A/N: Well here is my attempt at Shanks and O/C.
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or it's characters.
The sun blazed across Windmill Village and the birds chirped so heavenly. The Red Hair Pirates were back to their home base after one of their trips to who knows where on that lovely sea. They dropped anchor at the port to find no one there waiting for them. It was only natural, after all they've been here a while. It was a routine to the villagers to know they would be coming back.
The captain and his crew sauntered down their ship laughing and carefree hoping to get some of that sake from the bar to find that the village was not the quiet village they always came back to.
Screaming and shrieks came from the center of the small village. A metallic smell lingered in the air coming from a small boat filled with a small pool of blood that trailed out and towards the village. What made it what one could only describe as… creepier was that bloody hand prints were laid out on the trail as well. The captain and his crew knew full well something bad had happened and didn't wait to go find out want.
The captain himself has seen some horrible things being a pirate. This has got to be one of those unbelievable things that would be on the top ten or so. The bloody trail led to a circle of people that surrounded what was causing all the commotion.
Makino ran up to them quickly after spotting them, "Captain, there's something really horrible… You have to do something!" Anyone could see terror had reigned over her and the village. The screaming was coming from all the people in the circle.
The captain softly moved aside the villagers and pushed himself forward to see. There was a girl with blood streaming down all her limbs. She had long blond hair that ended above her stomach and hollow, calm eyes. A metal and gold collar clawed around her neck, those of which were used for slaves.
Her clothes were not slave clothes but might as well be. The girl's brown T-shirt had tiny rips everywhere and her denim shorts didn't seem to be shorts when she got them. The shorts went up to above the knee on one leg and the other went above her mid-thigh on the other.
The girl was reaching for a knife strapped to her thigh by leather but she was shaking too much to grab it, not from fear though. From the volts going through her body. She was being electrocuted.
"Everyone please get back!" The man with the red hair yelled as he ran toward the girl. They did as they were they were told, as would anyone in that situation.
The villagers were very confused and had no idea what was happening.
He clung his long fingers around the collar in a fraction of a second and threw in in the opposite direction, a second later it exploded loudly causing everyone to go deaf for a second and felt the after math ringing in their ears. The only thing heard in that great silence was the loud thump as the girl fell from her knees to the shroud of dirt clinging to her.
A man with a headband across his head that said 'Yasopp' grimaced, "How could anyone do this?" He spun a golden collar around his index finger.
"It's sad to think the great government can be crueler than pirates huh?" The first mate replied calmly leaning against the doorway of the mayor's guest bedroom.
The bedroom was large. It was very plain though, only having the necessities for a guest. A small table was diagonal to the bed which was in the corner. There were to doors, one to the bathroom and one to the living room.
She looked fragile as glass. Her slave clothes were tattered, her nerves were still forcing her to twitch every now and then from all that shock and her neck was red and bruised from that collar which was a size too small for her.
Shanks didn't bother to pull the covers over her or try to get the blood out of her clothes. He only carried her carefully to the Mayor's house after he offered to let her recover there. He knew the girl wouldn't exactly be worrying about her looks when she woke up.
The doctor had taken a look at her. Thankfully her nerves were not damaged by the electrocution but that was due to the close calculation of the government. Unfortunately there wasn't much they could do for her now.
They had about a million questions swirling in their minds about this mysterious girl but all they could really do was wait in till she woke up. Three of the crew stayed behind because they thought she wouldn't want to wake up alone.
Hours pasted in till the sun began to set leaving the sky pink and purple with swirls of orange. In those few hours the men were restless, being pirates of course, they never had to sit still quietly for hours. Finally they decided to sit around the table in the corner of the room and play poker.
The girl didn't bother to open her eyes. She was wide awake now and could hear those unfamiliar voices in the room. Her animal like instincts told her to jump out the window and run for it. Whoever these people were, were strong. Strong enough to break off the golden collar that choked her. Did they want something from her? The girl held her breath for ten seconds and exhaled a trick she learned to calm her heartbeat in a tough situation where only her mind could get her out.
They weren't paying attention at the moment so she opened her right eye to take a glimpse at her captors. One in particular caught her eye, he had bright red hair that no one could have missed. The next thing that caught her eye was their weapons.
Crap. Run out the window and they'll just shoot you midair.
The first mate placed a card face down on the table, "You're awake." He said nonchalantly. It was a statement not a question.
The girl pushed herself to sit up against the bed frame. She may look fragile and weak but if she was going down, she would go down putting up a fight. She straightened her back, with a blank unemotional countenance staring at them, "Yes."
