Chapter 1: All starts here
The vast sea; Earth's first frontier. Many have explored this seemingly endless valley of water, finding new worlds, different cultures, a whole fantastic site of adventure. Everything started out amongst the ocean floors, and now branch out into so much more. Many now sail to protect it, others to conquer it, but some have simply wanted to be free amongst the expanse.
"I SEE LAND!" Cried out at the front of this bright yellow vessel that rode the waves. Sitting cross legged on the figurehead of a cartoonish lion, was a youthful boy with a distinguishing straw hat and red shirt. The brightness of his clothes was matched by the brightness of his glee, with a smile that stretched across his face. Two approached the young boy, a redhead with a bra-ed figure of exceptional beauty, and a fuzzy humanoid reindeer sporting a pink top hat covered by a blue cap.
The three stared at the far horizon, looking at their next destination. There was a chill in the air, as if the island itself wards onlookers away from this place, not helped by the ominous clouds that encircled the spit of land like vultures circling prey. A large mountain was the main feature of it, shrouded in shadows. The woman and the reindeer were concern about the inevitable approach, but the boy only saw adventure.
"It's weird, this island doesn't seem to have been recorded on any of the maps. Whatever that place is, there's a reason my pose won't towards it." The woman said, looking at her sea charts that she carried. The straw hat boy's eye gleamed in joy upon hearing those words.
"The island isn't recorded on the maps and the log poses won't point towards it at all… Does that mean it's a mystery island?!" With clenched hands and a bright smile, he said with pure enthusiasm in his voice. The joy of the boy did not sit well with the others, worried for their own safety.
"Luffy?" Out of nowhere, a voice of nasal concern that belonged to a long-nosed person pulled away Luffy, up close and personal. "One day Luffy, just one day without getting into trouble with something that could potentially kill us all, is that too much to ask?"
He shook Luffy back and forth, trying to get his pleads through to him, but to no avail. He was too lost in thought about the potential of danger and adventure hat the island might bring him. In which case, the pinocchio-looking fellow shook him harder, forcing his words to reach him.
"Well now, all the fun seems to happening here." Another figure came from up the stairs; a large afro, a large fake crown, a tall slim figure that held onto a light purple cane. And a skeleton. He held onto a small tea cup with his bony fingers, overlooking a jumping Luffy being held down by a defeated man.
"Oh hi Brook." The reindeer said to him, as he walked up to the skeleton.
"Ah, hello Chopper. Could you tell me what's happening right now?" The skeleton replied.
"Nami said something about how the island we're heading to is uncharted, and now Luffy's getting too excited, so Usopp is trying to get him to not be so reckless when we get to that island." Chopper explained as the two were locked in a stalemate of communication. "And it's not working."
"Now that is a very peculiar island; it looks a little like Thriller Bark, don't you think?" He took a nice long sip of his tea, reminiscing back to his days on that island. They all looked at the island again with a different point of view, noticing the ominous resemblance that it shares.
"Oh yeah, I guess it does look like Thriller Bark." Nami said, as she laid her charts on the table.
"Hey if it looks like Thriller Bark, do you think that there are zombies?" Luffy asked Brook, standing up from being shaken by Usopp heavily, having that same wondrous glint in his eye from before.
"DEAR LORD! I HOPE NOT!" The skeleton exclaimed, placing one hand by his cheek for comfort; though, him being a skeleton, it's a bit of an impossibility. "Those zombies always gave me the chills."
"Well, we'll have to see when we get there." Nami replied to Luffy, turning to the grassy deck of their ship.
"Listen up!" She shouted. Soon, more people came out from inside the ship. A green-haired man with a closed scarred eye, came down from the main mast, carrying three swords by his side; another man came from the opposite side of the ship, sporting a black suit and blonde hair parted to the right side of his face, long enough to be covering his eye. A bulky man with metallic shoulders larger than his head popped out from a hidden door from the main deck. And the final person to come out was a raven-haired lady wearing a blue jacket, zipped up to her cleavage.
