Hey there everyone, Mastergamer here. Right now, I've had this idea for a One Piece story in my head for a while now. I figured that I should put up one chapter to see what you think of it. If I get positive reviews, then I'll work on this story along with Dissidia. Also, after reading, tell me if I should make this story a part of my Dissidia series and I'll think of a way to incorporate it in. By the way, this takes place after the time skip and after the Fishman island arc. Also, expect to see elements from other anime/show in the story. So without further ado, here is this first, hopefully of many, chapter of One Piece: Shippuden (sorry, couldn't resist with the name).
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own the OC's and the story arcs.
Chapter 1: Setting sail on the New World! New faces appear!
The New World. That is what the world calls the second half of the Grand Line. The reputation of this sea is both famous and infamous to the whole world. The waters of New World are so filled with danger that the first half of the Grand Line, Which is a very dangerous sea by itself, is named "Paradise" when compared to the New World. Only the brave, strong, courageous, and sometimes the idiotic, choose to enter this sea willingly. This brings us to the focus of the story…
The waters of New World were, at the moment, as calm as they could get. And on those waters was a ship that has been associated with currently the most (in)famous group to sail the seven seas (seven seas: East, West, North, and South Blue, White sea, Paradise, and New World).
The Thousand Sunny was sailing on the ocean without a care in the world. After settling the crisis on Fishman Island, the Strawhat Pirates now continue their quest on searching for the legendary treasure: One Piece. Said pirate crew were preoccupied with their professions/hobbies: the green-haired swordsman Zoro is currently lifting weights in the crow's nest/training room, the orange-haired thief/navigator Nami is in her room working on her maps of the grand Line, the long-nosed sniper Usopp and the cyborg shipwright Franky were currently working on some sort of invention that would either help the crew or just because they think it's cool, the small reindeer doctor Tony Tony Chopper was in the infirmary studying medicine that was used on Fishman Island, the archeologist Nico Robin was in the library reading some of the books she acquired from Fishman island, the smoking chef Sanji was in the kitchen preparing lunch for the rest of the crew, the skeleton musician Brook was in the ship's aquarium writing some new songs that popped into his brain, though since he is a skeleton he doesn't have a brain (skull joke!), and finally, the strawhat captain Monkey D. Luffy was currently on the ship's figurehead, eagerly waiting for the next island and their next adventure.
Luffy was scanning the ocean for any islands to land on, and mostly some fish so he could eat, when all of a sudden…
THUMP!
The Sunny then shook violently as it seems to have crashed into something. The rest of the crew stopped what they were doing and came on to the deck to see what happened.
"What the hell was that?" yelled out Sanji
"Did we hit something?" asked Robin
Seeing that Luffy was on the figurehead of the ship, Zoro called out to the captain.
"Hey Luffy! Did we hit anything?" Zoro called out
The captain, wanting to know what temporally stopped their voyage, complied with the swordsman and looked over the figurehead and into the water.
"Hey, there's something floating in the water!" he yelled out
Hearing that, the rest of the crew ran towards the front of the ship and looked down into the water. True enough, their eyes lay on an object that was floating a few feet from the ship; no doubt it was what collided with the Sunny. It was almost submerged completely in the water, so the crew couldn't see what they hit.
"What do you think it is?" asked Chopper
Not waiting for anyone to answer, Luffy, using his rubber powers, stretched his arm down to the unknown object and wrapped his arm around it. With a strong tug, Luffy pulled the object out of the water and, when he raised his arm and the object over the deck, let go of the object, which landed with a hard thud on the deck. The rest of the crew just sighed at their captain's lack of gentleness before turning to the thing that was now lying on their deck. To say they were shocked at what they saw was an understatement.
