Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda-sensei does. I didn't draw the picture I got the idea for this from, Oda-sensei did. I do own this story, however.

Talking Blues
By Chou

Prologue – Gold Roger, the Thief King

They had called Gold Roger the Thief King. He had stolen riches that most people couldn't imagine, and he had done it with style. Wealth. Fame. Power. All these things were his.

Until he got caught.

It had been a set up that had caught him. A high society party, with the top ranking police and the top ranking businessmen, and the top ranking everything, and they were carrying more riches than God. Which would've been a drop in the bucket to Gold Roger, but as he used to say, you could never have enough.

Some said he had to have known it was a trap. Some said it was just a matter of time before the criminal got caught. Most of the former opinion were usually thieves, and most of the latter opinion were usually Feds, not that it matters.

What matters is the last thing Gold Roger said before his execution. There was a large crowd, you see. He was, after all, a celebrity, and a popular one at that, despite the Feds and cops trying to put a stop to that. But that's not important, really. The important thing is that he was asked one last time where he hid his stash.

"You want my treasure?" he had asked with the grin only a true gentleman thief can pull off "You'll have to look for it, you know. If it helps, it's all in one piece, and whoever finds it can have it. Now let's get this execution over with!" he said with a great bellowing laugh.

And as his questioner sputtered in indignation, and as Gold Roger laughed like thunder, and the crowd gasped and cheered and cried, the electric chair did its work, and Gold Roger became a legend in the flick of a switch, the grin staying on even as the voltage took his life.

And his treasure, his stash, became the most sought after score in the history of heists. The "Big Score of Big Scores". And they called it One Piece.


Author's Notes:

The idea or this fic came from an OP color spread of the crew in these suits that look straight out of The Sting, and they're sort of lounging around with bags of loot. Usopp's even got this cool little derby on. Anyway, I thought, "Man, they look like the bee's knees…wait, that's it, a heist fic!"

See, I love heist movies. The Sting, Ocean's Eleven, Snatch…well, Snatch was sorta a heist movie, I guess it was more of a British crime flick. Weird one though, with Brad Pitt speaking all weird and all. Come to think of it, he was in Ocean's Eleven too…

*cough* Yeah, anyway. So, I was thinking, hey, I love heist flicks, I love One Piece, combine the two, bang, it'll be the bee's knees and the wasp's nipples.

Now, there are some weird things in here. 1926 Bentleys, for instance…well, I'm trying to graft a 1920s/30s/40s US onto One Piece. Unfortunately, I get most of these time periods confused, so, really, it's more about a general feel of tommy guns, gin joints, dames, swing, the slang, stuff like that, than any specific time period.

Also, this is a somewhat modified OP world. There's still the four Blues, but they're more like the hemispheres. There's a lot more land, really, although there's still boat travel. There's also airplanes too, something new to the OP world (would've made that Sky Island thing easier, I dare say).

Oh, and the Marines. They don't exist…as such. Now they're just the Feds of this world. Pretty much what Marines are to pirates, the Feds are to the thief gangs.

Expect to see some familiar faces with new twists on them, and expect a whole new take on One Piece with this fic. Although I might hit all the various Arcs…nobody says I have to do them in any sort of order ;)

In fact, wait till you see what Arc I start with, after I do the Shanks story…

Next chapter: The Red Haired Gang, their favorite bar, and a snot nosed street corner newspaper kid named Monkey D. Luffy…