Twenty-five years ago the infamous Strawhat Pirates set sail into the New World in order to chase after their dreams. Perhaps in a perfect world Luffy could've made it to Raftel and become the new pirate king. Though this world is far from perfect. The Strawhats sailed the New World for years before being crushed by the marines. Although they did escape no one really knows what has happened to them. The crew has split up and each gone their own ways. Why? This question has yet to be answered as well. Several of them indeed managed to complete their life's dream but the true mystery is what happened to their captain, Monkey D. Luffy, who hasn't been seen since.

The marines hoped the crushing defeat of these criminals and several other famous crews would put an end to the era of pirates but instead it sparked new dreamers as well. Many saw the valiant efforts of this 'nobody crew' and began to think if they too could make it. This hasn't changed much over the years, and so, another dreamer leaves his homeland and steps out into the endless ocean.

New World Bound

Chapter 1: Goodbye, Hanabi Island

Off somewhere in the West blue resides a small island. The moon rested overhead and dimly illuminated the homes and other various buildings. It was your average town with nothing that would make it stick out from any other; though one oddity was the fact that all of the lights were turned out, giving the island the appearance of a ghost town.

Featureless shadows, that were obviously people, passed back and forth through the streets though most of them seemed to be horded at a small town square. All was quiet until a flare shot into the sky, it left a streaking trail of smoke behind it and moments later exploded into a bright display of colorful sparks that suddenly lit up the island. The smiling faces of people could now be seen along with another figure a couple miles away, separated from the joyous faces of the others

A young man lied on the roof of a house across town. Next to him was a bit of equipment. He had his arms behind his head resting across the cool rooftop and a leg up and crossed over the other. In his mouth was a chocolate bar that he allowed to sit there lazily. The boy seemed no older than 19. He had messy, swept back grey hair with a pair of goggles on his forehead. Along with that he wore a black under armor shirt with a crimson red, thin overcoat, black pants and plain black shoes.

He groaned a bit as the islands firework display came to an end and he sat up. Finishing the sweet, he steadily aligned the unknown piece of equipment beside him and grinned before pulling out a lighter and lighting the fuse. "I'll miss this place." Was all he said before hopping off the small building and walking towards the water. Several glaring rockets were let out from the device and in moments collided with a small house setting it ablaze in a brilliant show of colors and sparks, his own little fireworks show.

As the boy reached the dock and a small canoe (with what was obviously a homemade sail due to its horrible quality) he found someone in a marine uniform resting at the water's edge.

When the marine spotted him he suddenly jumped to his feet.. "Hideo, what the hell do you think you're doing setting that place on fire! What if someone was in there and got hurt you damn idiot!" He yelled in a tone lacking anger and contained a bit more humor than anything else.

The boy, now known as Hideo, scratched his head and thought about it. "Guess I didn't really think that through," He muttered as if it were no big deal. "It was all part of leaving things behind, Roland." Hideo attempted to walk on and towards the ship, but Roland stood in front of him, arms spread out.

"You can't just go out to sea on a whim, on a stupid dream!" He screamed at him with a bit of passion in his voice. He would've continued speaking but he felt something slam into his leg, knocking him down and into the soft sand beneath him, a foot rested on top of his chest, pinning him down.

Hideo stood above him, pressing a bit more weight on his foot with each passing moment. "I know we've been best friends since we were kids, and when you followed your dream to be a marine I was happy for you." Hideo suddenly pulled out what looked like a stick of dynamite. "But don't you ever insult my goals again!" he finished. There was anger in his voice but that same rage never reached his face as he seemed to be on the verge of tears. Walking past the marine, he rubbed his eyes on the sleeve of his coat and hopped on the tiny vessel. He let down the sail and slowly but surely managed to pick up wind.

Roland stood up and brushed himself off. "On the account of us being friends I'll let you go for now. But tell, me what do you wish to accomplish? To be the pirate king, to be rich and famous, or are you in it for the adventure?"

Hideo grinned for a moment; a grin that oddly enough reassured to Roland things would be alright. "Roland, please give me more credit than that," Hideo then began to inhale a large amount of air into his chest. "I'm going to take over the world!" He announced loud enough for nearly the entire island to hear. The flames from his own fireworks show still continued to burn as he sat down and let the currents take him away.

"Goodbye, Hanabi Island…"

So yeah, that the introduction. I know it's not that long or exciting, but it's more just exposition. Future chapters should be much more interesting and longer.

I know these kinds of stories are fairly common, though I wanted to change mine up a bit. Instead of the usual 'the strawhats all accomplished their goals and Luffy died as pirate king' I decided to go with the opposite and have the crew going their own ways.

Now as I said, I will be taking fan characters to use in the story. They can be just about anything from the One Piece world so don't try to limit them to just new characters for the crew.

Name/Nickname: (Nicknames would be things like the names used on bounty posters and etc.)

Age:

Appearance:

Affiliation: (pirate, marine, bounty hunter, etc.)

Personality:

History:

Other: (Anything else you may want to say about your character)

Devil Fruit: (leave this space blank if they don't have one)

Weapons:

Attacks: (Can be named or unnamed like Mouton Shot or Gomu Gomu Pistol. Though be aware that if you don not name or give your entered character's attacks I will do it myself.)