Lying on the deck was a person, and not just a person, a fishman. The fishman was large and tall, as tall as Brook. He had a very muscular body and looked to be a shark fishman, a great white shark to be exact. His body was dark gray with his chest and stomach colored white. He also had three dorsal fins; the first two on his arms, one on each elbow, and one on the back of his head. He had clawed hands and feet and had very sharp teeth in his mouth (he resembles Kisame when he merges with the Sharkskin sword). All that he was wearing was a worn out dark-blue vest, black pants that ended at his shins, and black wrist guards. The fishman, who looked very intimidating, was currently unconscious, if the comically dazed look on his face was any indication as well as the large bump on his head. It's safe to say that the crew found what their ship hit.
"It's a fishman!" stated a surprised Nami
Throwing caution to the wind, like always, Luffy was now poking the fishman, on the bump on his head, with a stick to see if he was still alive.
"Hey, are you dead?" he asked the unconscious fishman
"Luffy! Don't do that! What if it wakes up and decides to eat us for hitting It." a freaked out Usopp pointed out with exaggeration.
"I doubt he's going to eat us, but it is likely that he'll be a bit upset with us for hitting him with our ship." Robin logically pointed out.
"So, what do we do?" asked Nami
"I'd say that we take him to the infirmary to recover," Robin said before turning to Zoro and Sanji, "Mr. Swordsman, Mr. Cook, if you don't mind." She said, gesturing to the unconscious fishman, whom Luffy was still poking with a stick. Said swordsman just grunted in response while Sanji, as always, gushed over Robin in compliance before dragging Zoro over to their knocked-out guest. Just as they reached the fishman and gently pushed Luffy away (gently being a kick to the head from Sanji), out of nowhere a fog appeared and covered the water and the whole ship.
This fog was a light-purple color and was very thick. The crew could still see each other but couldn't see the rest of the ship or the ocean. This fog put everyone on edge.
"W-what's going on here?" asked Usopp, who was clearly a bit creeped out.
"This fog is giving me goosebumps, but I'm a skeleton so I don't have skin, yohohoho skull joke!" joked Brook, although he was a bit nervous from the mysterious fog.
"This doesn't make sense. There was nothing in the weather to suggest a fog would appear." Stated Nami, confused as to how the fog appeared, she then turned to Franky.
"Franky, Steer the ship out of the fog, we don't want to risk hitting something again." She ordered
"Right, I'll get right to it." replied Franky, who then started to walk over to the steering wheel. But, just as he got half way there, Franky started to sway side to side. He then stopped and held his hand to his head.
"Ugh, I don't feel super right now-" before he could finish, Franky fell backwards on the deck and was now sound asleep.
"Franky?" cried out Chopper before he started his way towards the now slumbering cyborg. But, just as he reached Franky, the small reindeer started to sway back and forth as well.
"Ugh, why is my head all spiny-" groaned a dizzy Chopper before, he too, fell asleep on the deck.
Before anyone else could react, the rest of the crew started to feel dizzy before each one of them fell on the deck, fast asleep. There were now ten unconscious people on a pirate ship, which was now, because of the ocean's currents, heading towards a large rock formation. The rock formation almost led up to the sky, while its length was so great that the ends of it seem to go on for miles. The current was leading the Thousand Sunny to a large cave. With the whole crew fast asleep, the Sunny was swept into the cave.
On an island in New World, a port town was bustling with activity. It is also here that a marine ship was docked. The ship was docked at this island because of a gang of pirates the marines were chasing were tracked to the island. This marine ship belonged to none other than Vice-Admiral Smoker. He and his men were currently searching through the town for the pirates. Said vice-admiral, along with Captain Tashigi, was making his way through the crowds of the city back to the ship after searching for two hours to regroup with his men. Just as they were passing through the marketplace, a crowd started to form at the end of the street. Curiosity getting to them, the two marines made their way to the crowd. After making their way to the front of the crowd the marines saw that people were gathering around the local tavern. Crashes and yells were emanating from the inside.
