"The Magical Misfit Pirates": One Piece Special!
Oh, hey. I didn't think I'd get any attention for this. Then again, FWB has always said that people can have the craziest of interests...
Anyway, I'm Maria, the OC who's been having the amnesia problems for the last few months. FWB - FourthWallBreaker - asked me recently if I'd had any particularly weird dreams involving the Straw Hats, and I told her about this one.
In this world, there are no Devil Fruits. Absolutely none. So people make up for those fruits by doing something even more idiotic: messing with magic.
I'm not about to start to go into how Ace and other Logias came into existence now, but I can tell you that it wasn't in the usual way.
Basically, everyone in this version of One Piece ended up getting affected somehow by magic - magic objects, magic spells, you name it. As a result, that makes what they can do just a little bit different, but not really by much in most cases.
You're probably wondering where all of this is going, and if I'll ever shut up so that you can get to the story. Don't worry - I'll be out of your way soon. I'm just going to warn you now that this is going to be a bit of a...I think it's called a "drabble fic?" Anyway, it's just a collection of short stories that revolve around these magically-affected Straw Hats. Starting with the crew setting off.
Oh, and by the way - FourthWallBreaker doesn't own anybody in this story, just the idea of the whole "magical" bit.
Chapter 1 - Tree Demon? (part 1)
When Luffy woke up in the morning, he found himself looking up at two figures with wide grins.
"Today's the day, right?" asked one of the figures, grinning.
"Right!" Luffy gained a wide grin, then sat up and got to his feet. "Franky said yesterday that he's ready to put the ship together, so I'm gonna make sure that everyone else knows we're gonna help him out! You can help, too."
"Nah, this is your crew, remember?" the black-haired teen who had been speaking grabbed the orange cowboy hat from a nearby wooden peg in the wall and put it on his head. "It wouldn't be right if we got in the way."
"But you guys want to set sail, too! You could join my-"
"NO!" came two annoyed responses.
Luffy gave them a pouting expression. "But Ace~! Sabo~!"
"We already agreed that having the three of us captaining is going to be impossible," Sabo said seriously. He folded his arms across his chest. "Especially since Fire Sprite over there is too afraid to go out to sea because of all the water."
Ace's face turned red at the nickname. "Oi! I didn't ever say that you could call me that!"
Luffy laughed at his older brothers' antics as Sabo responded, "I don't see why I can't call you whatever I want, since I'm the only one of us who's actually a magical monster." As though to prove the blond's point, a tail with royal blue scales snaked around from behind Sabo and poked Ace's left arm.
"Yeah, well, you weren't the one who used to be an honest-to-goodness bonfire," Ace responded, rubbing his arm and scowling. "Can you say that you were created with magic?"
Luffy continued laughing as he picked his nose. "I got turned into rubber by Shanks and a nasty mountain bandit! I think that makes me the most unusual!"
"IT DOESN'T!" Ace and Sabo barked back at Luffy, Sabo's teeth sharpening as he practically snarled the words.
Luffy just laughed off his brothers' response, then removed his finger from his nose and grinned widely. "Well, I'm gonna go meet everybody and head over to Franky's! I'll see you guys later!" He grabbed a chunk of dried meat from where it was lying on the floor - the last of yesterday's catch. It would tide him over until he could catch something else later.
"Make sure you come back before you leave so that you can tell us what exactly it is that you're doing," Ace responded.
"And don't do anything reckless," Sabo added, giving Luffy a serious look with his golden, reptilian eyes. "I don't want to have to come flying in to rescue you all the time."
Luffy gained a frowning expression. "I can protect myself!"
"Then make sure that you do!" Ace shot back, grinning.
"Shishishishishi!"
Luffy waved back to his brothers as he walked out of the treehouse that they had been living in for the last ten years before jumping down and landing on the ground, miraculously managing to avoid bouncing around like a rubbery ball. He'd had to learn how to stop doing that back when he was eight - especially since Ace and Sabo had teased him about it so much.
It wasn't his fault that the bandit hadn't known what he was doing and had turned Luffy into rubber when he had been aiming for Shanks!
Luffy grinned at the thought of the red-haired wizard-pirate and touched the straw hat on top of his head in a fond manner. "Soon, Shanks. I'm gonna go out there and become King of the Pirates, just like I promised!"
