraid of the dangerous pirates and were trying to keep their distance. The shops in the town had shut down and the homes had been evacuated. If one were to walk around the town it would feel like a ghost town other than the shouts of the pirates that had set themselves up at a small pub on the far end of the town and the occasional cannon bursting through the sky as the pirates celebrated something or another.
There was, however, one lone shop still open for business. It was a small bar with a single girl working there. The villagers had tried to convince the girl to evacuate with them until the pirates had, left but she adamantly refused. She wasn't particularly afraid of the pirates and wasn't going to give into them.
The girl operating the bar was a 21-year-old woman named Iris. She was half fishman and half human, though it wasn't apparent she was part fishman by looking at her. She had a slight webbing between her fingers and toes, her teeth were sharper than a normal human's teeth, and the gills on her neck that were used to be able to breath under water were only visible when she was in water and using them. Her skin tone, build, facial features, and hair made her look like a normal human. She stood about 5'7" and had light lavender, almost white, waist length hair that was pulled back into a pony tail. She had deep emerald eyes and a caramel colored complexion. On this particular day she was wearing a tight fitting plain white tank top that revealed just a little cleavage, black cropped pants, black mary janes that were thin and flexible, and black fingerless gloves that hid the webbing between her fingers. She also had a fairly large tattoo of a tiger shark in navy blue swimming up her right arm in. She was a pretty girl who didn't like to call attention to herself and dressed in a way to blend in. While she knew most people would not look at her and see that she was a fishman, she knew from her dad that fishman faced horrible discrimination and that it was better that she not call attention to herself.
"Hey girl! Give us some booze!" a strange looking pirate yelled at her as he burst through the front door. She ignored him and continued to wipe down the bar. There had been plenty of pirates that had come through the town but never any that looked as strange as this group of pirates. They all looked like circus clowns and she had heard that their captain even had a big red nose. Iris wasn't sure how anybody was able to take this group of idiots seriously.
"It's not good to ignore people that are talking to you, girl," the pirate shouted as he walked into the bar and headed straight towards the bar. Iris looked up and rolled her eyes at the man. "It's not good to make demands in somebody else's bar either, but here you are doing just that," she stated. The man did not like her words and immediately became angry. When he tried to rush her she was easily able to subdue him. She jumped over the bar and grabbed onto his wrist when he swung at her, and threw him onto the ground. She jumped on top of him and pinned his hands above his head with one of her hands and placed the other hand over his throat. "You need to leave this bar right now," she said putting just enough pressure on his throat to start cutting off his airways. "I'm not afraid of any of you, and as you can now see I can take deal with you idiots just fine," she growled at the shocked pirate.
She got off of him and stood up with her arms crossed over her chest and watched as the man scurried to his feet and ran out of the bar. She had been trained in different forms of martial arts by her father and she knew how to protect herself. Her father had been a pirate and was a fishman. He was part of a crew that had no problem with him being a fishman, but most of the world did have a problem with it. From the day Iris was old enough to walk he had started training her on how to defend herself from others when he was in town. Her mother was a normal human from Orange Town. Iris' father was always glad that she took after her human mother and not him. Her mother had passed away when Iris was very young from some illness or another; Iris didn't know and didn't really care as she didn't remember the woman.
Iris only knew a few things about her mother as her father didn't like talking about her mother. They met when her mother was working at a small cafe and her father's pirate crew came through the village to restock on supplies. She had heard that her mother couldn't keep her eyes off of him. He had been annoyed by the woman staring at him and called her out on it, but was surprised when the woman's answer was that she found him incredibly interesting and that she had no idea what a fishman even was. He was used to ridicule and people staring at him out of disgust, not interest. Iris didn't know the whole story of how her parents got together, but she knew that her father would come back to Orange Town any chance he got to visit her mother and eventually Iris was born. Iris knew her father had loved her mother deeply and it made him sad to bring her up, and so Iris just didn't bring her up. The information she did have about her mother generally came from the other townspeople.
After Iris' mother passed away, her father left his pirating ways and decided to live in the village and raise her. He opened the bar to provide for them and led a fairly normal life on the island, well as normal as a fishman could live. The villagers didn't seem to discriminate against him, but travelers and pirates that came through would be terrible to him when they entered the bar. Her father was a very strong man though, and was typically left alone by these awful people aside from the occasional drunk person or snide comment. Her father was a tiger shark fishman and was tall and strong. Iris had always thought her father to be a very handsome man, but she found out at a very young age that most others didn't agree with her. His deep blue skin tone, the large dorsal fin that stuck out of his back, and tall stature all made him stick out even though his facial features looked mostly human enough, and a most don't seem to like others that look so different from themselves. It made Iris immensely angry, but if it made her father angry he hid it well from her.
Iris was very protective of her father and had absolutely adored him. She would get into fights growing up when she would hear people put him down, and he would always scold her for doing so. He didn't particularly care what others had to say about him as long as she was safe and sound. He always made sure that she was provided for and was well. In her eyes he was the absolutely best father anybody could ask for. She learned to fight and defend herself, she learned to make the best drinks at the bar, to not judge people on their looks, and to have a thick skin when people put her down from him. The one thing he hadn't taught her was how to live without him.