Before anyone could react, something was thrown out of one of the tavern's windows. Lying on the ground was a very scary looking, very large pirate. At the same time, the doors to the tavern were thrown open. The person that walked out looked more intimidating than the pirate, who was now picking himself of the ground. The man was of average size and build, and was completely garbed in black. From the black boots to the black trench coat he was wearing, the man looked like someone no one should think to cross. What really added to his intimidation was the black gasmask that covered his entire head. The mask was completely flat and smooth and had two eye holes that were covered with black lenses, shielding his eyes from others (his appearance and fighting style is based on the assassin from the first Hellboy movie. The difference is that he isn't disfigured under the mask. Also he is also not really an OC, his identity will be revealed later in the story). Even though it didn't show, the man's gaze was directed at the pirate, who was now back on his feet.
"Bastard, do you know who I am!" the pirate yelled, "You'll pay for this insult!"
"If you didn't want this to happen then you shouldn't have tried to pick a fight with Me." stated the masked man in calm, monotone voice.
The pirate just growled angrily at the man, "I know who you are. You're that swordsman pirate, X-blade (pronounced 'Cross Blade'). You were known as a fierce pirate that traveled the Grand Line, but that's going to change after I've kicked your ass!"
"Huh, then come and try." challenged the masked man.
With a yell, the pirate drew his sword and charged at X-blade. Before anyone could even blink, X-blade was now a few feet in front of the crowd, with what looked like a bladed tonfa in his right hand, and the pirate lying on the ground with a large diagonal cut on his chest. From a medic's point of view, they would see that no major parts were hit and that the slash was meant to knock out the pirate.
As soon as they saw the pirate on the ground, the crowd turned tail and ran, not wanting to incur the wrath of the masked pirate. As the crowd dispersed, X-blade spotted two people who stayed.
"Marines, eh? The rest of this guy's crew is in the tavern incapacitated. I'd get to detaining them right away if I was you." said X-blade.
Smoker and Tashigi looked down at the fallen pirate, sure enough; it was the pirate they tracked down to the island. They looked at each other before turning back to X-blade, hands now resting on the handles of their weapons.
"If what he said was true, then we should be detaining you as well." stated Smoker, who held a tight grip on his jutte.
The masked man just chuckled and shook his head at the vice-admiral's words.
"I guess it's true what they say, no good deed goes unpunished." and with that, X-blade raised his tonfa sword in front of him, daring Smoker to make a move.
Smoker and Tashigi drew their weapons and were about to attack, but a voice called out to them.
"Now, now X (pronounced 'cross'), they're only doing their duty as marines."
The sword users turned to where the voice came from. Calmly making their way towards them was a marine. The marine seemed to be a high-ranking officer, if the marine coat draped on his shoulders was any indication. He had short, messy brown hair and brown eyes. He wore a dark-green shirt, brown vest, jeans, and black army boots. He had an amused expression on his face as he stopped before the two other marines.
"Vice-Admiral Smoker, is it? I think there's been a misunderstanding here. I'm sure we could clear some things up." proclaimed the marine.
"Humph, and just who are you?" asked Smoker, demanding more than asking.
The marine chuckled before bowing, "Commodore Drake Winters, nice to meet you. And I'm afraid that you'll have let X go."
"And we'd let a pirate go, why?" Smoker demanded.
"Because, he is under my command." replied Drake.
"Command? What do you mean?" asked a confused Tashigi.
"Exactly as I said," answered Drake before gesturing to X, "X here is currently my partner in enforcing the law."
"Partner? If you haven't noticed, he's a pirate." Tashigi pointed out.
"That may be, but there's an expression that states 'It takes a thief to catch a thief'. X and I have come to an arrangement that's beneficial for both of us; he helps me enforce justice and I let him 'do what he does best' against other pirates. In other words, you have to let him go now."
Tashigi was about to protest to the very idea of working with a pirate when Smoker let out a grunt and put away his jutte.
"Fine, as long as you keep him on a short leash, you won't hear any complaints from me." proclaimed Smoker, as he turned and started to walk towards the entrance of, the now ruined, tavern, probably to go detain the pirates inside. Drake turned to Tashigi and grinned.
"Well then, let's clean things up here, shall we?"