"We're about to reach our next destination in about 10 minutes, so be prepared to dock." They all nodded in response.
The 10 minutes were almost up. As they inched closer to the island, they sprinted into action. The green-haired man and Luffy jumped high to the fore mast and tied it up. The Bulky man took to the helm, turning it horizontally to the island, for better docking. The raven-haired lady formed her arms into an X, with her hands opened up. Following that, multiple arms sprouted like flowers upon the main mast. They pulled up the mast, and tied it to the yard. Usopp and Chopper went up with the man at the helm, as they had nothing else to do.
"NICE JOB ROBIN-SWAN!" The blonde haired man proclaimed in loving joy. Robin smiled in return.
"And here is your drink Nami-san." The blonde haired man gave Nami a pink smoothie, topped off with sliced fruits, like apples, grapes, and lime. She smiled at him, taking the cool drink from his silver tray.
"Thank you Sanji-kun." She said to him with a warm smile. He bowed in reply. She took one small sip from the straw, and loved it.
"Wow, this is amazing. You really outdid yourself this time." She complimented, drinking more of the delicious smoothie. The cook felt a rush of euphoria at the comment.
"Hey Sanji!" His moment was distracted by the noise of a young person. He looked all around, searching for the source on the ground, then looked up, to see his captain up on the mast. "Can we have some of that stuff to?"
"No, of course not you idiot. That's just for Nami." Sanji shouted in reply.
"There's some food I'm preparing for you in the kitchen, so just be patient for a moment." He walked quietly back into the kitchen, to prepare for snacks before setting off to the new island.
"Hmph." Luffy pouted. He fell down to the deck, and crossed his legs. "I can't wait for so long to wait for food. I need it now!"
Patience was never one of Luffy's strong points, especially when it came to food. A whole two minutes passed and he felt bored of waiting on the floor of the deck already. He stood up and casually strolled to the front of the ship for his special seat. As he walked, a faint strange sound caught the captain's attention. He turned around, but nothing could be making that otherworldly noise. It just didn't make sense to him. He searched to the side of the ship, but nothing.
"Oi Luffy!" The green-haired man tried to catch his attention. "What are you looking for?"
"Can't you hear that?" Luffy replied, and then continued to look around.
"Hear what?"
"That sound." He heard it once again. "There. There it is again."
The green-haired man joined in doubt for this mysterious sound. He closed his eyes and let out an ear to the sounds of the area and for a moment, there was nothing but silence. He thought it such and was about to continue with his day but then.
VVRRR…. VVVRRR…. VVRRR…. VVVRRRRMMMMPPPPPHHHH.
A noise. Something unheard of in his lifetime, the stutter of a slow grind of metal that echoed around him. Whatever that noise was, he sure as hell heard it. But he had no idea what to make of it. He didn't know if it was just some joint hallucination, since he had no idea where it was coming from.
"What the hell is that noise?" He was now just as curious as Luffy as to what that noise was, so he joined in on the hunt. They looked high and low for whatever made that noise, around the mast, out to the sea, and even around the ship, but they couldn't find out what it was. Meanwhile, Sanji came out from the kitchen to see Luffy and the green-haired man running around the ship.
"Oi Luffy! Zoro!" Sanji stopped the two as they continued their hunt.
"What the hell are you two doing?" He asked them both, confused at their actions. They weren't strangers to doing something reckless, like jumping off ship, but this is just out of the ordinary; completely out of their comfort have never been this dedicated to looking out for something.
"Oh hey Sanji!" Luffy cut back to his childlike sense of happiness.
"Are the snacks ready yet?" Sanji went back in for a moment, and he came back out with a large box.
"Yeah! Here is yours." Sanji tossed one plain white box to Luffy, who caught it by stretching his arm at mid-air. Luffy opened it up to find; a few finely cut sandwiches, two dumplings and lots of meat shanks, though ate it right away.