Her world came crashing down when the navy showed up in Orange Town a few days after her 17th birthday. She had heard that her father had a bounty on his head from his pirating days, but he had given that up 14 years prior to raise her. The navy showed up while she was still sleeping and took her father away before she was able to even say goodbye. According the villagers he went quietly so that she wouldn't wake up; he didn't want the navy to realize that he had a daughter. Even though she had never been out to sea and her mother had been a regular citizen, the navy wasn't always kind to family members of pirates. When she woke up that day to find that her father was gone she went on an awful rampage through the town. She fought anybody that tried to talk to her, and tore up her house in despair.
Iris spent the next year mostly in solitude and rarely came out of her house. She was in a horrible state of depression without her father there, and even with the villagers trying to cheer her up and help her in any way they could she felt completely alone. One day the chief of the village came to visit her and asked her what she would like to be done with her father's bar; it was sitting there gathering dust and could be used by somebody else in the village if she wasn't going to reopen it. The mere suggestion that somebody else use her father's bar angered Iris, and so she decided to reopen it. It took awhile to clean the place up and get it stocked to reopen, but she did it. When she was working behind the bar and making drinks for people it was as if she could feel her father's presence again. She had spent a good chunk of her life in that bar watching her father make drinks for people and everything in that bar reminded her of him.
Slowly she started to come out of her depression. She never gave up her hate for the navy and one day she knew that she would go against the navy herself to find her father again. But until that day she would work at the bar saving up money and waiting for her opportunity. She practiced the martial arts that her father had taught her every day and frequently got to use her skills on unruly customers that would try to cause a scene in her bar.
So the Buggy Pirates being in the village was no big deal to her. She would defend herself and her bar from any group of pirates that came through the town. She went back to cleaning up when there was suddenly a boy with shaggy black hair and a straw hat, and a girl with orange hair walked through the doors. "Do you have any meat?" the boy asked.
"Do I look like I have any meat? This is a bar. We just serve alcohol," Iris responded. These two didn't look like members of the Buggy Pirates, but she hadn't ever seen either of these people before. The boy looked very disappointed that there was no meat at her bar. "I'm so hungry!" he whined in a way that a small child would. Before she could tell him to go whine somewhere else the pirate that she had just kicked out of her bar was back with three of his buddies and burst through the front door.
"We'll teach you a lesson for what you did to me earlier!" the pirate declared. She rolled her eyes and jumped over the bar again as they ran at her. The four of them tried to gang up on her and all came at her at once, but she easily dealt with them. As far as pirates went these guys were weaklings. One of them threw a punch at her and she ducked and rammed her head into his stomach. He immediately went down and she grabbed him by the ankle and threw him into the others and knocked them down to the ground. She walked over to the one that was in the bar earlier and stomped her foot down onto his crotch. The other three stopped trying to get up and looked at her in horror as their friend screamed out in pain as she continued to press her foot into the man's crotch.
"I let you off the hook so easily earlier, and this is how you pay me back? You should have just left with your shattered pride, because at least all I had shattered was your pride," she said as she dug her heel further into his crotch. She looked at the other three, "Take your buddy and leave unless you want me to beat your asses up too." She picked her foot up off the man and turned around to walk away from them. She was amazed when she saw the boy with the straw hat's arm stretch out like rubber to one of the men behind her. She heard a clank and saw a gun now sitting on the ground. The four pirates looked at the boy with the stretching arm in fear and ran off shouldering the one who was still in too much pain from her stomping on his crotch.
"Wow, you're pretty amazing!" the boy exclaimed after his arm had returned back to normal. "But maybe you shouldn't turn your back to people like these," he said with a laugh. "Where did you learn to fight like that? You're good," the boy asked.
"My dad taught me. How did your arm just stretch like that? Who are you?" she responded.
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy and I'm going to be the King of Pirates. I'm a rubber man! You're pretty strong, do you want to join my pirate crew?" he happily asked with a grin. King of Pirates? She had heard that term before, but didn't think people were stupid enough to actually think they would be able to achieve it. She was now slightly embarrassed that the boy had saved her. She had let her guard down and she shouldn't have, and if the boy hadn't have been there she probably would have been shot. And why would he want her to join his crew? He didn't even know her name.
"Pirate?!" the orange haired girl shouted and suddenly glared at the boy. "I hate pirates! Pirates took away somebody very important to me!" she screamed and looked at Luffy with disgust. Iris raised an eyebrow as the girl had a meltdown in the bar. Was she not part of Luffy's crew? How did she not know he was a pirate? The girl had also seemed surprised by Luffy being able to stretch his arm like he did. Did she randomly end up on the island at the exact same time as him while the town was being invaded by pirates? Iris decided it really didn't matter to her and what the relationship between them was, but his offer to join his crew could work out to her benefit; she needed a boat to get off the island to go after the navy to find her father again.
"I'll join you on two conditions. Take care of the pirates that are occupying the town and don't let them hurt my bar. If you do those two things I'll join you," she stated. He grinned and nodded his head. The orange haired girl had already left the bar in anger and he left to go after her. She went back to cleaning her bar and thought about why she told him she'd go with him if he took care of the Buggy Pirates. She did need a way off the island, but what would happen to her bar if she left?