After properly restraining the pirates, Smoker was on his ship, a stern look on his face as he surveyed his men taking the pirates to the ship's brig. Hearing someone walking up the gangplank, the commodore turned to see Tashigi, Drake, and X arriving on the deck. Tashigi saluted to Smoker while Drake just grinned and waved and X was just surveying the ship.
"Sir, I came to inform you that this town doesn't have the provisions we need to restock. We may have to restock on the next island before heading back to G-5." The captain informed her commanding officer.
Smoker just grunted in response when Drake spoke up.
"If I may make a suggestion." he started, "There's an island close by that can accommodate the needs of any marine. You can restock there and it just so happens that I'm heading there myself, so I can show you the way."
Smoker thought it over before grunting a reply.
"Fine. Like Tashigi said; we need to resupply. We're about done here, so go get your ship ready so we can leave."
In response to that response, Drake just grinned sheepishly and started scratching the back of his head while X just sighed in annoyance.
"Yeah… here's the thing," Drake started, "That's part of the reason why we're going to the next island; my men left us behind."
"What!" exclaimed Tashigi while at that moment, Smoker permanently branded this guy as an idiot.
"It was because this guy has the worst sense of time I've ever seen." stated an annoyed X (Note: Drake's sense of time is just as bad as Zoro's sense of direction), "He could look at a clock and see that its five after two and his brain tells him it now midnight."
"Hey! How was I supposed to know that the departure time was moved to six?" Drake whined.
"First of all, the departure time never changed, it was still at three." a now really annoyed X explained, as if to a child, "Second, we didn't arrive at six, we arrived at ten!"
As this was going on, Smoker and Tashigi just stared at the two as they bickered, blank looks on their faces as they wondered how Drake ever made it pass chore boy.
A groan escaped Nami's lips as she started to regain consciousness. The haze clearing from her vision, she sat up on the ship's deck to look around her. She, along with the rest of the crew, was lying down on the deck. Looking past the ship's railing Nami saw that the ship was now drifting through a dark cavern. She was broken out of her thoughts as the rest of the crew started wake from their slumber, except for Luffy as he was still asleep, snoring.
"Ugh… who decided it was nap time?" asked a groggy Zoro, rubbing his now aching head.
The crew, minus Luffy, were now back on their feet. Confusion marred their faces as they saw their current location.
"W-where are we?" Usopp nervously asked.
"It looks like the ship drifted into some kind of cave while we were out cold." answered Nami.
As they were wondering what to do now, a new voice spoke out.
"Well, it looks like you guys finally woke up."
Turning to where the voice came from, the crew was welcomed by the sight of the fishman they 'fished' out of the sea coming out of the kitchen, half-eaten apple in hand.
"Hey there." he greeted.
The sharkman saw some of them tense up at his appearance, so he put up his hands in front of him.
"Hey now, I come in peace." he said.
Everyone seemed to loosen up, except for Zoro and Sanji, who stayed on their guard. Robin then decided to speak to their 'guest'.
"I see that you're recovering from your head injury quite quickly." the archeologist observed.
The fishman just chuckled and raised his hand to his head, "Yeah, I'm a quick healer. Hey, since you guys, in a way, rescued me, do any of you know what I hit?"
At this, the crew started to look in various directions to avoid the fishman's wondering gaze, each of them having a look of 'innocence' on their faces. Lucky for them, the fishman was none the wiser.
"I guess that's a no. Oh well, guess there's no worrying about it now." he stated.
The crew mentally let out their breath, glad that they don't have to explain that there's probably a dent the size of the fishman's head in the front of the ship. The weird moment out of the way, Chopper asked their guest a question.
"Um… excuse me but, just what are you doing?" the small reindeer asked.
"Well, I woke up about a few minutes before you did and a saw that you guys were out of it, so I thought I'd find something to use to help out." the fishman explained, "But it looks like everything worked out right," he said before turning his gaze to a still snoozing Luffy, "At least I think it did, is he okay?"
"Don't worry about him; he's fine." assured Nami, "What I do want to know is what caused us to black out in the first place, it probably had something to do with that purple mist from before."