The red haired man stood up with a grin across his face, "You're finally awake? We were worried for a second there." Noticing the hostility she had towards them he added, "Don't worry, we won't hurt you."
"I have a hard time believing that." She retorted calming but without wasting a second.
His grin still across his face, "I'm Shanks, this here is Benn," he motioned a hand toward him, "and this is Yasopp." Motioning another hand toward the other man.
Shanks pulled a chair to the bed and sat down.
"That's nice." She said blankly. Looking at her captors made her sick. She came this far just to have herself captured again. She moved her head to look out the window on her left instead.
Yassop laughed leaning back on his chair, "And what might you're name be?"
"… Raine will do. Will you let me leave?"
Benn, who was still playing poker with Yasopp, said sternly, "Yes, when you're fully healed. However, we have a couple of questions for you. Will you answer us?"
Raine deepened her glare out the window, cursing her horrible luck, "Depends."
"How were you able to travel from Sabaody to here with marines looking for you?" Benn knew that slaves came from Sabaody and farther, there weren't any down here in the weak seas.
A smile slipped onto the girls lips, "Who knows" she sighed breathlessly and knew now that they would not hurt her.
She realized she was in a small village, who had dangerous men running around with swords and guns but yet right out the window she saw a child with black hair being teased by the 'dangerous' men. Many villagers were interacting with them as well. Maybe her luck changed.
"Get out, all of you." The girl said sharply. She snapped her head toward them and changed her whole demeanor.
"Why?" Shanks pouted immaturely, who now had both elbows on the bed and face propped up with his hands.
"Well I want to change and take a shower." They began to get up and leave, very slowly so Raine got up gave them a good shove out the door and slammed it.
She had to find it but it was on the boat. The boat was so far away… No it was important. Raine opened up the window sill of the two story building. She pulled herself out and onto the edge of the window that was barely enough room to stand there. The wind blowing through her gold locks was exhilarating and refreshing. Now to get onto the roof. Raine turned a full 360 to face the house and pulled up to the roof.
From there she ran using the momentum of her weight to leap onto the bar's roof. Raine soared through the air like a bird.
The three men were standing impatiently in the living room, waiting for Raine to finish taking a shower.
Shanks sighed, "Why is she taking so long?"
Benn was the first to realize it. His eyes widened from the realization, "…You know I don't hear any water running."
Shanks agreed, "Huh you're right.." He knocked on the door loudly, "hey we're coming in!"
The captain opened the door to get a gust of wind blown at them from the open window sill. He ran over to the window and placed his hands on the bottom part and stuck his head out to see a girl running across the roof tops.
A smile found its way onto his face, "Clever girl."
Yasopp laughed, "We should go get her. It looks like she's heading towards the docks."
Shanks bounced onto the bed with his hands pulled behind his head, "Nah, she'll probably come back. Plus I think some of the men are at our ship, if they spot her they'll bring her back."
The roof tops were getting lower and lower as she went so by the time she was at the docks, it was a jumpable length to the ground. Her body twitched at the jump. Guess she still needed rest but it doesn't matter. She was within reach of her boat and the girl practically sprinted over to it.
There it was… Her spear. It was an elegant spear that was splashed with blue. The head was sharp coming down the pole with edges like shark teeth. One side had more and larger ones than the other. There was also a leather and metal sheath that went around her waist to hold the spear at her back. Uncle had given this to her. It was very important and not to be lost.
Raine knew they had to have figured it out by now or else they were complete idiots. There was no hurry though so she walked back. It really was a nice day. The pretty swirls of color were still in the sky.
She was free wasn't she? Of course there was probably a bounty on her head but still, she was free from those terrors. A pang of pain ran through her and she recalled the horrors of slavery, but quickly shoved them back. She already had scars to show for it, no need to think about it.
The village doctor was back to find the three pirates could not keep track of one girl. "Do you understand the severity of this? She shouldn't be able to walk much less run across rooftops!"
Shanks cracked open one eye, not bothering to get up from the bed, "Calm down Doctor… I mean we saw her running across those rooftops. She's perfectly fine!"
Benn interjected, "It's most likely because she has grown immune to it."
A silence filled the air and a flood of disgust seemed to drown the room. The doctor shook his head and walked over to the window.
"The girl is back." He sighed.
Raine walked past a bar full of rowdy pirates and glanced over at them. They look like they're having a lot of fun. Piracy huh… She didn't even notice the little boy that ran into her. He bumped his nose into her stomach and fell back.
"I'm so sorry, are you alright?" Raine bent down to level with the boy.
He got right back up and replied, "I'm fine. My name's Luffy! Are you the girl who was hurt today?"