A few minutes passed and a man with green hair popped his head through the front door. "Have you seen a kid with a straw hat come through? You're the first person I've seen to ask... What's up with this stupid town?" the guy grumbled. She looked at the green haired man realizing that he was talking about Luffy. He looked to be right around her age if she had to guess, and she made the assumption that he was part of Luffy's crew. She also noticed that this man was extremely attractive. "If this guy is part of Luffy's crew, I'm definitely joining them," she thought to herself.
"Yeah, he left a few minutes ago to go deal with the Buggy Pirates that have taken over the town. Would you like a drink?" she asked. The guy thought about her offer for a few moments and then shook his head. "I might take you up on that after I find Luffy," he said and ran off.
A few more minutes went by and she was now too distracted to finish her cleaning; this was the most excitement she'd seen in this town. Thoughts of leaving this little island and becoming a pirate flooded her mind. Perhaps she would even get a bounty put on her head like her father. She didn't know how her father would feel about her becoming a pirate, but if she would be doing it to find him she was sure he would be okay with it.
Just then she heard a thunderous boom and crashing from outside the bar. She ran out of her bar to see what was going on and her jaw dropped as she saw the row of buildings in front of her bar had been annihilated. She looked in the direction where the Buggy Pirates were and knew instantly that they had done this. It was probably one of the cannonballs that the captain liked to shoot off. Iris felt tears well up in her eyes at the sight. Her hometown was being destroyed before her very eyes, and she felt helpless. There was nothing she could have done to prevent that cannon ball or to deflect it, and if that cannon ball had been shot of in even the slightest different direction it could have been her and her bar that were blown to pieces.
Her frustration quickly turned to anger and she decided she would have to deal with those pirates herself. She started walking towards her destination and ran into ChouChou sitting in front the pet food store growling. The poor little dog was defenseless to save the pet store, but he wouldn't move from the spot. She knew how he felt; it was the last remnant from his owner just as the bar was the last piece of her dad that she had left. It was her treasure.
She went on her way and saw some people moving towards her in the distance. She recognized the green haired man she had seen a few minutes earlier and saw that he was carrying a large cage on his back. She ran towards them and was able to see that Luffy was stuck in the cage and the green haired man was severely injured. "What the hell happened?" she questioned them as the green haired man collapsed on the ground and dropped the cage.
"Oh, you're here!" Luffy exclaimed. "Can you help me get out of this cage?" he asked and she looked him dumbfounded. He had ambitions to become the King of Pirates and couldn't handle these pirates? His dream was all talk after all and he was as stupid as she had thought. "Oh look, a dog! Come here doggy! It's not moving... Is it dead?" Luffy asked and poked the dog. ChouChou reacted by biting Luffy, which led Luffy to react and try to remove the dog from his face. "Ahh! Stupid dog!" he yelled.
Just then the orange haired girl walked up holding a key in her hand. "Here. I can repay you for saving me back there with this," she said and tossed the key on the ground in front of the cage. Before Luffy could grab it ChouChou ate the key and Iris couldn't help wincing. She didn't know why ChouChou at the key, but there's no way he was that hungry. Luffy grabbed the dog and started to fight with the dog trying to make the dog throw the key back up.
"Don't you dare hurt that dog!" Iris heard a familiar voice say. She turned to see the chief walking towards them wearing some strange looking armor type thing over his clothes. "Iris? What's going on here?" he asked and she shook her head.
"I have no idea... I was trying to figure that out myself," she responded. "He told me not too long ago he was going to get rid of the Buggy Pirates so that I'd join his crew, but he obviously isn't as strong as them as he now locked up in a cage. This one needs some medical attention though," she said as she pointed to the green haired man who had managed to sit himself up against a deck. He was starting to have a hard time catching his breath and the bleeding wasn't stopping.
"Crew? You don't mean pirate crew, do you? I forbid it. But... Let's get him up and get him some help. He needs to see a doctor right away," the chief said. Iris helped the green haired man stand, but he refused to go see a doctor. The chief and Iris helped him get to the chief's house instead. "You really should be going to see an actual doctor," the chief said, but the man adamantly refused and insisted that he only needed to sleep it off. "These people are crazy," Iris thought to herself.
"You stay here with him, Iris. If his health deteriorates at all go to where the rest of the villagers are and have the doctor come to him," the chief instructed.
"I can help fight the pirates though! I'm a the strongest fighter in the village and I'm the only one that has a chance at getting rid of them," she protested, but the chief wouldn't let her leave. "You're also a lot faster than I am, and so if he needs a doctor you'll be able to run and get the doctor quicker than I could. Besides, I'm the chief and I should be able to protect my village. I don't need you young'uns getting yourselves hurt," he insisted.
By the time the chief had left the green haired man was fast asleep and snoring. He was a very fine looking man. His face was handsome, and his body was very well defined and muscular. She even thought his green hair was cute. It was safe to make the assumption that he was a swordsman from the three swords he was carrying; though she thought it was somewhat excessive to be carrying three of them. He was obviously loyal to Luffy if he was willing to carry him in that heavy cage with an injury like this. She wondered how long they had been travelling together, and she thought about what it might be like to travel with their pirate crew. This man was making her want to join Luffy's crew more every time she looked at him.
Growing up on this island romance hadn't ever really crossed her mind. There wasn't anybody on the island worth her time, and the pirates and travelers that came through didn't draw her interest either. There was also the whole fishman thing; men that had shown interest in her had no idea she was part fishman. There was something that seemed different about this man, though. She couldn't stop staring at him while he slept and wondering what kind of person he might be. Would his personality be as attractive as his appearance was?