With that said, Luffy took off at a jog down the mountain towards Foosha - otherwise known as the "Town of Magical Misfits" by any outsiders. Mainly because of all the magically affected people who had somehow turned up on their shores. Luffy had made it a point in the past to try and find people to make friends with - if only because some people were really interesting and he could get them to join his crew!
Luffy reached the bottom of the mountain without any issue from any of the local beasts - those lived on the other side of the mountain, luckily - and he arrived on the main street of town. As soon as his sandaled feet hit tamped earth, he made a beeline for the docks - the planned meeting place of his soon-to-be pirate crew.
It was easy enough to find them - Franky was laughing at a joke Usopp had made while Sanji was fawning over Nami, who was starting to look a little annoyed. Meanwhile, Brook - the skeleton who they had picked up from an abandoned cemetery last week - was sitting in the back of the group, looking over a lyre that Usopp had somehow managed to cobble together.
"Hi, guys!" Luffy called out as he came to a stop. The other five looked up at his voice and grinned in greeting.
"What took you so long, Luffy?" Usopp asked. The long-nosed teenager was probably the most normal out of the entire group. "I was starting to wonder if I had to send my eight thousand followers to look for you!"
The only thing that was different was that Usopp had eaten a mushroom that had turned him into a near-constant habitual liar. As a result, he now avoided mushrooms like the plague. At least, that was what he always said.
Luffy grinned widely and laughed off Usopp's exclamation, then made a beeline for Franky, who was standing at the entrance to his shipwright workshop. "You gonna make the ship now?"
"Everything's all set!" the teal-haired man responded, grinning widely. "All I need now is the wood, and I know just where to go for it."
"Yosh!" Luffy's grin became even wider.
"I'm gonna leave the wood-gathering to you guys," Nami commented, spinning the blue staff in her hands in an almost lazy manner. Usopp had made it for her not too long after he had joined the crew - he may have been an excellent liar and sniper, but he was handy when it came to random gadgets. He and Franky got along so well, it was almost like the two of them were related.
"Anything to get a decent kitchen to work in," groused a certain blond around his cigarette. "What do you want to make this ship out of, Franky? Oak or something?"
"What we're looking for isn't an ordinary tree," Franky responded, looking over at Luffy's cook.
"It isn't?" Usopp repeated, frowning.
The shipwright shook his head. "I've got a specific type of wood in mind. It's a rare kind that is so expensive that it's nearly impossible to get your hands on an actual living tree. And even then the wood might not be healthy enough." He jabbed a thumb back behind him. "I managed to find out a couple days ago that there's a healthy tree up on the other side of the mountain."
"The other side?!" Nami looked at Franky in alarm. Luffy saw that his navigator's hair was starting to spark a little - the "weather witch" tended to release storm clouds whenever she got angry or uneasy enough.
"I-I've heard rumors about that part of the island," Usopp said worriedly. "I heard that there are monsters over there that eat human flesh and come from the world beyond!"
Brook looked up from his lyre. "Monsters from the world beyond?!" The skeleton let out a shriek of terror.
Luffy burst out laughing. "That sounds like fun!" A moment later, however, he gained a more frowning expression. "But there aren't monsters from the world beyond. There's just that stupid Tiger Lord that my brothers and I beat a year ago."
Usopp let out a sigh of relief.
"But there is that weird-looking tree that the animals don't like very much. It's almost as tall as the tree we live in."
Usopp squeaked in alarm when he heard that.
"That's the tree that I'm looking for," Franky said, nodding.
"I heard about that tree," Nami said nervously. "Isn't that the tree that supposed to have a demon in it?"
"A demon?" Luffy turned and looked at Nami eagerly.
A shudder ran down Brook's visible spine, shaking his ever-present afro. "Demons are creatures from the world beyond that should best be avoided." He made a motion that was clearly meant to ward evil off and started strumming his lyre while humming nervously.
"Demons aren't all that bad," Franky said. "I know that there were a couple demons working at the shipwright docks I used to work at. So long as you have them bound to something so that they'll listen to the higher-ups, they're all right to work with. Shoot - there was a shipwright in Water 7 who was a demon who could transform into a giraffe!"
"Cool!" Luffy's eyes were sparkling eagerly. "I wanna meet the demon! Maybe he'll join our crew!"
"NO!" Nami, Usopp, and Brook all yelled at once.
"Maybe if it's a demoness~!" Sanji cooed, his visible eye turning into a heart for a moment as the unstable love potion in his body came into affect.