Raine smiled, "Hello Luffy-san, my name is Raine and yes I was the girl who was hurt."
Luffy frowned, "Are you okay?"
The girl laughed, "Yes, I'm very strong, just like you."
A familiar set of faces behind Luffy caught Raine's attention.
Shanks spoke with a grin, "I see you've met Luffy. You rascal, are you even supposed to be out right now?"
Luffy stuck a tongue out provocatively, "I can do whatever I want Shanks!"
Everyone except the doctor got a good laugh out of that one. "Okay, Raine was it? Let's go back to the mayor's house. I need to exam you further."
Raine raised an eyebrow and chuckled," No thanks, I'm perfectly fine as these pirates can tell you. In fact I'm in the mood for some sake."
The doctor began to fume, "As a doctor I cannot ignore what I saw! Even now your neck is bruised all around, you must at least rest if not let-"
Shanks interrupted, "Now this girl seems very set on her decision. No worries doctor," he gave a big smile, "we'll look after her and tell you if something is wrong."
The doctor sighed, "… Very well."
Taking a closer look at the situation Shanks realized maybe he shouldn't have said that. If he was going to look after her, then he can't have any sake and get drunk. That's no fun. "Hey!" he took the sake from her hand that she had stealthily taken from Yasopp.
Raine furrowed her eyebrows together and snapped her head towards Shanks, "What was that for?"
"You're under aged lass." He replied while propping his head up with his hand and elbow on the bar.
The girl had an amused countenance, "Oh? And how old do you think I am?" She shifted her body away from Luffy on her stool to face Shanks.
Shanks yawned, "You look like a little girl. How about twelve?"
Raine had a painfully annoyed expression, "I do not look like a twelve year old!" She kicked his shin.
Shanks made a pained face but then laughed loudly, "I was just kidding, you're about... 17?"
"Yeah."
There was a big silent gap in the air because even though there was laughing and noise all around them, their conversation was dead at the moment.
Shanks however did not see it that way. He was observing her, which took his eyes to her weapon on her back. That spear looks as heavy or heavier than his saber. It's obviously high quality but it's made for an adult and seems extremely deadly. He's never seen it in shops and who would give a child such a dangerous thing?
That just got him to wonder about this girl more. Benn asked how she got here and she just brushed off the question, very slyly as well. Why was that slave collar a custom one, it was meant to torture who ever wore it. The more he thought about it all, the more mysterious she became.
Raine made eye contact with him, moving a bit uncomfortably, "Why are you staring at me?"
Shanks grinned, "Sorry, just wondering why a child has such a fancy, not to mention deadly, weapon. I doubt you can even use it." He got under her skin before which was pretty funny; maybe he could do it again.
The captain did not get the reaction he was hoping for, "I could say the same to you. You're like a man-child with a deadly saber. You should switch that out with a toy one." Raine grinned right back at him.
The rest of the bar seemed to have heard that remark and gave a big "Ohhh,"
A drunk Yasopp added, "Captainnnn, are ye juss' going ta take that?"
Shanks wouldn't be outdone by this girl, "I'm a pirate lassie. I don't play games like children, I play for keeps, something a little girl like you wouldn't understand, " And of course the crowd with its sound effects.
Shanks thought he won this one but the devilish look in Raine's frost colored eyes made him think otherwise. Raine smiled mischievously, "Well captain you're quite the big man hmm? Let's have a contest."
Was he starting to sweat cause of this girl? No, it must just be getting hot in there. "What kind of contest you have planned little girl? Better not be rigged."
The devilish spark in her eyes never went away as she edged her stool forward toward him in till their faces were inches apart, "I was thinking tomorrow, early in the morning we go into the forest. Whoever can bring in the most gold in a day wins."
Shanks laughed, "How do you find gold in a forest? What does the winner get?"
"I don't know, but we figure it out. That's the fun part. The winner gets whatever they want from the loser and the loser gets full humiliation."
Still inches away from each other's faces Shanks smiled, "You're on. I'll plan something very humiliating for you little girl. I won't go easy on you."
Luffy was now very excited and jumping up and down, "Don't worry nee-chan, I know the forest like the back of my hand! I'll help you!"
Raine got off the stool and turned around to Luffy giving him a genuine smile, "Thank you, let's go plan!" Shanks thought she must the kind of girl who doesn't smile like that often. Those smiles were pretty on her.
They began walking toward the swinging doors while Raine held on to Luffy's hand. She turned her head and winked with an evil smile, "See you later loser."
Shanks waved and stuck a tongue out. He hesitated to gulp down the sake he took from Raine, she could be some competition and he didn't want a hangover… He drank it anyways.