She snapped herself out of her thoughts. There was most likely no point in being attracted to the man. When and if he found out she was half fishman he'd surely have no interest in her whatsoever. Thinking about others finding out about her race brought up memories of everything that had happened to her father. It made her angry just thinking about it and she could feel her blood pressure rising. Perhaps this man wouldn't care, but that seemed like that would be a very unlikely case. Either way, he was still a very handsome man and she was starting to feel frustrated with herself for being so enamored with him. This was not the time or place to be having frivolous thoughts such as these. There were pirates attacking and her beloved bar was in danger.
Then suddenly in the blink of an eye the building around her was collapsing around her and something was crashing through the buildings. Another cannonball? Her bar wouldn't escape this one. Before she could manage to react the building had collapsed on top of her.
"Iris?!" she heard a panicked voice yell.
"Zoro? Are you alive?!" she heard another voice yell.
If she could hear people yelling for her she must not be dead. She managed to push herself up and stand up through the rubble. She was sore and could tell that her body was going to become bruised from this, but she managed to not take any major damage. She looked around to see if the green haired man was still alive and saw him sitting up not too far from where she was at. She looked at him in shock seeing that somebody with an injury like he had was able to survive that. "Ahh, good! You're still alive Zoro! You too!" Luffy said as he pointed to her. Luffy was out of the cage now so they must have managed to get ChouChou to cough up the key.
"Iris! Thank goodness! You're alright!" the chief said with a sign of relief. She looked towards where her bar had been standing just a few moments earlier and saw nothing but destruction. She dropped to her knees and fought back tears. This bar that her father had loved and provided for her with was now a pile of rubble. Her heart was breaking in two as she stared in horror. She felt tears sliding down her cheeks and quickly wiped them away. She ran over to the pile of rubble and started digging through what used to be her bar hoping to fine a memento of what had been standing there moments before, but everything was destroyed. She was only pulling out bits and pieces of things.
"I'm going to kill them all," she growled as she found her way back to her feet. She turned back towards the others and saw the chief shaking in anger; she had never seen him like this before. There was nothing the old man would be able to do against the pirates, but she understood his anger. A fiery rage burned inside of her that brought back memories of when she found out her father had been taken away. These pirates had destroyed her treasure, and they were going to pay for it.
"I can't watch this anymore! They can't ruin the village that we built with our own hands! I'm going to go fight them!" the chief yelled as he started running off.
"You can't! Don't you realize how dangerous these people are? You'll die!" the orange haired girl shouted.
"I know!" the chief retorted and they all saw the tears welling up in his eyes as he turned around for a brief moment before running off again. Seeing the tears in the old man's eyes stopped the orange haired girl in her tracks. She obviously had no idea how much this village meant to the old chief. "I'm coming for you, Buggy the Clown!" the chief yelled as he ran towards the pirates.
"I'm going as well. They won't get away with this," Iris growled as her hands clenched into fists. She bared her teeth in anger not even caring that one of them might notice she didn't have normal human teeth and took off after the chief. She wasn't going to let the old man die so easily. The old chief had treated her like his own family after her father had been taken away, and she wasn't going to let anything happen to him.
"The old man is faster than I thought," she grumbled as she tried to catch up to him and hadn't succeeded in doing so yet. She didn't know he could move half this fast; perhaps his anger was fueling his movements past what was normal. By the time she caught up with him, he was deep in a shouting match with Buggy himself. This was the first time Iris had seen Buggy, but she knew exactly who he was by the big red nose.
Before she was able to say anything she saw a hand fly towards the chief and grab him by the throat. "What the hell?" she muttered in surprise that the pirate was able to detach his hand at will like that. She had never seen such a thing in her life. Was this the power of a devil fruit? She ran over to the chief and pulled the hand off without too much effort, and that caught the attention of Buggy.
"Who are you? Let go of my hand woman!" he yelled as she gripped onto his hand as hard as she could while digging her fingernails into it. A group of pirates around Buggy pointed their guns at her and began yelling. "Captain Buggy! That is the girl who wouldn't give us her booze!" they yelled and he turned to glare at them. "Let go of his hand or we'll shoot!" they yelled. She looked at the one who she had beat up twice earlier and smirked. "Come on down here and I'll beat you up again," she said and dug her heel into the ground. The man covered his crotch with his hands and backed up a few steps. She let go of Buggy's hand hoping that they wouldn't shoot at her. She might be able to deal with dodging them, but there was no way the chief would escape unharmed.
"Let's blow them up with this town!" Buggy yelled as his hand reattached and pointed a large cannon at them. Her mind started racing as she tried to come up with a plan to get out of this situation and to get closer to Buggy to fight him. He might have some weird power but she doubted he was a better close combat fighter than she was. There was no way she was going to die here before she was able to get her father back and pay the navy back for tearing her world apart.
"Buggy! I'm back to kick your ass like I said I would!" she heard from behind her.
"Straw Hat!" Buggy shrieked.