There came a low rumble of thunder as black clouds started coming out of Nami's ears. She raised a fist and slammed it into Sanji's head, glaring at him angrily. "Even if it's a demoness, it's not getting on the crew!"
Luffy didn't hear Nami's declaration as he looked up at Franky eagerly. "How do we get a demon to join the crew?"
"Depends on the kind of demon," Franky responded, rubbing a finger under his metal nose - the only thing that showed why he had ended up on the island of "Magical Misfits" in the first place. "There are unbound demons and there are bound demons. The unbound ones can be recruited just like any normal person - you just have to make sure that they're interested enough to keep going with you for as long as you ask them to. Bound demons, on the other hand, are a different story altogether. Because they've been bound to an object, you have to make sure that the object stays with them at all times so that they can move around."
"How do you know so much, Franky?" Usopp asked hesitantly. He hedged a glance in Sanji's direction and saw that he was still sparking from Nami's hit, a large bump on the blond's head.
"Like I said, there are a few of them that work at Water 7," Franky repeated. "Kaku and Lucci were foremen who Iceberg found and hired a while back - Kaku's the giraffe I mentioned, and Lucci can turn into a big cat sometimes if you annoy him enough. Lucci's actually bound to this little pigeon that's always riding around on his shoulder - the only reason I know that is because of an incident he had a while back." Franky snickered at the memory, but didn't bother to elaborate. "Demon-bound objects and animals are said to be stronger than any normal animal or object, and they're curse resistant. Even after the demon isn't bound to the object, that strength is still there. We could use that strength to make a strong ship."
"Whoa..." Usopp gained a nervous expression. "S-so, what are we gonna do with the one that's stuck to that tree you wanted?"
"We should probably give him something else that he can be bound to before I start chopping up the tree," Franky responded. "Since you guys have been living around here for longer than I have, I thought that you might be able to tell me something about the demon - there's got to be some kind of legend about him getting sealed up in the tree or something like that."
Luffy and the others exchanged looks with blank expressions for a moment.
"Maybe...meat?" Luffy suggested after a moment.
Nami knocked him over the head. "No way that'd work, dumbass! When the meat gets rotten and falls apart, the same thing's gonna happen to the demon!" The orange-haired teen let out a sigh of annoyance and shook her head at Luffy as he rubbed his head with an expression of annoyance.
"And I am not about to waste some perfectly good food on this," Sanji added seriously.
"Do you think we could get the demon an animal?" Usopp suggested.
Luffy shook his head. "The animals don't like that part of the mountain."
"Perhaps a weapon?"
Everyone looked over at the talking skeleton in alarm.
"A weapon?" Usopp's knees started knocking together. "To a demon? It could just go ahead and kill every single one of us then and go on a rampage!"
"Not necessarily." Brook strummed on the lyre for a moment, then continued, "From what I can remember of myths involving demons, if you give them an item to bond to - rather than force it upon them - they become indebted to the person who gave them the object and are forced to serve them for the rest of their days. In other words, whether or not he is still bonded to the tree after Franky has turned it into our ship, we will still have the demon on our crew anyway."
"You're surprisingly calm about this," Nami commented, turning and frowning at the skeleton.
"Yohohoho. Well, you yourselves said that nothing ever got in the way of Luffy-san's decisions for the crew. And I believe he has made a decision already on the matter of the demon."
Brook was right about that - there was such a look on Luffy's face now that Nami and the others were sure that there wasn't going to be any escape from the thought of a demon joining the crew.
"Sabo's got some cool weapons hiding around somewhere!" Luffy offered. "He'd probably be okay with us taking one and giving it to the demon!" With that, Luffy turned and ran off towards the mountain. "I'll meet you guys by the tree later! I know where it is!"
The rubber boy didn't hear the response that his exclamation gave; he was already moving fast enough that he was well out of range for their voices.
It didn't take Luffy too long to climb up the mountain again. By the time he had reached the treehouse, Ace and Sabo had clearly restocked their store of meat and were in the process of roasting some for their own breakfast.
Luffy sat down and grabbed a leg of the fat panda-like bear before either one of his older brothers could offer a word of protest.
"Back so soon?" Sabo asked, looking amused.
Ace, on the other hand, looked annoyed. "Oi! You said you were going to be out all day helping Franky look for wood for that ship you were going to make!"
Luffy swallowed what remained of the bear leg and spat out the bone; his belly started to slowly shrink as his metabolism worked its magic and redirected the energy quickly to his muscles. "Franky and the others are gonna meet me at the tree he wants to use. I came up here because Sabo might have something we could use."