"What you experienced was probably a natural gas mist." the fishman answered, "You see, in New World, natural gases escape from the ocean floor and reach the surface. The gases take the form of a purple mist, while the gases aren't toxic they can act as a tranquilizer to those who breathe them in and these gas mists happen randomly so nobody can really know when they appear."
The crew seems to have accepted the explanation. It was then Franky decided to speak up.
"Yo, we really haven't properly introduced. Just who are you?"
The fishman gained what seemed to be a look of pride at the question.
"The name's Mikal, world's greatest explorer." the fishman proclaimed with pride.
The crew each introduced themselves to Mikal. After learning the crew's names, Mikal made an observation of their surroundings.
"It looks like we've sailed right into the rapid caverns." he stated, "That would be a problem for any other ship."
This seems to have caught the crew's attention.
"Rapid caverns?" asked Robin.
"The rapid caverns are a series of caverns and tunnels that are filled with dangerous rapids and high waterfalls. There are different entrances and paths in the caverns, but they all lead to the other side of the caverns, back to the outside." explained Mikal.
"So all we have to do is navigate through the caverns and we'll be able to get out of this place." inquired Usopp.
"It's not gonna be that simple. While we'll be able to reach the end no matter what path we take, the water current is so strong that any ship will crash into the cave wall before they're able to turn the ship in a new direction. From the looks of things, I'd say that we entered the caverns not too long ago, so we may have a few minutes before things get rough."
That statement seems to have unnerved the crew a bit.
"Oh my, just hearing that makes my skin crawl, but I'm a skeleton so I have no ears or skin, Yohohoho Skull joke!" laughed Brook, though he was genuinely concerned.
Everyone thought on what to do to safely get out of the caverns. Robin then asked Mikal another question.
"You said that this would've been a problem for any other ship, you say it like you now that we'll get out of here safely."
The fishman just chuckled and a grin full of pride made its way on his face, "That's because you have me. No matter what the conditions are or what ship I'm on, I'll be able to sail that ship with no problem."
"That's a pretty bold statement. If what you say is true, then you better live up to it because I'm starting to here the rapids up a head." stated Zoro, pointing in the direction the ship was heading, sure enough, rapids could be seen getting closer.
"Don't worry, just leave it to Me." assured Mikal, "I just need to see the schematics for this ship, do any of you have them?"
Hearing this, Franky reached into his shirt and pulled out the blueprints for the Thousand Sunny he had on him just in case. Giving the fishman the blue prints, he saw that Mikal was flipping through the pages very fast, but he saw that Mikal's eyes were memorizing everything they saw. After flipping through the blueprints and memorizing every detail of the Sunny in a few seconds, Mikal gave them back to Franky and spoke up.
"This is quite the ship you have here." He complemented before getting serious, "Now, that Coup de Burst, can it work in small, short bursts?"
Franky thought about what he asked, "We've never done that before, but… it's possible."
"Good. Franky, go down below and get ready to use the Coup de Burst when I tell you to."
Franky just nodded his head and left to go below deck. Mikal then turned to the rest of the crew, and Luffy who was just waking up.
"You guys might want to hold on to something, it's going to be a bumpy ride." he warned before heading towards the ship's steering wheel.
Everyone replied to this by grabbing on to something that was bolted down. Luffy, now fully awake, was confused as he saw his crew grab onto different parts of the ship and the large fishman now at the wheel.
"What are you guys doing, is it a game? Why's the shark at the steering wheel?" the captain asked, oblivious to their current situation.
"Luffy! We're not playing a game, we're about to be in hot water and he's going to help us!" Nami yelled as she pointed to the rapidly approaching rapids.
Looking to where she was pointing to, Luffy saw the rapids as they decreased in distance. Luffy then got an excited look on his face along with a large grin.
"Cool! This is going to be fun!" Luffy cheered.
"Luffy you idiot, this is no time to get excited!" yelled Zoro, however, his words fell on deaf ears as Luffy ran to the ship's figurehead and sat down.