"Leave them alone," Luffy said with a large grin on his face. "You can fight me," he said. The chief started to protest because this was his village and therefore he should be the one to be protecting it. Without so much as thinking it through Luffy hit the chief and knocked him unconscious. Iris couldn't help but laugh, because she knew that Luffy's action was the correct one. The stubborn old man was serious about fighting Buggy on his own and would have been killed in doing so. Iris walked over to the unconscious chief and picked him up to carrying him out of harms way.
"You idiot! How you do such a thing to the chief?!" the orange haired girl shouted angrily.
"He'd just get in my way," Luffy responded. "Hey! Big, ugly, round red nose! Fight me now!" Luffy shouted, and again Iris couldn't help but laugh. This boy might have ambitious dreams that most would view as stupid, but he was entertaining. In fact, she hadn't been so entertained in years. The orange haired girl, the green haired man, and all of Buggy's crew were staring at him in shock. Apparently Buggy's trigger point was his nose and everybody other than Iris seemed to be aware of that.
"Fire the Special Buggy Cannonball now!" Buggy screamed in a rage. The cannon was pointed straight towards Luffy. The orange haired girl and the green haired man started to run away from him. "Move Luffy!" the green haired man shouted.
"I'm not going to move an inch because of some cannon," Luffy said with a grin and secured his straw hat on his head. That infuriated Buggy further and cannonball was fired. "Gum Gum Balloon!" Luffy said and sucked in air letting his body actually expand like a balloon. Iris watched him in awe; she never seen anything like that before. Luffy wasn't joking around earlier when he had said he was a rubber man. An ordinary human certainly couldn't do something like that.
The cannonball came straight at Luffy and it bounced off of his stomach and deflected it straight back where it had come from taking out a good number of Buggy's crew. Perhaps this boy wasn't quite as stupid as she had thought. Even with all of her training and the different types of martial arts she knew there was no way she could have deflected a cannonball. He was stronger than she had given him credit for.
"How is this possible?! That's not something a human can do! You need to explain this right now!" the orange haired woman screamed at Luffy. The orange haired girl and all the screaming she did was starting to get on Iris' nerves. Why was she part of this crew? She didn't seem strong or like she had any helpful skills. The swordsman Iris could understand; he was strong and seemed to feel a strong sense of loyalty towards Luffy. But the orange haired girl? Iris wasn't sure understood why they had her around.
"I'm curious about that too. You've asked me to join your crew so don't you think you should at least explain why you're able to do these things beyond normal human capacity?" Iris asked as she walked up to the three. Before Luffy could respond, however, Buggy was back on the scene. Iris couldn't hide her disgust when she saw that both Buggy and a strange looking man on a unicycle had used their own crew members to shield themselves from the blast. "You're a disgusting excuse for a captain. A captain should take care of his men," she growled at him.
"What?! Are you stupid, girl?! As the captain, any of these men should be happy to give their life protecting me! It is their duty!" Buggy laughed.
"You're right, it is their duty to protect the captain. But a good captain has men that would freely do so of their own accord. These men didn't choose to do so, and so obviously you are not a good enough captain that they felt is worth protecting at the cost of their own life!" she retorted.
Just then another weird looking person popped up that looked like he had a strange fur hat on his head, and a strange fur vest on. The man was quite simple looking; Iris didn't image the man had any sort of intelligence. "What did you do to Richie?!" the man cried pointing to the lion that the man on the unicycle was holding. The man on the unicycle dropped the lion and smirked in a way that made Iris want to vomit. What an awful crew that cared so little for each others well being. The furry man ran over to the lion trying to wake up the lion, and then looked up and saw Luffy standing in front of Buggy.
"AHH! Captain! Be careful, he's a rubber man! He's eaten a devil fruit like you have!" he warned Buggy. That made sense as to why Luffy could be a rubber man; a devil fruit was the answer. It was a simple enough explanation for his strengths that she should have guessed it herself. It might not be something a normal person would guess, but her father had told her all about people with devil fruit abilities that he encountered while he was a pirate. She felt kind of dumb for not guessing it sooner.
"If you knew, why didn't you tell me?!" Buggy screeched and sent the furry man flying towards them. Luffy got a large grin on his face and promptly kicked the man in the chin as he got close enough and sent the man flying away. The unicycle man made his move next. "My name is Cabaji, and I am the proud Fleet Commander of the Buggy Pirates!" he boasted. He immediately came towards Luffy with a sword, but the green haired man intercepted and blocked the Cabaji's sword with his own. "Roronoa Zoro! It's an honor, as a swordsman, to be able to kill you!" Cabaji said.
"You're the famous Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro?!" Iris exclaimed in surprise. Why was a pirate hunger part of a pirate crew now? Even on this small island she knew of the rumors of Roronoa Zoro and his strength as a swordsman. If he was the pirate hunter perhaps three swords wasn't as excessive as she had first thought. She hadn't ever pictured the famed pirate hunter to be young and handsome, either.
"You're hurt, Zoro. Let me fight him," Luffy said and Zoro shook his head with a smirk. "I'm fine. What kind of swordsman would I be if I couldn't deal with a small fry such as him?" Zoro asked and the two started fighting. Cabaji immediately kicked Zoro where he was injured and Iris winced. Zoro's knees buckled and he fell to the ground as he screamed out in pain. She glanced over to Luffy to see if he was going to step in, but he wasn't moving from his spot. She figured that Zoro must still have some tricks up his sleeve. After all, he wouldn't be as famous as he was if he couldn't take out people like Cabaji she decided.