"Me?" Sabo's ever-present, royal blue dragon tail twitched. "What do you mean?"
"There's a demon in the tree." Luffy grinned widely. "And I want him to be my nakama."
Ace and Sabo exchanged looks when they heard this.
"So I need a weapon or something to give to it! You have stuff like that, right, Sabo?"
Sabo considered his younger brother's statement for a moment."Ah...I do, Luffy. But I don't know if getting a demon to be your nakama would be such a good idea. They can be known to backstab people sometimes."
"Brook said that if I gave it something, it would be my nakama and wouldn't attack me or anything like that," Luffy said seriously. "Besides, Franky's gonna use the demon's tree, so it's gonna be my nakama whether it likes it or not."
Ace looked at Luffy like he was insane, but then he let out a sigh and shook his head. "You're heart's pretty set on this, huh? Like when you went over to that other island and took out all those fishmen a month back. You're lucky you weren't shredded to pieces."
"Nami needed my help." Luffy folded his arms across his chest, scowling. "I wasn't gonna let some fishman get away with making my navigator cry."
Sabo paused at that, then let out a sigh. "All right, Luffy. I'll take you to where we've got the pirate fund from Gray Terminal, but you can only take one thing from there that you think this 'demon' might want."
Luffy grinned and nodded vigorously. "Yosh! Arigotou, Sabo!"
Sabo simply gave his brother a smirk, and then his entire form started to shift and change. Within moments, a royal blue and yellow dragon was curing around the clearing, his wings looking like some kind of cloak for a moment before completely unfurling.
Without hesitating, Luffy jumped on, and the dragon took off into the air, circling once around the treehouse before flying for a more rocky portion of the mountain high above them - one of the few places that the wild animals didn't go to.
Here was where Sabo had hidden his "pirate fund" - a code name for his treasure horde, a dragon's pride and joy. Even more so for the royal blue dragon, as he was the only one who was able to boast such a treasure trove for miles in the East Blue. Sabo had talked about becoming a pirate himself a long time ago, but that dream had changed to protecting the island he lived on - as well as his brothers.
Sabo landed on the rocky ledge that was outside the cave at the top of the mountain, and Luffy eagerly scrambled off and dashed inside. The royal blue dragon followed after him, keeping a close eye on the rubbery teen as he started to scramble over the small pile of gold and gems that were in the cave.
"I'm glad you didn't bring that weather witch with you this time." Sabo came to a stop in front of the pile of gold while Luffy dug through it. "It was enough of a nightmare last time trying to convince her not to get away with anything."
Luffy probably would have laughed in agreement had he not been distracted by the mission that he had given himself: to find a weapon that a demon might be willing to bond with. He was having a difficult time of it, though - mainly because none of the weapons that he was finding really felt right...
Something shifted in the pile, and Luffy lifted his head. He caught sight of a white something sliding down the pile of treasure and onto the floor of the cave; the rubbery teen leapt for it.
It was some kind of sword in a simple white sheath and with a matching white handle. It didn't really look all that fantastic compared to everything else that was in Sabo's treasure horde...but that meant that Sabo wouldn't mind parting with it, either.
"Oooh!" Luffy looked over the sword, a bright light of interest and eagerness in his eyes. "This looks cool." He drew the sword out of the sheath and held it up in the air so that he could get a better look at it.
"That's a katana," Sabo commented, lumbering over in his dragon form. A frown came across his reptilian face. "But how did that particular one end up in here...?"
"Ne, Sabo! Can I give this one to the demon?" Luffy nearly shoved the blade in Sabo's face, causing the dragon to step back.
"Be careful, Luffy! Swords were made to cut people, remember?" Sabo muttered something about idiotic brothers under his breath while Luffy gained a sheepish expression as he sheathed the sword. "You can take it; I'm not about to use a sword anytime soon."
Luffy gained a wide grin. "Arigotou, Sabo!"
"Don't mention it." Sabo grinned, showing his sharp teeth. "How about I get you to your friends, then?"
"Shishishishi! They're meeting me near where the demon tree is!"
"All right, then. Let's go!"
Time Break
When Sabo and Luffy had landed outside of the forest, the rubbery teen had a sour frown on his face.
"Franky! Where's Sanji and Nami and Usopp and Brook?" Luffy demanded as he slid off Sabo's back.
