Heyo, people! I'm back and better than ever! Actually, just better, it really wouldn't make much sense to put the "than ever" bit there I haven't been around long enough for it I'm only thirteen, BUT ANYWAY! *Deep inhale* So new story guys hope you like it n' stuff.

Oh yeah, and I don't own One Piece. And that.

Chapter One: I'd Call it Exposition

The life of Joule Geisel was not a glamorous one. She was neglected as a child, and as a result grew depressed later in life, drawing into herself, watching more anime in one week then most would in a month, and was generally bad at social interaction. Despite this, she did well in school, had some friends, if one could call those people you sit across from, sometimes exchanging a word with, a friend, and managed to do fairly well for herself, moneywise. Being in high school, she still lived with her parents, but they were so detached, it would be a surprise if they even knew she was there. They were heavy drinkers; it was hard to go anywhere in the house that it didn't smell like alcohol, in fact, Joule's room was probably the only neutral smelling place in there. Not that her room was a great place, lacking some essentials, like a bed, a nightstand and a dresser. She had to provide everything for herself, the only thing her parents gave her was her name, and as such, she treasured it.

Change in POV: Third Person, Joule's Perspective

Joule was walking home from school, humming a little tuneless tune. Anyone walking by would see a perfectly normal teenage girl walking home from school, dreading homework, looking forward to sports or whatever, but what she felt greatly contrasted her outward appearance. A mess of emotions hung about her mind, lyrics to an unwritten song were attempting to keep her busy, but failed to do so, as they kept on being words about her depression. She stopped humming, an abrupt silence filling the air around her as her feet stopped moving. She gave a bark of laughter, before rubbing at her eyes, and saying quietly in a shaky voice

"Man, I'm pathetic. I take a ball to the face without a word of complaint, and when someone neglects to tell me about a new pet I want to cry? Jeez, I'm a total wreck." There was a pause when she rubbed her eyes again, and examined her hands. "That is, if I even can cry. Seriously Joule, can't you even cry like a normal person?" She sighed, starting to walk again, her lower jaw clenched to prevent it trembling. There were a series of roads leading to her house, all moderately developed. She passed her favorite park, the one with the picnic table she loved to sit on, and look at the clouds from. She turned onto Summit Street, where her house was, and breathed in the sweet scent of fall flowers.

She walked up to her house, a nice looking structure, colored light blue, with a small flower garden out front. It was Joule who attended the garden, she couldn't let the flowers all die, and it would be a shame to let the house's appearance deteriorate. The paint job hadn't been touched for at least twenty years, so it was cracking at places. The gutters were full of leaves, another thing she would have to take care of later. She walked up to the front porch and pulled out a key. She stuck it in the lock, but, to her surprise, it was unlocked. She put away the key and opened the door. Joule nearly gagged at the stench of alcohol. It was insanely overpowering, enough to make the staunchest alcohol lover reel. It didn't seem to bother her parents at all. She stood there, backpack digging into her shoulders, until she adjusted to the scent.

I'm home." Of course, there was no response. Her parents were likely asleep upstairs, or even out of the house. She sighed, not because of the lack of response, but since the door had not been locked; what if someone had broken in? Precious belongings might have been stolen, which no doubt Joule would be blamed for. She looked around at the state of disarray in the house. There were coats and shoes all over the floor in the entry hall, and countless wine, and whiskey and beer bottles piled up in the kitchen. She turned down the hall to the left, opened the door to her room, entered quickly and shut the door. She took of her backpack, setting it on the floor, before collapsing onto the blanket she slept on. She grabbed her laptop from the wall, and started loading up the web browser. The six months of babysitting were agonizing; the neighbor's kids were absolutely awful, it seemed as though they went out of their way to make her job harder, but the work was well worth it. The laptop was necessary, there was no other computer in the house, and the extension cord was needed to have it run. The crunchyroll membership was her being selfish, and nothing else, but it got plenty of use, which was probably not a very good thing, but it made her a little bit happy. The new page screen shone into her face. Today was Wednesday, that meant another chapter of One Piece, and her daily ritual of youtube. She loaded up youtube first, to see if there were any new videos worth watching. She was scrolling through the videos, when she heard a scuffing sound outside her door.

"Hello?" She said, getting up and walking to the door, "Who's there?" There was no sound, the scuffing was probably her imagination, but she opened the door anyway, careful not to breathe in the alcohol. She looked around the door, into both sides of the hall. "Huh. Guess it really was my—gaah!" She had turned around to go back in my room, when something cold slipped between Joule's ribs, making her cough up blood, and causing pain to flower around the knife. She gave a short shriek.

"Who… are you?" She gasped, unable to twist around to look at her assailant. She was asking a rather silly question, but her mind was a jumble of pain. She got her thoughts in enough order to ask something relevant. "Why… did—"

"Listen girl, I really don't want to kill anyone today. You have three seconds to tell me where the money is; maybe I'll call an ambulance." The voice was gruff, a man's. Obviously he had no qualms with killing anybody, but she was probably useful, maybe his only informant.

"I… don't… what… do you mean? What… money?" The knife was pushed in further, causing more blood to be coughed up, while a rough hand prevented Joule from screaming.

"Don't play dumb with me, girl. Tell me where it is, now!" The hand was removed, leaving Joule gasping for air. "I… don't know… my parents… they… told nothing…" The man's hand left the knife, letting her fall to the floor, landing awkwardly with her head laying to the side.

"Hmmph. You don't know, huh? I guess I'll head to the basement then." Joule heard the sounds of footsteps, and a muttered swear word. She was left there, bleeding out on the linoleum, her last thoughts being those of regret. 'Dammit! What on earth did I do to deserve this? I can't be dying! Surely this is all a dream, right? I can't be dying! I can't… I just can't… '

Well, that escalated quickly, didn't it. Sorry bout that, I just really don't want to spend a ton of time on... earth, so I tried to cram it all into one chapter, and then this happened. So you're gonna live with it. Buhbye!

-Alder