"Alright! Full steam ahead Mr. Shark!" the simple minded captain cheered.
Just as the crew was about to scold Luffy, their attention was drawn to Mikal as he started to chuckle.
"Hehe… That's the idea, Strawhat!" he said as he reached for the lever next to the wheel.
"Now then, let's get started!" Mikal then moved the lever, activating the Soldier Dock System.
"Soldier Dock System: Channel Zero!"
From each side of the ship a paddle wheel appeared. The whole crew, minus Luffy, went wide-eyed at this.
"What're you doing! That'll just make us go faster into the rapids!" yelled Sanji.
"Like I said; that's the idea!" Mikal stated as the ship picked up speed and was now heading for the rapids.
Not even a second later, did the Sunny enter the rapids. The currents were flowing beyond fast, adding the ship's increase in speed due to the paddles now activated, the Sunny was now speeding down the rapids, as if the ship was shot out of a canon. The crew held on to dear life, while Luffy was just laughing, having the time of his life as he held onto the figurehead and kept a grip on his hat. Moments later, the ship was rapidly approaching a sharp left turn. Due to the rapid currents, any other ship would crash into the wall before its crew could even turn the ship. Mikal, with all his strength, turned the ship to the left. The Sunny was now facing left, but was still heading towards the cave wall.
"Franky! Do it now!" Mikal yelled.
From below deck, Franky heard Mikal and started up the burst.
"Coup de Mini Burst!"
Just as the ship reached the sharp turn, a small, concentrated burst came from the ship's rear canon, narrowly avoiding the cave wall and propelling the ship down the new tunnel. The paddle wheels and the burst were able allow the ship to follow the new current and the ship was now speeding down the tunnel. This process was repeated many times; turn the ship, activate the burst, and use the paddle wheels to set the ship on the new current. True to his word, Mikal was effortlessly and expertly steering the ship through the caverns. The way he was steering the ship would've given anyone the impression that he has been steering the ship for years, even the Sunny's crew were starting to think that thought. After what seemed to be thirty minutes of riding the rapids, Mikal caught something in his sights. Up ahead, after the end of the tunnel, was a large, open, seemingly bottomless cavern. Also, at the end of the tunnel, was a water fall and what seemed to be a vicious, sheer drop. At the other side of the carven was another tunnel opening with its own water fall. After seeing this, Mikal quickly came up with a plan.
"Hey! One of you take the wheel!" he called out to one of the crew. Sanji answered the call and, with much difficulty, reached and held the steering wheel. Before he could ask what the fishman had in mind, said fishman started running towards the figurehead. Luffy couldn't describe how much fun he was having right now, all those sharp turns and high speeds kept him, literally, on the edge of his seat. He too saw what was up ahead and he couldn't wait to see how they were going to deal with this. His was cut from his thoughts as Mikal suddenly landed next to him in a crouched position.
"What are you doing?" asked the curious captain. Mikal just turned to him and offered a grin.
"Oh, you'll see." he said before turning towards the ship's deck, "Franky! A strong burst, right now!" after that, Mikal jumped off the ship and into the water.
Below deck, Franky heard Mikal and prepped a stronger burst.
"This is going to be super! Coup de Medio Burst"
Just as the Sunny reached the edge of the waterfall, a stronger short burst was released, propelling the ship across the cavern. The crew saw the tunnel entrance on the other side of the cavern getting closer, but, just as they thought they were going to make it, the ship started to lose altitude. No longer having any momentum, the ship was now plummeting towards the bottomless pit, the front of the ship facing the ceiling. The crew responded well to this.