Franky shrugged. "They didn't really want to face a demon, even after I said we were probably going to be fine. The only reason Nami let me go is that I said we needed at least me and you in order to get the tree I'm looking for." The metal-nosed shipwright gave what looked like a salute to Sabo, who nodded in response.
Luffy scowled and folded his arms across his chest, still holding onto the white katana in his right hand. "Wimps."
"That's what I was thinking!" Franky responded.
"You two had better hope that you know what you're doing," Sabo commented, looking at his brother and the shipwright.
"Don't worry, Sabo!" Luffy responded, grinning brightly. "We'll be fine! And I'll come back with a demon as my nakama!"
With that, Luffy turned and started into the forest. Franky quickly moved after him, leaving the dragon looking after his brother with an expression that seemed to say he was somewhere between trusting his brother and wanting to beat his brother's head in.
Not that Luffy noticed. He was in a cheery mood at the thought of picking up a new nakama, and not even the killer intent his brother was seeming to release could dull his eagerness one bit.
"So, that's the weapon we're gonna use?" Franky looked at the sword that Luffy was carrying.
"Yup! We need an official swordsman, anyway. Brook's the crew's musician, remember?"
"Yeah, I know that. But do you think that the demon's going to even want to be a swordsman?"
Luffy blinked at that, then shrugged and started singing. "Oh, the islands in the north are cold~!"
Franky flinched at his captain's horrific singing voice as he grimaced. However, there really wasn't much that he could do about it - Luffy was Luffy, and there was no way that his singing was going to get any better anytime soon. If anything, it was probably going to get worse.
Franky had managed to get Luffy to stop singing before he got to the third verse of his "Island Song" by the time they had reached the tree that the shipwright had been looking for.
"This is it." Franky stopped at the edge of the clearing and motioned to the large, tall tree that was in front of them.
"Whoa!" Luffy tilted his head back and looked up in amazement. "It's definitely gotta be bigger than mine!"
Franky laughed. "Yup! This tree's been on the island for a long time. Maybe even longer than Foosha Village has been around."
Luffy practically had stars in his eyes. "So, where's the demon, Franky? I wanna meet the demon!" He started dancing about, looking like he was about to take off running around the clearing.
"Hold your horses there, Luffy! I can't make the demon come out."
Luffy gained a pouting expression. "But you gotta talk to him before you turn the tree into a ship, right?"
"Well yeah, but-"
"Then make him come out!"
Franky looked like he wanted to protest, but then he let out a sigh of annoyance and scratched his head - the action didn't so much as muss up his pompadour. "I can try, but I don't think he's going to-" The shipwright cut himself off a moment later and looked at the tree with an expression of surprise.
"What is it?" Luffy looked at Franky curiously, then followed his gaze over to the tree. Then his own eyes widened, and a large grin appeared on his face.
A green tornado as tall as a man had formed in front of the tree.
Stars quickly formed in Luffy's eyes as the green tornado actually started to look more and more like a human. The black boots formed first, followed shortly by black pants, some sort of dark green cloak, a red sash, a green haramaki hiding underneath the cloak, a bare chest with a large scar that seemed to start at the left shoulder...
By the time that the head of the demon was completely formed, the number of stars in Luffy's eyes and around his head had increased to the point that it almost looked like he was the center of a small galaxy.
Franky looked the demon over, raising an eyebrow at the fact that he seemed to have green hair. It wasn't the most unusual thing he had seen, but it was still pretty unusual to see green hair on a person.
The demon folded his arms across his chest and glared at Franky and Luffy. "What are you doing here?"
"Franky wants to make a ship!" Luffy responded, grinning widely. "You're really cool!"
The demon looked like he was about to say something, but he was cut off by the second part of Luffy's statement, leaving him looking a little thrown off. The green-haired demon quickly recovered from his shock, however, shaking his head for a moment.
"So your friend wants to build a ship," the demon said. "Why come to me?"
"We're gonna use your tree." Luffy pointed up at the tree behind the demon, using the hand that was holding onto the katana.
"My tree?" The demon frowned. "What makes you think you're ever going to be able to use my tree?" His left arm twitched, as though he was going to uncross his arms and reach for something, but then his frown soured into something that looked more like a scowl.
"Franky said it'd be a strong ship, and I'm gonna have nothing less than the best when I become King of the Pirates!" Luffy pointed at himself, grinning broadly.
The demon scoffed at that. "Since when can pirates have a king? They're reckless morons who only think about themselves and killing innocents."