Zoro stood back up and the two continued fighting with Cabaji using his stupid circus act to try and catch Zoro off guard. Iris watched the fight wanting to step in and help the injured man, but knew that he wouldn't appreciate that. Swordsmen were a prideful bunch. She continued watching from the side as Cabaji kicked Zoro where he was wounded again. It was written all over Zoro's face how much pain he was in, and Iris didn't know how he was still standing.
"It must be fun for you to poke my wound," Zoro said as he stood back up. "If it's that much fun, I'll just give myself even more of a handicap! How's this? Is it good enough for you?" he said as he took one of his own swords and slashed the wound back open again. Iris' jaw dropped. This was crazy; why would he do that? Apparently there wasn't much of a brain behind that handsome face and body she decided.
"What the hell? Y-Y-You're insane," Cabaji stuttered.
"I will become the strongest swordsman alive. Now let me show you the differences in our level. I won't allow myself to lose to anyone that calls themselves a swordsman. I will finish this here and now," Zoro said resolutely. He had a smirk running across his face and arrogance in his eyes. Iris felt her heart skip a beat; he had just became even more attractive. Sure, it was crazy to stab himself, but the confidence he was exuding had her wanting to get to know the man more. The famed Pirate Hunter was famous and feared by pirates for a reason after all.
"Wow! You're so cool!" Luffy shouted. The orange haired girl, on the other hand, looked sick to her stomach. Zoro's breathing was labored, and she couldn't help but feel somewhat worried about him. Luffy was cheering him on and the confidence in Zoro's eyes wasn't wavering.
"Well, at least you've got an excuse to use for when you lose to me," Cabaji said.
"Ha! Even being wounded like this my fate as swordsman would be sealed if I lost to you," Zoro retorted with a laugh as he put one sword in his mouth and held the other two swords in his hand. "You asshole..." Cabaji said under his breath as he glared at Zoro.
While Iris was watching Zoro and Cabaji fight she could hear Luffy and the orange haired girl talking about something and then the orange haired girl ran off. Iris was somewhat glad to see the girl run off; the angry yelling and freaking out she did was annoying. "Why do you hang around with that girl?" Iris asked Luffy.
"Nami? She's our navigator!" he replied enthusiastically. Navigator, huh? Well, at least the girl had some sort of function. She must be some great navigator if they were willing to put up with such a whiny girl. She turned her attention back to the fight in front of her in time to see Cabaji throw a bunch of spinning tops at Zoro. Zoro easily slashed through the tops with his swords while Cabaji started cycling up the wall of one of the buildings, and before any of them knew it Cabaji was in the air right above Zoro with his sword pointed down at Zoro.
"Chop Chop cannon!" Iris heard Buggy yell and turned around to see Buggy's hand coming towards them. "I'll hold him down Cabaji! You finish him!" Buggy shrieked and she immediately reacted by diving onto the hand. Buggy screamed out when the weight of her body hit his hand. She picked up the hand and started pushing the fingers backwards one by one to dislocated them. Buggy screamed out in pain and it was music to her ears. The pirate that had destroyed the town and her bar was going to have to pay for what he had done.
"Stay out of Zoro's fight!" Luffy shouted at Buggy. "You can let go of his hand now. I don't think he'll interrupt this fight again," Luffy said. She hesitated but let go of the hand and watched it fly back to Buggy. His hand reattached and she watched him trying to fix his dislocated fingers and couldn't help but laugh. She had wanted to continue causing the pirate pain, but decided she should do as Luffy had asked if she was planning on joining his crew.
Behind her she could hear Zoro gasping for air and was tempted to turn around a watch what was happening, but she wasn't going to take her eyes off of Buggy. She didn't know how Luffy could be so calm in this situation and trusting of Buggy to not interrupt again, because she sure didn't trust the deplorable pirate. She could hear Zoro expressing how tired he was and Cabaji laughing sinisterly. Iris couldn't resist turning to see the fight, and turned around just in time to see Zoro get back up to his feet.
"You didn't let me finish," Zoro stated. "I'm not physically tired. I'm tired of dealing with somebody with such lacking skills. You're boring me," he continued as he kicked Cabaji off of his unicycle. The arrogance in his eyes had not wavered at all, despite the fact that he was having a hard time just standing. His determination was beyond anything that Iris had seen before; he was quite the intriguing individual. She wanted to figure out how he could push himself so far, and had made up her mind that she would join them if Luffy asked her again and if they were able to defeat the Buggy Pirates.
"It's time for me to show you my real sword skills! I will finish you off!" Cabaji yelled as he got up and ran at Zoro.
"Oni..." Zoro said as he took a fighting stance. "...giri!" he shouted as he slashed Cabaji and Cabaji fell to the ground. Onigiri? That was the name of his attack? Iris couldn't help but laugh a little at the name of the attack. She would not have guessed him to be type to name his attacks after food, let alone rice balls. It was an effective and powerful attack though, so perhaps it didn't matter what he called it. "It's such a waste. Such a strong person working under a common thief," Cabaji said in between gasping for air before he passed out.
