"HI! MY NAME IS LUFFY! I'M GOING TO BE THE PIRATE KING!"
The little boy I had met many years ago had left one big impression over the years. Both of my parents were retired marines. My father had risen to the rank of Vice-Admiral before retiring to raise a family with his wife and trusted partner of 13 years. My mother had been a Captain and had served with my father together before realizing their feelings towards each other and eventually retiring to get married and raise a family.
When I was 6 years old, our family stopped by the Goa Kingdom on Dawn Island to meet some nobles who owed my father a favor. We stayed there for about 6 months, and during this time my twin sister, Soft, and I would often play in the mountains and the forests surrounding it. One day we had strayed a little too far and got lost near a small village called Windmill Village.
While my sister cried, I tried asking for help and directions back to the capital city, and it was then that I met Luffy. I had no idea that there was a pirate crew staying in the area at the time since I was too busy trying to figure out a way back home. Luffy brought me over to his grandfather before allocating to a house belonging to mountain bandits and that's where my sister and I stayed until my parents came looking for us. Luffy's grandfather was a Vice-Admiral in the Marines and knew our father, so he helped by contacting our parents using a snail called a Den-Den Mushi. Meanwhile, we spent our waiting time playing with Luffy and his brother Ace while being looked after by a bandit by the name of Curly Dadan.
Soft would often hang out with Makino-san at a bar called Partys Bar and talk about a lot of things while I went exploring with Luffy and Ace. Ace recognized that I was strong and introduced me to a boy named Sabo who, as we later found out, was from a noble family. We would often get into fights to see who was the strongest. It was clear that the oldest two, Ace and Sabo were stronger than Luffy and I.
At this point in my life, I never had any dreams of becoming a pirate and told my new friends that I wanted to live a simple marine life like my parents did. But I made a promise to them that when we fulfilled our dreams, we wouldn't fight with each other, but rather share drinks like brothers did.
Although we parted ways a few weeks later when my parents came looking for Soft and I, we had sworn to be brothers forever, and that the next time we would cross paths we would have a feast to remember old times.
That happened 10 years ago. I don't know what happened to my brothers. I have heard that Ace had joined Whitebeard, one of the four great emperors. But I have not heard from Luffy or Sabo.
Meanwhile, I am now a marine 2nd lieutenant serving under my uncle who is vice-admiral of the east. My sister, Soft, is a sergeant on our ship and also currently the top marine chef in the government. Our dreams may differ, mine to make an honest living while hers to become the greatest chef in the whole world, but we are very close as siblings and prefer to stick together.
"Sharp, how long are you going to stare off into space like that?"
I turned to see my sister with her hand on her hips, looking at me strictly.
"You should consider yourself lucky that none of your subordinates are on deck yet, what would they think if they caught their superior officer daydreaming? Really, you should be more self-conscious!" Without waiting for my answer, she stormed off down the stairs into the kitchen.
I turned around, leaning against the railing of the ship again. "Boy, oh boy. Soft will give me a headache in the future one day." I muttered under my breath knowing that no one would hear me.
"Well, you're already giving me a headache." A booming voice replied.
My whole body tensed and it didn't take me long to realize who was behind me. I turned around slowly, gulped and said, "Sorry, uncle. I hope your headache clears soon."
The big man that towered before me, was probably the tallest "human" marine in the whole world. He ate the Giant Devil Fruit (Kyojin no Mi), which gave him the ability to grow as big as a giant, but also disable him from swimming or floating in the sea. Glaring down at me, he roared, "Vice-Admiral Rough to you, soldier. Or did you forget who I am?"
"Y-yes sir, Vice-Admiral s-sir!" I stammered, too scared to look him in the eye. The icy tension in the air began to make me shiver as I barely kept my eyes focused on Uncle Rough's.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The sudden booming laughter broke the silence and I stood there frozen only to realize that my uncle was on the floor of the deck clutching his belly while laughing uncontrollably. With tears forming in his eyes the vice-admiral sat up and in between hiccups he said, "hic, I was only hic pullin' yer leg hic BAHAHAHAHA hic HAHAHAHA!"
I stood there in silence as the man got up and shrunk to my height. "You can call me uncle as long as my superiors aren't around kiddo!" His superiors. He meant the Admiral, and the General of the fleet, and the Government, and possibly the Tenryuubito.
"LAND AHOY 9 O' CLOCK!" A voice called out from the masts above.
Uncle Rough and I looked over the railing to see a visible outline of an island shrouded in fog. I hadn't noticed that we had entered the fog due to uncle's distraction.
"MEN, READY THE ANCHORS! READY THE ROWBOATS! FIND THE DOCKING PIER FIRST, THEN WE'LL MAKE OUR LANDING!" Uncle Rough roared using his mighty giant voice. The sailors and marines herded out in orderly fashion and set to work as soon as they arrived.
"Prepare our longest chain to link the rowboats together so that they don't get lost from each other and from the ship! A light for each boat! I'll take the lead!" I shouted, as I helped my men lower the first boat into the sea.
"Here's a baby den-den mushi, 2nd Lieutenant Sharp! We're to make contact as soon as we land. Vice Admiral Rough says that they will come for us if we don't come back within 3 days!" My right-hand man, Trusty, went off checking his check-list more than twice to ensure our safe trip.
We quickly got about three rowboats into the water with enough supplies to last us a week and rowed our way to the island not knowing that we were risking our lives on a perilous adventure.