'Sup, folks. Prodigy's Master here, with the first chapter in what I hope will be a pretty dang long fanfiction. Basically, this is the story of my One Piece OCs, and their journeys in the One Piece universe. Yes, some of these characters share similarities to other... anime, let's say, but I've tried to rework personality as best as I could.

Familiar names mean nothing! You here me? Nothing!

Devil Fruit Island. A legendary place, were the rarest of the rare Devil Fruits grew and prospered. A place long sought after by any pirate seeking power. A place where the rise of a pirate began.

The elevator was surprisingly large for its kind, being about 13 ft long, with plenty of windows, and a rope that occasionally brought down a bucket filled with food. The inhabitants of this elevator had been living inside it for 5 years, ever since a group of foolhardy pirates had found Devil Fruit Island.

Yes, this was the legendary place, and for most, it was kind of disappointing. About as big as the elevator, the island sported a single tree. But this was no ordinary tree. This tree was a giant, a true Goliath among its kind, so tall that even a sycamore would blush upon seeing it.

But why would mere pirates risk their lives for such a risky, foolhardy thing? And why would they try so hard to reach the top, knowing that the elevator moved about 1 half-inch per minute?

The answer of this question is simple: The Doragon Doragon No Mi. The rarest of the rare Devil Fruits. The evil fruit that gave the user the ability to duplicate the attributes of a dragon. This crew of pirates had landed and gotten onto the elevator, possibly forsaking their lives, just to gain a bite of the fruit.

A small, sakura-headed child perched on one of the windows, looking up through the tree foliage and gazing at the clump of Devil Fruits on top. This was the goal, his parents had told him, the ultimate goal of their whole voyage, the reason the child had been forced to grow up in such a clamped space.

The child didn't think much of it. It was just a fruit, to his young and undeveloped mind, nothing more, nothing less. Why so many people were searching for it, he couldn't guess.

A blow to his right knocked him sprawling on the floor. Several taller, fatter children glared down at him. "Hey, Shiro!" the first said, "stop hoggin' the view! Some of us want to feel like we have a purpose too!"

Shiro looked down and nodded, standing up and making his way to the rope in the center of the elevator. With luck, the bullies would be too preoccupied with looking at the Devil Fruits then to take his portion of the food deposited every few days.

Leaning against the rope, Shiro looked around him. There was nothing of interest in this place. Just clumps of adults and children, all smelly and tired, talking, playing cards, gambling, getting into fights. For the 5 years Shiro had been alive, this had been his life. He absolutely hated it.

The rope gave a creak as Shiro sighed and leaned against it all the more. So much did he lean into it, that a small plank of the elevator roof flipped off. Hearing this, Shiro glanced up. At first, his young eyes were dazzled at the sight of real sunlight. But then, another idea, a brilliant idea, popped into his head.

Grinning slightly, Shiro gripped the rope with his two small hands, then straddling it carefully. He began to pull himself up. If he was right...

He was. Within moments, he had reached the top of the elevator. Many children had done this before, looking for an exist so they could leave, but Shiro was the first to find one. Grinning, Shiro slipped through the hole in the ceiling.

He stood atop the elevator, staring up through several branches. Looking at the tree, it was probably easy to climb. A thick, central trunk, with thousands of branches spreading out from the sides. Shiro gripped the large trunk and began to pull himself up.

Several minutes later, he had reached the top, where the Devil Fruit tree was located. Shiro pulled himself onto a suprisingly large and thick branch. There! At the very end, a clump of Devil Fruits! Smiling, Shiro walked to it. First, he would take one, and then he would give it to his parents, and they could leave!

Suddenly, he froze. Lying in front of the clump of evil fruits, barely visible through the thick branches that Shiro had just pushed through, a middle aged man lay, a cigarette gently burning in his mouth. As Shiro's gentle footsteps rang clearly in the early morning, the man sat up, his eyes brimming with interest.

The man had lanky, sandy tan hair, and equally tanned skin. A large amount of stubble had taken nesting on his mouth, and his coal black eyes glinted in the light filtering through the canopy.

The man leaned back and laughed. It was short, and much like a seals. Tears streamed down his face quickly. Shiro watched, confused, as the man leaned back, laughing his arse off. Finally, gaining composure, the man leaned forward again.

"Well, I'll be damned," he said, wiping his eyes, "of all the adults in the elevator below, it's a child that finally makes it all the way up here." He stood suddenly, walking, crouched, then gently patted Shiro on the head. "What's your name, little guy?"

"S-shiro," his voice was cracky, as he had not needed to speak much in his life, "Shiro Akatsuki."

The man chuckled again. "Well, then, Shiro," he said, his voice lowering to a conspiratorial whisper, "don't ever tell anyone that Murtaugh the Devil Guardian gave away his best treasure to a little boy. Comprende?"

Shiro nodded. The man smiled, then reached behind him, picking up a blood red pear from the clump of fruits. It was covered in a strange swirling pattern, and gave off a small foul aroma. "Eat it," Murtaugh said, grinning, "you've earned it... and it will give you more power than you could imagine."

Shiro reached out, gingerly taking it. He raised it to his mouth, sniffed it a few times, then reluctantly began to eat it. It being the first food he had had in a month (the bullies had been stealing his portions of food), despite its taste, he devoured it hungrily.

Setting down the core, Shiro realized an icy fire was pulsing through his body. Taking a deep breath, Shiro looked down, seeing small tongues of flame licking the edges of his body. Murtaugh let out another barking laugh.

"And, now that's taken care of, I have something to ask you. Something I always ask anyone who comes here. What, my little buddy, is your ambition?"

"Ambition?" Shiro's brow wrinkled.

"Your wish. The one thing you want more than anything in the world. What is it?"

Shiro thought for a minute. The one thing... wanted more than anything in the world.

"I... I want... to see the world, before I figure out... what I want from it."

Another large barking laugh. "Then you'll have it," Murtaugh said, grinning from ear to ear, then pointing back down to the ground. "My boat's on the other side of the island. If you want to go back to your parents, you can, but you'll probably never get to see the world."

For Shiro, it was an easy decision. His parents had died a month ago of starvation, due to their food rations being taken by more aggressive families. So, he asked one simple question.

Now, before we get to the question, let's say this. If Shiro had not asked this question, then this story wouldn't exist, no one would have replaced Whitebeard as a Pirate God, and certainly one of the greatest pirate crews that had ever existed would never have been formed. Questions are powerful things, and certainly, this was one very powerful question. The question was...

"How do I get down?"

Ba-doom! And thus an epic story (hopefully), begins. Please, drop a review if you have anything to suggest, or story elements to conclude. This is Prodigy's Master, signing off.