Usopp yawned, as he stretched out his arms. "Finally done!" he said enthusiastically, as he admired his handiwork; he had personally fixed up the slide onboard the Thousand Sunny, after he, Chopper and Luffy accidentally broke it yesterday. "But man, they didn't have to be that rough on me…" he muttered, as he rubbed his head, which had a giant bump on it from two feet and one metallic fist.

As he was about to retreat to the kitchen to see if he couldn't get some leftovers (as Sanji had made takoyaki, but refused to let the trio have any due to broken slide), two bodies crashed into him, sending them tumbling into a wall. The bodies belonged to Luffy and Chopper, his "criminal associates", as he called them.

"Usopp, we just caught the BIGGEST fish we've ever seen!" Luffy began excitedly, as he and Chopper stood up from their best friend, before he stretched his arms far out. "It was, like, THIS big!"

Usopp saw this with a shocked look, before he calmed down and began to chuckle. "Come now, you can't expect me to be impressed by something that small." he said in a confident tone, which made Luffy and Chopper tilt their heads in confusion. "I've killed monstrous octopuses that ate those kinds of fish for breakfast- No, as an appetizer!"

Hearing Usopp's lie, as always, caused both Luffy's and Chopper's eyes to glitter in awe, as they quickly sat down. "That's just too awesome!" Chopper chimed. "You have to tell us about it!"

Usopp blinked. Normally, he had a lie up his sleeves for situations like this, but now, he was running a blank. "Well, um…" he began nervously, as he scratched his head. "Well, to be honest, there's a whole lot of back-story, and it takes a while before I get to any octopuses, but-"

"THERE'S A BACK-STORY?!" Both of Usopp's onlookers were now ecstatic, as they were waving their arms in the air, whistling for their idol to continue. "Tell us, Usopp, what happened?"

Usopp sighed. Man, these guys are a pain at times… he thought, as he quickly brainstormed after an idea. Aliens? No… what about death gods? Nah… OH! What about a cast of brightly-coloured characters with next-to no personality who pretend to be ninjas? Silence. Nah, that would just be lame. Wait, now I know!

Usopp then cleared his throat, as he looked at his audience. "Well, gather 'round now, people, and I, The Great Captain Usopp, shall inquire upon you the great tales of my early age of piracy! Let me tell you about…"

Pirates of the Grand Line

The Curse of the Thousand Sunny

-----------------------------

A thick fog was floating over the calm ocean, as a ship gently sailed through it, with a young girl standing near the figurehead, whose voice was breaking through the eerie silence, singing a song that to this day has been preserved in the hearts of all pirates.

"Going to deliver Bink's Sake,
Following the sea breeze,
Riding on the waves.
Far across the salty depths,
The merry evening sun,
Painting circles in the sky,
as the Birds Sing."

As the blue-haired girl kept singing, she failed to notice a shadow walking up behind her, and before she could stop the sentence "with a DON", a hand grabbed her shoulder, prompting her to turn around, only to be faced with a man with three chins, who was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses and a speedo, whilst also having blue, Elvis-styled hair.

"Hey, girlie, be quiet!" he said, as he looked cautiously out to sea. "Pirates infest every inch of the sea, and you wouldn't like 'em to come right to us, would ya?" As he kept talking, the girl noticed two people coming from behind the speedo-wearing man, one of them having long, black hair going down his shoulders with a matching goatee, whilst the other one had tanned skin and short, blonde hair, whilst also smoking a cigar.

"Mister Flam, that will do." the blonde said in a commanding voice, which made Flam turn around and frown upon seeing the two persons.

"She was singin' 'bout pirates, bro!" Flam said, as he approached the blonde with a few steps. "We'll be swimmin' in bad luck if we're singing about them in this kind of foggy soup! Mark my words, okay?"

The blonde merely shook his head, as he looked sternly, yet not antagonistically at Flam. "Consider them marked. Now, on your way." he said, as he looked away from Flam, who had begun walking away from the girl.

"Alright, Lieutenant." he muttered, as he threw a quick, nearly invincible glance at the girl, before continuing. "Havin' girls on board's bad luck, too. Even the small ones." Then, he pulled a bottle of cola out of his pocket, before taking a quick swag of it, without any of the three seeing it.

As the blue-haired girl looked up at the blonde Lieutenant, she sighed. "Well, I think it would be very exciting to meet a pirate." she said, which prompted the Lieutenant to smile, though it was more of a smirk.

"Think again, Miss Nefertari." he said, as he walked to the railing where she stood. "A bunch of low-life criminals, all of them. I intend to see to it that anyone sailing under Jolly Roger gets what he deserves…" He took an artistic break to look down at the girl, only to smile again. "A short drop and a sudden stop." Confused about what he meant, the girl looked over at Flam, who was holding a tiny noose around his neck, and to emphasize the blonde's point, held it upwards to give the impression that he had been hanged, to which the girl gave a little shocked gasp.