"Pirates have the most freedom on the seas!" Luffy shot back. "I wanna become a pirate because of the adventure!"
Franky grinned at that. "Don't forget about the One Piece."
"Yeah!"
"One Piece?" The demon snorted. "There's no way that exists. It's just a myth."
"No it's not! Gold Roger found it twenty years ago!"
"Twenty years-" The demon cut himself off as his eyes widened. "That's not possible."
"Yeah it-"
"Hold on, Luffy." Franky cut his captain off, then looked at the green-haired demon directly. "I think I know what's going on. You haven't been able to get too far away from this clearing, have you?"
The demon held Franky's gaze for a moment, but then his eyes strayed elsewhere and the demon closed his eyes.
"So you haven't been able to keep up with what's going on outside of this forest," Franky said.
"Franky?" Luffy looked at Franky in confusion.
"Remember how I said that demons can't move too far away from certain objects if they're bound to them?" At Luffy's nod, Franky continued, "If the object can't move, then neither can the demon. Where he's standing now is probably as far as he can move from the tree."
Luffy frowned at that. "I wouldn't be able to do that. I'd go nuts if I wasn't able to go and hunt for meat!"
As the rubber teen spoke, something started softly glowing somewhere near him, getting his and Franky's attention.
"Huh?" Luffy held up the white katana, frowning at the soft glow that was coming off it. "What-"
There came a surprised noise from the demon, causing Luffy and Franky to look over at him in surprise. The demon was staring at them with wide, shocked eyes - or, rather, he was staring at the katana.
"Is that...?" The demon didn't look like he could believe his eyes.
Luffy looked down at the katana for a moment, then back at the demon. With a straight face, he walked towards the green-haired man and held out the katana in front of him at arm's length.
The demon's eyes moved sharply from the katana to Luffy's eyes when the rubbery teen came to a stop in front of the demon. The two remained like that for a moment before the demon's eyes flicked to the katana. Hesitantly, the demon reached forward and grabbed hold of the katana's sheath.
As soon as the demon's hand gripped the sheath, the glow on the katana suddenly increased. The demon's face contorted into a grimace as he grunted in pain, but he refused to let go.
Luffy kept his own grip on the katana for a moment, then let go and stepped back from the demon so that he could grab the sheath with both hands.
The demon did so, and at the same time, a dark aura seemed to rise up from him, forming what looked like a figure with nine arms and three faces. However, the light from the white katana brightened, then, causing the aura to dissipate. At the same time, the demon let out a yell of pain while steam rose up from his hands - it almost looked like he was being burned.
A moment later, the demon collapsed, curling in on himself and holding onto the katana like it was a lifeline.
"Oi, oi!" Franky moved towards the demon and got down on his knees to inspect the demon. "Are you all right?"
The demon responded with a groan, but he didn't move from the position he was lying in. After a moment, however, he managed to push himself into an upright position against the tree, where he lay, breathing heavily. The white katana ended up lying across his lap, his hands still holding tightly to it. It took a little longer before the demon said anything.
"I'm fine," the demon said stiffly.
"Get away from Zoro!"
Luffy lifted his head when he heard what sounded like a little kid shouting, and he turned his head in the direction of the voice. He blinked in confusion a moment later.
"A raccoon dog?" Luffy asked, blinking at the little figure hiding the wrong way behind the tree. It looked like a little human, but the creature had brown fur, a blue nose, a bright pink top hat with a white "X" on it, and weird-looking antlers sticking out of either side of the hat.
"I'm a reindeer, you stupid human!" the creature barked back. "What did you do to Zoro?"
"Zoro?" Luffy blinked, a blank expression on his face.
"He's talking about Kenshi-san."
Franky and Luffy looked up while the green-haired demon muttered something under his breath.
"Who are you?" Luffy asked, curious.
"Woman, how many times have I told you to not come and bother me?" the demon demanded, glaring up at one of the tree's lower branches.
The dark-haired woman sitting in the branches gave a laugh, then turned her attention fully to Luffy. "Perhaps it might be better if you introduced yourself first? After all, you do have a rather angry reindeer looking at you at the moment."
"Oh!" Luffy looked over at the talking reindeer, who was still watching him warily, then back up at the woman. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy! I'm going to become King of the Pirates!"
The green-haired demon snorted at the introduction while the dark-haired woman looked amused.
"The name's Franky," Franky added.