"He's not a common thief. He's a pirate," Zoro said as he grabbed onto the bandanna he was wearing and pulled it off. He fell to the ground and closed his eyes, "Luffy, I'm done. I'm going to sleep now." Luffy nodded his head and in an instant Zoro was asleep. Iris couldn't believe that anybody could fall asleep that easily with an enemy still in front of them. Buggy was surely stronger than Cabaji, and even with Zoro's injuries she couldn't imagine falling asleep. He must have a lot of trust in Luffy.
Iris watched Zoro sleep as she waiting for Luffy to fight Buggy. She thought about jumping in and starting the fight herself, but she was curious to see what Luffy could do. If he was the captain she was going to leave the island with he had better be capable of taking care of a crew. The two pirate captains seemed to be arguing about who was going to become the Pirate King and Iris didn't have too much interest in the topic. When the subject changed to Red Haired Shanks her interest was piqued. Luffy knew Red Haired? Everybody and their dog knew how famous the Red Haired pirate was. How did Luffy know him? And did she hear correctly that the straw hat he wore was a gift from Red Haired Shanks?
When she looked back to the fight Luffy had lost all composure and was beating the crap out of Buggy. From the bits and pieces she heard of their conversation it seemed to be over the damage Buggy had caused to the straw hat. Up until now Luffy had been nothing but smiles, and now his expression was one of pure hatred. That hat must mean an awful lot to him.
Buggy then started to explain how he knew Shanks and why he hated the man. Iris couldn't understand from his story why he hated Shanks. Buggy was a stupid man though, so perhaps he didn't need a valid reason to hate somebody. Stupid people didn't typically make much sense to her. Buggy's attention suddenly shifted and she realized that he was looking at Nami who was back in the street. The girl was holding a large bag which Iris assumed was Buggy's treasure, and he was going to get it back. His top half separated from his bottom half, and he flew at Nami.
Without thinking about it Iris ran over to where Nami was and stood in front of her. Not only would she protect the girl, she would get a chance to face Buggy herself. He didn't seem to think that she was a threat to him, but he was wrong. As his top half came at the two girls Iris' fist was waiting for him. Nami was screaming behind her, and when Buggy's face got close enough Iris grabbed onto the collar of his shirt with one hand and punched him in the face with the other. He looked at her in shock and stopped his attach for a moment.
"You stupid girl! How dare you protect this lowly thief! You'll pay with your life!" he screamed and Iris punched his face again before he was able to continue yelling at her. "Why aren't you listening to me?! You must be..." he started when she punched him again. She couldn't believe that he was so easy to take on. He was more concerned about making sure that he got the last word than he was anything else.
"I'm not here to protect the girl. I'm here to pay you back for what you've done to my town. You've destroyed it, and you destroyed my bar. I won't forgive you," she snarled. Buggy's face suddenly looked very pained and Iris looked back to where Buggy's lower half was. Luffy had kicked Buggy in the crotch and had done so very well by the look on Buggy's face.
"I'm your opponent, Buggy. Leave them out of this," Luffy said.
"Give me back my treasure!" Buggy shouted in rage when he had recovered and his body split into many more pieces. All of his body parts started flying towards Nami and his treasure, but he stopped midair and started laughing hysterically, and then his laughing turned into screaming. She looked to Luffy and saw that he had gotten a hold of one of Buggy's feet and was now slamming Buggy's toes into the ground. This power that Buggy had sure had a lot of drawbacks to it; with all those body parts flying around it wasn't too difficult to grab onto them and cause him damage.
Luffy dropped the foot and came running towards them. Buggy had managed to grab onto the treasure bag and him and Nami were struggling to get the bag for themselves. Iris watched as Luffy kicked Buggy's head away from Nami and the head was sent flying. The bag that Nami was holding onto ripped and her treasures were scattered all over the ground. "My treasures!" she cried and started gathering them up.
"Your hat looks pretty bad," Iris observed as Luffy put the hat back on and he pulled it down to where she couldn't see his eyes. When he let go of the hat and she could see his eyes again he was back to smiling. "It's alright, at least I still have it. And I feel better now that I've beaten up Buggy," he said.
"Straw Hat!" she heard Buggy's voice say and she looked to see his head floating back towards them. "Chop Chop pieces assemble!" he shouted, but all that came to him where his hands a feet. The legs, body, and arms were missing. Iris laughed loudly at the sight. He was even more ridiculous looking than his normal self.
"Are you looking for these?" Nami asked from behind them. Iris turned to look and saw that Nami had tied all of Buggy's body parts together. Luffy laughed and stretched his arms far behind him. "Gum Gum Bazooka!" he shouted as his arms flung forward and sent Buggy flying. Luffy's power was rather intriguing to Iris, and she had a feeling that if she hung around Luffy that she'd just watch him get stronger and stronger.
"So... I did one of the two things you asked. I got rid of the pirates, but I wasn't able to save your bar. Join my crew anyway! You're strong. I don't think I got your name..." Luffy said.
"My name is Iris, and I'll join your crew. I have a reason for going out to sea, so your offer actually works out well for me. I have someone I should say goodbye to before I leave though," Iris responded.
"Woo hoo! I got two new crew members today!" he exclaimed.
"Wait, I'm not going to become a pirate! Me going along with you guys just makes sense for me, and I'll go my own way when you aren't useful to me anymore. I'm not part of your crew," Nami shouted over Luffy as she was gathering up the treasure again, but Luffy wasn't paying attention to her shouting. He was standing over Zoro trying to wake him up. Zoro sat up, but he still looked exhausted and dizzy from all the blood he lost. There was no way that his wound had healed up yet, and it wouldn't be smart for him to start moving around.