"AHHHHH! WE'RE GONNA DIE!" screamed Luffy, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, and Brook as they were now holding on to dear life. Zoro and Robin didn't scream, but were none the less scared at wit's end. Sanji, seeing as this could be their last moments alive, tried to make his way to either Nami or Robin to 'comfort' them in their final moments, but doing so would cause him to lose his grip on the ship and fall off, so he stayed where he was while mentally crying about not being near Nami or Robin right now. Below deck, Franky was forced against the ceiling as the ship fell. Just as hope seemed lost, something happened. As the ship was falling, the bottom of the ship made contact with the water. All of a sudden, the Sunny stopped its freefall. Before anyone could figure what was going on, the ship started moving, but this time upwards; the ship was sailing up the waterfall. Under the Sunny, inside the waterfall, was Mikal, swimming up the waterfall, carrying the Thousand Sunny on his back. The crew held on to the ship as it sailed up the waterfall. A few seconds later, the ship sailed past the edge of the waterfall. After being in the air for a few seconds, the ship landed on the stream leading to the waterfall. The ship's paddle wheels, which were still active, allowed the ship to sail into the tunnel, against the current, which was starting to calm down a bit.
Soon enough, the current came to a complete stop. The ship was now relying on the paddle wheels to move it forward. The crew, including Franky who came up on deck, started to pick themselves up and calm their racing hearts. The silence was broken by a certain person.
"That… was… AWSOME!" yelled an excited Luffy.
The response to this was a fist to the skull, courtesy of an annoyed Nami. Soon, everyone was on deck, relieved that the worst was over. To strengthen this point, the crew could begin to see light at the end of the tunnel. A few minutes later, the Thousand Sunny was now out of the rapid caverns. Everyone was glad to be outside again. But then they noticed something.
"Hey, where's Mikal?" asked Usopp.
"Right here."
Everyone's attention was drawn to the side of the ship. Mikal was climbing over the railing and onto the deck. He was dripping wet from carrying the ship through the last part of the caverns. The others made their way towards him.
"That was amazing! I've never seen anyone sail a ship like that." Stated Usopp as he, Luffy, and Chopper were in awe of what the fishman did.
Mikal just let out a chuckle and scratched his head, "Well, like I said; there's no ship that I can't sail." he stated with pride.
"That was awesome! The way you steered the ship through those rapids was amazing!" Luffy exclaimed, "I've decided, you're joining our crew."
Mikal became surprised at Luffy sudden declaration. The rest of the crew seems to agree with their captain.
"That wouldn't be a bad idea. It'd be great to have a helmsman of your caliber on the ship." concluded Nami.
"Really? Huh… I've never thought of joining a pirate crew." said Mikal, "All I've done till now was explore the seas looking for exotic places by myself." The shark fishman now had a thoughtful look on his face, "Hmm… I think I need some time think it over."
"Come on, it'll be great!" reasoned Luffy, "We'll see all kinds of cool stuff and places, we'll go on many adventures, and we'll have lots of fun. Plus, it'll cool to have a fishman in the crew."
"Fishman?" asked a confused Mikal before he looked down at himself, "Oh! Huh… sometimes I forget to change back."
That statement confused the crew. But, before one of them could ask what he meant, he did a surprising thing. Mikal now started to shrink in size, as well as his clothes. His skin started to turn from gray and white to tan. His feet and hands lost their claw-like appearance. His dorsal fins shrunk until they were non-existent. Hair started to grow on his head and his body started to change shape. The Strawhat Pirates were surprised to see that in the place of the shark fishman was now a regular human. He had short black hair and blue eyes. He looked to be the same age and size as Zoro and Sanji. His build was the same as Zoro's. The crew was shocked at what they just saw. The man just smiled and waved.
"Allow me to reintroduce myself; the name's Mikal, world's greatest explorer and helmsman. I also ate the Same-Same no Mi, Model: Great White (Shark-Shark Fruit, Model: Great White).
To Be Continued…
And that has been the first chapter for One Piece: Shippuden. I hope you liked it. I plan on twelve new members to join the Strawhat Crew, as you can see, one has already shown up, but he won't officially join until the end of this arc. I hope you liked this story. Like I said before, enough reviews and I'll continue the story, maybe even make it a part of my Dissidia series. I'll also get to work on the new chapter for Dissidia. Remember, read and review. Mastergamer out.