Prologue – Chapter One
Pieces of a shipwreck slowly drifted to the shore of the jungled island. The residents of the island were combing the shore gathering resources as they did every morning. A stir went up from one side of the shore, among the debris of the ship was a small child. She could be no older than six, with wild shoulder length brown hair and gold-green eyes. She was sitting on a piece of wood and clutching a small bag to herself. She blinked as the head of the island walked over. He stared at her and she just stared back at him.
"What shall we do with her, Head?" asked one of the random bystanders.
The head thought a moment, "We shall ask Draven for guidance. Bring her with us." he said after a while.
The villagers and the small girl went to an open shrine in the middle of the jungle. The villagers placed the girl in the middle of the shrine and began to chant in a half circle around the shrine. After a minute or so of chanting a large jaguar walked out of the jungle.
"Oh great Draven, we bring before you a child found amongst the shipwreck and beg you tell us what you will." The head said, bowing low with the rest of the villagers. The large cat and the child stared at each other, before the child grinned and suddenly turned into a saber-toothed kitten. The villagers all gasped.
"She has been blessed! Draven has spoken! Now we shall go and resume our work by your leave, oh Great One." The head said, bowing low again.
The jaguar watched the small kitten until the villagers were out of earshot. "How did you do that? I do not have that ability." He said in a deep rumbling voice.
"Dunno. Found out I could while drifting on the ocean." The kitten/girl said, watching her short tail flick side to side.
The leopard chuckled, "What is your name, child?"
"Dunno, never had anyone to tell me." She said still focusing on her tail.
"Then you shall be Arima from now on. Come, there is much you must learn." He rumbled and walked off into the woods, Arima following at his heels.
~10 Years Later~
Arima strolled into the small village in her mostly human form all the villagers moved aside and bowed to her. She walked up to one of the villagers and smiled at him, revealing long fangs.
"Hey old man, what meat have you got today?" she asked.
The man bowed to her and gave her free reign of his produce. She was munching on a fish when she overheard a couple of villagers talking.
"So, did you hear? The pirates are going wild over on the Grand Line."
"The Grand Line? Isn't that the current in the middle of the ocean with all those crazy strong people?"
"Yeah, you'd have to be insane to try and travel it."
"But I heard there was a great treasure at the end of it."
"The One Piece? Yeah, it's the pirate Roger's legacy."
"Still though, you'd have to face off against all those Marines and Bounty Hunters. Would it really be worth it?"
Arima grinned to herself, pirates sounded like fun. She strolled back out of the village and found Draven. "Hey, Draven! I'm gonna be a pirate!" she told him proudly.
He blinked at her, "Whatever you say, little one" he yawned.
~2 Years Later~
Arima watched the pirate ship approach the island. The symbol on the sails and on the front of the ship was a goat. She grinned to herself and jumped out of the tree she was in only to find Draven right in front of her.
"Er, hi?" she said.
Draven just stared at her, then he sighed. "You're leaving aren't you?"
"Yeah. Don't worry, I'll come back. ...eventually" she replied with a grin.
Draven only scoffed, "Just don't get caught." He said and walked off.
Arima grinned and made her way to the shore, padding along on silent cat feet. Once the pirates had mostly left their ship she stole on board and hid away in the storage, it amused her how easy it was to hide as a large saber-toothed cat on this ship. She didn't move from her spot until she felt the ship moving on the ocean again. Then she examined her surroundings. A wide grin spread her face when she discovered that she was hiding in the food storage room.
She woke up on a floating scrap of wood in a sea she did not recognize. The only thing she was sure of is that she had finally escaped the prison she had been accustomed to for the last 6 years. She craned her neck to see the beating sun on her face, and noticed it was about mid-day. The sea stone chains were tight around her wrists, so flying was clearly out of the question; she barely even had enough strength to stay awake and out of the water-which would be her death sentence. I guess she would have to wait until she floated to an island. She began to drift to sleep as she ruminated on her past, and how she ended up in this shitty situation.
Noel had grown up in a small town and lived with her mother, brother, and father for her entire life until her dad had gone off to join the marines. Something about pirates killing her grandfather, she was too young to remember; and when she got old enough to remember, her mother refused to speak of it. Noel had grown up admiring the marines as did her brother, even when her father's death was confirmed, she didn't blame the marines, only the filthy pirates that had murdered him. She even loathed pirates even more when her small village was overrun by the bloodthirsty bastards they were. After the pirates had pillaged and sucked the area dry, they took her brother and made him a slave to their ship. She decided to cut her hair and disguise herself as a guy, and purposefully let's herself get captured so she can save her brother.
She reveals herself to her brother, and they live together on the pirate ship for about 5 years. During these years on the boat, she learns how to fight; and despite her frail body, becomes stronger than most of the men on the ship. This earns her an esteemed status with the crew, becoming the little sister of the crew. Some of the crew members have devil fruit abilities, educating her on the different types and abilities. She dedicates her years on the ship to mastering fighting never forgetting her goals, and is constantly taking care of her younger brother who is living in fear and has no athletic ability what so ever. She begins to love the crew and the sea and figures out that they aren't all horrible monsters that she thought they were in the beginning.
After 5 long years, she is sent on a scouting party with some of her mates (including her brother) to go buy supplies in a well to do town along as scout out the area since pirates we not liked in this town. They spot a group of celestial dragons, and come up with a plan to steal supplies. Noel sneaks past the celestial dragons to where they are having a feast, and steals some food (one of which is a dragons devils fruit) and she eats it with her crew, but the celestials dragons discover its gone, and do a giant search to capture all of the pirates. When she goes to run away she jumps in the sea to swim, but sinks, separating herself from her brother.
She spends the next six years being a labor slave, but doesn't lose her spirit as she continues to grow stronger and find out her goals. She learns that celestial dragons killed her father and not pirates, because her dad opposed the celestial dragons slaving mermaids and other people. As she grows older her goal becomes to find her brother, and become strong enough to overtake the celestial dragons and the world government for killing her father. And to do so, she needs to find one piece and become the pirate king.
One day she hears some guards talking about the grand line while she is doing her labor for the day (she actually enjoys the labor to get stronger), and one of the ships is setting sail for it that night. That is the day she finalizes her escape. She has no idea where she is since she has been transported from island to island, and during the night, picks her cage lock, and stows away on the ship. While stowing away on the ship, it gets attacked by pirates, and set on fire. She escapes in the rubble, still cuffed.
The ship is shot down, and they presume her dead, but she manages to stay afloat on a drift wood where she is now, floating to where Arima is on her island.
Noel feels a jolt in her spine, and groggily lifts her head up to realize she has hit the side of a pirate ship docked at an island. A wide grin spreads across her face as she barely pulls herself in a port hole, plopping in the room below.
She drifts to a sound sleep as she had finally escaped her pursuers.