Hey Guys! I know this one is a little on the short side, but there is reason for this.

This passage is the prologue of a side story that resides within the same Universe as the Fic I worked on with Emygrl99 for the '16OPBB. [You can find the fic on our joint account, LeafyxEmy here on FF]

You don't really need to read Red Moon in order to understand this particular fic, but the choice is up to you.

Warnings: Abuse both physically and mentally, neglect and slavery

And a quick note. Izo is a Male to Female Transgender, I realize that cannonly he is Male and many of you expect him to be so, but in this AU Izo is a she.

The work was also unbeta'd so any mistakes are completely my own.

Disclaimer: I own nothing in regards to One Piece. Enjoy!~

Smack.

The five year old's vision swam dizzyingly while simultaneously warping her surroundings with the unshed tears that filmed her honey gold eyes. Her ebony dark tresses were a mangled curtain that did nothing to shield her as she remained frozen where she knelt, her head had been snapped harshly to the side by the vicious slap she had just received. She had no presence of mind to think on the action though, for all of her thoughts were focused on the searing pain that throbbed across her face.

It hurt. Her face hurt. But that sensation paled in comparison to the feeling of… what was the feeling that was burning within her exactly? Her young mind struggled to place a name on the emotion that was overwhelming her. It was dark and awful and, mother had never made her feel those emotions. Even when mother left them, she had felt sadness and had felt loss so profound she could not understand. But she was not feeling either of those now. What she had felt in that moment in time, she would learn to call it shame, humiliation, and rejection.

"And now you're crying? You better shut the fuck up you stupid useless brat?" the voice above her boomed, and she had to flinch from the unrestrained animosity behind it.

"How many times must I tell you that men don't cry." the man demanded as he glared at the crumpled child before him.

"B-but I am not a–" whatever the child was about to say was cut off by another blow. This time, however, instead of a slap across the face she was dealt a harsh unrelenting kick to her side.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence, boy." the man growled. "Your mother may have tolerated your idiotic nonsense, but I will not stand for it, do I make myself clear?"

The bad feeling grew and inflated until she let out a strangled sob. The second the choked sound was expelled from her throat was the exact moment that the tears that had obscured her vision were released. She shut her eyes tightly in a vain attempt to stop them, but the tears were not easily stopped as they continued to stream down her face onto the floor underneath her. She tried to keep the sobs in, she did her best to keep quiet, and overall she tried to give the man the nod that he was waiting for.

But she could not do so, she could not appease the one demand he wanted from her. Instead, she cried.

She was only a child after all, she had no control over her emotions. But the man above her did, and he chose to project disgust, anger, and hatred for the child he had brought into the world they lived in.

He had been given a child he could not understand, or rather, refused to understand. The death of her mother marked the changing tide in her life. For without the protection of the one person who loved her, she was left to defend herself from the man who looked down upon her as nothing more than an inconvenience he no longer wanted to deal with.

Young Izo was no match for a father that could not grasp what he could not see. When he insisted that she was a male, as her physical body claimed, she had to correct him and tell him that she was not a male, but rather a female.

What was the difference between a boy and a girl anyway? Why did her father care so much about what gender she was? Why did she have to be a boy when she knew in her heart that she was not? Her mother had known too, and had encouraged Izo when Izo asked for more feminine clothing, and when her father disapproved, she had placated him.

And then her health declined after a sudden animal attack. Shortly after, the wound became infected and with no funds to pay for proper care, her mother passed from the world of the living.

Thus Izo remained with the man that had lost all of his love for her. Izo was left with the man who sold her the moment her mother's coffin was lowered into the earth and banished from her world.

If Izo wished to be a female, then she could do it anywhere but under his roof.

Right after the short service in memory of her mother, Izo was thrust into the arms of a woman she had never met before, this woman who wore too much face paint and smelled of intoxicating scents that overpowered her senses. That was the last time Izo ever saw her father, right before she was taken to her new home where she would spend the next eleven years of her life.

So as mentioned, this is a side story within the same universe as Red Moon. The timeline, however, is much earlier than that in RM, since it revolves around Izo's past and her relationship with Thatch.

Please let me know if you would like to know more of how she and Thatch came to be together, and I will do my best in getting the next chapter out soon.

Hope to hear back from you guys! Have a great day!~