"I'm Nico Robin," the woman said, smiling slightly. She looked down at the demon below her. "Kenshi-san, go ahead and introduce yourself."
The demon grunted. "Roronoa Zoro." He looked down at the katana in his hands for a moment before looking over at the talking reindeer that was behind the tree. "Hey, Chopper, you're hiding the wrong way again!"
The reindeer scrambled at that and managed to hide behind the tree the right way.
"We can still see you, Doctor-san," Robin called. "You might as well come over here and inspect Kenshi-san - I doubt that our visitors mean him any harm."
"Wh-what about me?" Chopper responded. He slipped behind the tree again and peeked out...once again hiding the wrong way.
"A doctor?" Luffy gained an eager expression. "You're a doctor? Cool!"
"We could use a doctor," Franky commented with a thoughtful expression. "Especially since we don't have one on the crew yet."
Chopper blinked. "Y-you...you don't want to eat me?"
"Eat you?" Luffy frowned. "You can talk. That means I can't eat you. Sabo tells me that kind of thing all the time."
"Sabo...?" Chopper looked confused for a moment before understanding crossed his features. He slowly, hesitantly, moved out from behind the tree, then made a beeline for Zoro while Franky and Luffy moved back a little from the demon. "What happened, Zoro? I heard you yell like you were getting stabbed or something!"
Zoro grunted as the little reindeer-monster climbed up onto his lap. "It's just my hands, Chopper. They felt like they were being burned, but I...I can't move them."
"Your hands?" Chopper turned and looked down at where Zoro's hands were gripping the white katana. He started to try and pry the fingers off them, but his hooves weren't able to get them to so much as budge.
Robin leaned forward on her branch, an interested expression on her face. "Oh, my."
"What is it?" Franky looked up at Robin curiously.
"It seems that you've managed to bond Kenshi-san to that katana, Wado Ichimonji - one of the 21 O Wazamono Grade swords, I believe," Robin commented. "I didn't think that you would have attempted such a thing, considering that you were here for this tree instead of a fighter like Kenshi-san."
Franky laughed. "What makes you say that?"
"I want a demon on my crew!" Luffy said in a determined tone. He grinned down at Zoro. "And we were gonna get you anyway if we cut down your tree."
Chopper turned sharply when he heard this and looked up at Luffy in alarm. Zoro, on the other hand, let out a groan and gained an annoyed expression that clearly said what he thought about the whole idea.
"I don't think you're going to get much of a choice in the matter, Kenshi-san," Robin remarked. She slid off the branch she had been sitting on and landed on the ground on light feet. "When Luffy gave you that katana, it seems that he not only forged a bond between you and the sword, but between you and him as well while breaking your ties to the tree."
Zoro's expression went from annoyed to alarmed. "What?!"
"You didn't know about that?" Franky asked, raising an eyebrow. "I thought all demons were aware of it."
"We are," Robin responded. "Kenshi-san is simply a...special case."
Luffy's head whipped around to look at Robin. "You're a demon, too?! Cool! Join my crew!"
"What do you mean, 'special case'?" Franky asked, ignoring his captain's demand.
"Perhaps it would be best if Kenshi-san explained himself." Robin sent Zoro a meaningful look, which caused the green-haired demon to respond with a dark glare and what was probably a low growl. Chopper, who was still busy trying to get Zoro's hands to let go of the katana, only paused to glance up before getting back to his work.
"Zoro?" Luffy cocked his head out of interest, looking at the demon in question.
Zoro felt Luffy's eyes on him, and he turned his head so that he could look at the straw hat-wearing boy. The dark look on his face shifted to something that made him look more like he was sulking. "I used to be a human, all right? The demon thing was just a curse that I ended up running into. And then I got stuck in that stupid tree."
Zoro added something under his breath that sounded like a curse, but Luffy didn't catch it. He wasn't particularly interested in that, either.
"Well, now you're with us," Luffy said. "You're my nakama."
Zoro eyed Luffy for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then he let out a resigned sigh. "Yeah, I guess."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Zoro's hands relaxed on the katana.
Maria: So that's part one. I'll get FWB to post the other part of this bit later.
FWB: I'll make sure it gets out, don't worry. In the meantime, would you guys let me know what you think of this? I've got a lot of ideas for this one that could definitely make things interesting. :) If you've got any opinions on what the other characters in One Piece are going to be - demon, human, whatever - don't be afraid to send me suggestions!
See you later!