"You beat Buggy already? I don't think I can walk yet though," Zoro said groggily.
"Yeah, I know. We got two new crew members though!" Luffy said excitedly as he pointed to Nami and Iris. Just then the townspeople came into the village looking like they had seen a ghost as they took in the destroyed town. When they noticed that the chief was unconscious they became angry and demanded to know what had happened. Before Iris was able to explain the situation to them, Luffy plainly stated that he had done it. Iris smiled at the boy's honesty and realized that she felt happier at that moment than she had in years.
"Get them!" the townspeople shouted after Luffy told them that they were pirates. Luffy picked Zoro up and situated him on his back so that he'd be able to carry him as he ran. "Go on ahead, I'll catch up to you! Don't worry about waiting for me, I'll able to catch up" Iris shouted as she ran towards her house that was outside of the town to gather a few things. She ran into the house and grabbed all of her money and threw it in her backpack. She also threw in there the few bottles of booze she kept at her house rather than at the bar, a change of clothes, and some non perishable food. The last thing she grabbed was her father's favorite bandanna that was still lying on the counter where he had left it 4 years prior. She folded the bandanna a few times and tied it around her neck so that it looked like a choker necklace. This deep purple bandanna was something that her father had worn daily as a headband to hold his hair out of his face when he was working. It was something that all of the crew members of the pirate ship he was on had one of, and had worn.
She stepped out of her house and locked the front door as she left. She walked to her mom's grave and felt awkward. She hadn't come to the grave site since she was a small child. She knew that the resentment she held towards her mother for dying when Iris was so young was not fair, but she felt the resentment just the same. She couldn't leave the island holding onto that resentment, and so she decided she would make amends before she left.
"I'm leaving, mom. I know I haven't come here in a long time, and I'm sorry. I know it's not your fault that you got sick, and honestly if you hadn't have become sick who knows if I would have gotten to know dad; he may have just stayed a pirate and let you raise me. I'm becoming a pirate now too, and I'm going to go find dad. I don't know much about the pirates I've agreed to join, I don't even know how big their crew is or where they're headed. I know it's reckless, but I can tell they're good people. I was actually able to smile and be happy today. I haven't felt happy since dad was taken away, so they must be good people. Not to mention, Roronoa Zoro is part of the crew and he's super strong. He's cute, too. They don't know I'm half fishman, but hopefully they won't mind when they find out. I'm going to go now, but I'll be back someday. When I come back it will be with dad, I promise that," Iris said. She sighed and felt that a weight had been lifted off of her.
She started to run towards the dock and stopped to turn around and take on last look at her home and her life on this small island. She smiled and took off. When she got to the docks she could see two boats had set sail and she dove into the water an started swimming. Being half fishman meant she was an excellent swimmer. She could breath underwater and her body was built to be in the water. She had nothing on a full blooded fishman, but she was a much better swimmer than a human could ever hope to be.
She caught up with the boats and climbed onto the boat that Luffy and Zoro were on. Nami was on a separate boat that had Buggy's insignia on it. "Whoa, you're a fast swimmer!" Luffy exclaimed as she took off her backpack and set it on the floor of the boat. "So there are only four of us?" she asked in surprise to see that they were travelling on such a small boat and that Luffy didn't really have a crew. These boats wouldn't stand up to storms or rough waters, and with so few people they couldn't hardly operate a larger boat.
"Don't worry, we'll get more! I want a cook, an a musician!" he said with a big, goofy grin and she laughed. It felt wonderful to truly laugh and feel happy. Hopefully this feeling would last with these people, and they would continue to make her feel happy. She hadn't felt this feeling in years, and it felt amazing. Luffy laughed with her, and Zoro smiled as he was resting.
"You kids!" she heard coming from the docks and looked to see the chief. She could tell from his cracking voice that he was crying. She stood up and dove back into the water. She swam as fast as she could back to the island. She jumped out of the water and gave the old man a hug. "Thank you for everything. Your kindness to me, and your acceptance of my father means more to me than I can put into words. I'll come back someday after I find my father, I promise," she said. She dove back into the water before he was able to say anything and let the water hide the tears now streaming down her cheeks.
She hadn't planned on saying goodbye to anybody other than her mom, but she also hadn't expected the chief to be awake so soon and to come see them off. He had looked out for her all these years, and she knew his acceptance of her father was a large part of why the village accepted him so readily. He had made it clear earlier that he didn't approve of her being a pirate, but she had to make her own decisions and hope that he would forgive her. She got back to the boat and climbed back on. "Sorry, I thought I could leave without saying goodbye, but I was wrong..." she said as she tried to wring out her wet clothes.
"You kids take care of Iris! If anything happens to her I won't forgive you!" the chief shouted.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure she's safe! I won't let any of my friends get hurt!" Luffy shouted back giving the chief a thumbs up. He looked over to her and grinned and she smiled back. This was the start of a new adventure. Iris felt free and like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She was following in her father's footsteps by becoming a pirate. She knew the life of a pirate wasn't an easy one, but it felt right to her. She knew without a doubt that she had made the right decision in leaving the island and joining Luffy. She couldn't wait to see what their next adventure would hold for her.