"Lieutenant Morgan, I appreciate your fervour," the other man said, as he walked up next to the Lieutenant, "but I'm concerned about the effect this subject will have upon my daughter." As he finished his sentence, he gave the girl a little nod.

"My apologies, King Cobra." Morgan said, as he walked away from the pair, leaving them for themselves. The girl looked up at her father, and shook her head, giving a cute little smile.

"Well, I actually think the subject's very fascinating." she said, which led to Cobra giving her a little nod again.

"Yes, and that's what concerns me." he said, before he too left, leaving the girl to look out to sea again, before she happened to notice a parasol floating in the water.

Now where could that have come from? she thought, as she observed it floating by the ship. However, once it had floated from sight, she turned back, only to see something different floating in the water; a boy, probably around her age, lying unconscious on a piece of driftwood. Her eyes widened, she turned towards where her father, Morgan and Flam were standing. "Look, there's a boy floating in the water!"

As their attention was caught, the majority of the crew went to the railing, and yes, there really was a boy floating in the water. "Man overboard!" Morgan yelled, which got the crewmen working; letting a innocent life be swallowed by the ocean couldn't be accepted. "Man the ropes, fetch a hook, just haul him aboard, quickly!"

As soon as the order had been passed out, the boy had been hauled aboard the ship, as most of the crew surrounded him, with Morgan checking his pulse. "Thank God, he's still breathing." Morgan sighed in relief.

"Damn, that ain't somethin' ya see everyday!" Hearing Flam's voice again caught the attention of the crew, who managed to catch a glimpse of what he was so shocked about; a galleon was floating on the sea, but it was burning, and snapped in half, with some driftwood floating about it.

"My God, what happened here?!" Cobra said shocked, as he gazed at the broken vessel.

"Probably the powder magazine." Morgan replied, as he removed the cigar from his mouth. "Merchant vessels run heavily armed." As he said this, the mast of the wreckage broke off, and landed in the water.

"Like that helped 'em." Flam sighed, as he looked at Morgan. "Everyone's thinking it, so I might as well say it. Pirates!" Then, he looked back at the burning wreckage, after hearing a weak chuckle from Cobra.

"There's no definite proof of that, Cutty Flam!" he said reassuringly, but the sight of the wreckage didn't seem to help that much. "It was probably an accident." As he was talking, the girl walked closer to the unconscious boy.

"Someone rouse that captain at once." Morgan said, as he started walking towards the dinghies, as the crew again got busy. "Heave to and take in sail. Launch the boats." As he left, some men took the boy towards the back of the boat, whilst Cobra walked up to the girl, and held a hand at her shoulder.

"Vivi, I want you to accompany the boy." he said, as he looked seriously at her. "He'll be in your charge. Take care of him." The girl nodded, and followed the men, whilst Cobra looked at her as she left with a worried look.

As a team of Marines rowed towards the wreckage to search for other potentional survivors, Vivi looked down at the boy, and she could now get a better look of him; his blonde hair was covering his left eye from view, and his right eyebrow was swirly, for some reason. As she tried to move the hair out of the way, the boy suddenly woke up, grabbed her hand, and gasped for air, apparently shocked.

Though a little stunned by the sudden movement, Vivi took it calmly. "It's okay." she said reassuringly, as the boy heaved for breath. "My name's Nefertari Vivi."

The boy started to calm down, as his grip on her get looser. "Sanji Turner…" he stuttered out.

Vivi smiled once she heard his name, and nodded. "I'm watching over you, Sanji." she said, and upon hearing this, the boy dazed off again. It was at that moment that Vivi noticed something hanging around Sanji's neck. It turned out to be a medallion, but it wasn't any normal medallion; it was made out of real gold, and on it was a skull marked quite clearly in the centre, which led Vivi to assume… "You're a pirate!"

"Has he said anything?" The voice of Morgan broke Vivi's train of thought, as she turned to face him, hiding the medallion behind her back.

"His name's Sanji Turner, but that was all I found out." she replied. Morgan nodded, before muttering something to a few Marine grunts, who took Sanji down below deck. With that, Vivi walked to the back of the ship, as she took a glance at the golden medallion, holding it to her face, but doing so led to her seeing another ship sailing into the fog, it's sails tattered from unknown forces. However, once she saw the flag that waved from the mast, she closed her eyes; it was a pirate ship!

And once she opened her eyes, she had woken up.

------------

"Woken up?" Luffy asked curiously. "I thought Vivi was pretty much awake the whole time."

"Yeah, and how can she, Sanji, Franky, her daddy and that blonde Marine be in the same place at the same time? And where are the octopuses you bravely fought?" Chopper added, which led to Usopp grumbling, due to having been interrupted once he had gotten the hang of his lie.

And just when I got the hang of it… he thought, before clearing his throat. "Well, they're really completely different characters who just happen to act, look and be named after characters that we've met up till now, and the reason Vivi woke up was obviously because she was dreaming!" Once his two comrades nodded as a sign that they got it, Usopp looked away from them for a brief moment. They're really easy to convince… he thought, before looking back at them. "Now, where was I?"