"Satisfied?" He asked Luffy, and he nodded in reply.
Most of the crew jumped off the ship and onto the pale beach of the unknown island. A quick look around from where they stood, but there wasn't anything of note; just a mass of blackened dead trees. They seemed to make up the colour of the land from afar. Ahead of them, a chalk pathway up to the top of the mountain, leading to a large mansion.
"Hey, I'm gonna stay here to look at the ship for the moment, alright? We may have hit a reef back there." The bulky man asked them, as he stood on the lawn deck.
"Okay Franky, we'll contact you on the transponder snail." Nami replied, throwing him what looked like a small orange snail. Franky waved as the
rest of the crew set off for the mountain.
"How tall is this damn mountain?" Usopp complained, wiping some sweat off of his forehead.
"Quit you complaining." Nami retorted. "We're just going there to see if anyone lives here, so we can get some information on this island and how long we have to stay here for."
"Maybe I can speed things up." Luffy proposed with a devilish smile on his face. The crew were not listening, too caught up in the tiring journey. Luffy launched himself back away from the group, a good distance from them. The captain stretched one hand to the left tree and the other to the right, both quivering from the length.
Zoro turned to his side, thinking his eyes would meet the captain. He stopped himself, finding Luffy behind him with wide arms that touched the edges of the pathway. The rest of crew turned as well to see this as well.
"What is he…?" Zoro's question was interrupted by Luffy's loud voice.
GUMO-GUMO NO…
"Oh no…" Zoro mumbled.
"Luffy…" Nami gritted her teeth in rage.
"Don't! No! Stop!" Usopp and Chopper pleaded.
"I really hate this captain." Sanji uttered to himself, a forefinger and thumb on the bridge of his nose.
"Sometimes, you really do take it out of me captain." Brook seemed to accept his fate.
CATAPULT!
The captain launched himself forward like a slingshot, grabbing the six crewmates with him in his outstretched arms. They felt the slapping force of Luffy's arms on their backs, as they skyrocketed into the air. In midair, their face was frozen in anger and pain, all forwarded towards their young captain. This was immediately changed however to fear as the ground seemed to approach the .
CRASH!
In front of the dark blue mansion, a large crater of the once airborne strawhat crew, face flat on the ground. The last to come down was Robin, who escaped the captain's painful alternative to travel. One by one, each person rose from the dirt floor, empty looks in their face. The last to pop was Luffy, with the same smile he always wore.
"HAHAHA! Oops. Sorry about that. I just got excited." He then immediately got hit on the head by Nami, Sanji and Zoro, with fury clouding their mind.
"YOU DUMBASS!" They yelled in unison. "STOP DOING IDIOTIC THINGS WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION!"
"Urgh." Brook groaned in pain, carrying his head up.
"I feel like my body is in pain. This coming from a skeleton, YOHOHOHOHO! Uhh." He planted his head back onto the ground to relax himself.
As the rest of the crew berated their captain for the stunt he pulled, Robin took to the house that brought them here. She admired the design of the large mansion, carefully studying it the detail. It was made out of brick, and coated with dark blue paint. It was four stories up and very wide. It bore a familiar symbol: an anchor, the sign of the marines, which seemed to trouble her a bit, however it looked like it hadn't been used in years. So she found it rather strange that some of the damage had been repaired. Someone was fixing everything up. And she was about to find out who it was.
The doors to the mansion clicked, silencing the shouting of the crew. They were open wide to show one lone figure at the door. His spread wide arms that opened the doors were lowered, with the forearms forward by his chest and palms as if preparing to move about. He walked out of the shadows and into the light, slouched down with the doors closed behind him. While is demeanor seemed odd, his dress sense was even more so. A brown tweed jacket, and a red bow tie as if we wore with pride. It was a rather quick walk down to the ground, but it did not alleviate the sudden rise of tension that this strange man brought.
"I don't suppose you would be the owners of the house."