Benn took the seat Raine was previously on, "You two are getting along well."
Shanks chuckled, "Is that what it looks like?" He took another gulp of the sake. "That girl's a little demon if I've ever seen one."
Raine woke up to the mumblings of a sleeping child laid next to her. Looking up to the light coming through the fabric above her, she recalled where she and Luffy went after leaving the bar.
They went to the forest and set up a tent to sleep in so they would have time to explore the forest before Shanks got there.
Raine lifted her head up to see her body laid out in front of her and a wrinkled paper sitting on her stomach. She grabbed paper, this is the map Luffy made for me.
Raine laughed. It was impossible to make out what any of it meant but the thought was what counted and made Raine feel warm inside. She ruffled the mumbling boy's hair affectionately before heading out of the tent and preparing for the task in front of her.
The girl stretched at the sight of the beautiful landscape upon her. The trees erupt from the ground and went beyond the sky. A magnificent sight, touched with sunlight shifting on the grounds like prisms dancing. Jumping onto a root ten times bigger than herself, she felt like the animal inside her was going to burst out. There was no need to explore; it would take the fun out of things.
In the thought, she heard loud stomping and an obnoxious amount of snorting and laughing.
"Little girl! Are you ready for defeat?" Shanks shouted triumphantly as if he'd already won. He was like her, not having come prepared because they were both very confident in their chances of winning.
Raine turned her head to face them but still holding herself high, the first step to winning is intimidation. "Did you have to bring the whole crew along?"
"I only brought who wanted to come."
Benn smiled, "Don't worry, I placed my bet on you, the captain is too unreliable."
Somebody then shouted, "Bring out the barrels of sake! We're going to need some entertainment out here!" Two pirates for each of the four barrels held on to them and started passing the glasses of sake out.
A sleepy Luffy came crawling out of the tent mumbling to himself, "wherswhaht. Whs saing this is confinsing,"
Everybody gave a big laugh at Luffy since he went right back to sleep halfway through crawling out of the tent.
Yasopp stepped into the conversation, "The crew and I came up with three rules for this," he cleared his throat, "You can't go outside of the forest, you two must go in opposite directions when you start but if you run into each other you can fight."
Shanks gave a devilish smile, "Watch out, I might ambush you."
Raine replied by sticking her tongue out childishly.
Yasopp continued, "Third rule after those two is that anything is allowed. Sabotage, stealing, ambush and attacks. After you two get out of our sight, it's the wild from there. And just in case there really is no gold in the forest, a few of the guys from the crew are going to plant gold in places but it will be nearly impossible to find."
Raine nodded, "Let's get started then."
A shot of a gun went off and in a split second they went running off in different directions. On one side you see a yellow and blue flash running off and on the other you see a red and black flash running.
The crew began to place bets on who they thought would win while drinking sake and partying like they always do.
The forest was liberating to Raine. Whatever pain or mental scars that clouded her mind flew away in the instant she slid on the side of a tree, practically defying gravity.
"Now where in the world am I going to find gold?" she murmured to herself.
Raine felt something watching her snapping her head back and doing an aerial flip off the tree to the side and slid on the ground dirt.
Is that a rhino? Don't those things live in the desert?
The rhino was gigantic and very hungry. It didn't waste any time to charge towards Raine with full force that was enough to knock down one of those 100 year old trees.
Raine got into position with her left hand on the ground, taking out with spear and swung that arm behind her. Her left hand gave her a push for extra speed and charged right towards the rhino. Keeping her body low was a key to speed and force with a spear. Both arms were put behind her line of vision so she could keep a close eye on her prey. At about ten dangerous feet away from the rhino Raine used her momentum to pierce the air like a bullet.
Quickly she spun her spear around in her hand and positioned her arms and hands as if she was aiming an arrow with a bow but instead threw her spear down at the rhino with full force. Blood spattered the rhino's surroundings, staining the dirt a bright red.
When Raine dropped down to the ground gracefully, she walked over to the dead body of the rhino and took a closer look. Her spear landed right between the eyes. She was practically raised by wolves, nature was her territory.
Raine didn't like to hurt things but if growing up in the wild only taught her one thing, it was that you either kill or get killed.
A memory flashed in Raine's mind of when she killed her first animal, it was a bunny. She mistook it for something dangerous in the bushes and threw her spear in the bush, only to find it was an innocent bunny.
She cried for days, mourning for the poor bunny. Even buried the bunny and gave it a gravestone. The memory made Raine feel a weight on her, so she pushed it away.
With both hands she yanked out her spear to get a gush of blood flowing out of the rhino's head. The blood dripping down her spear bothered her. Uncle would get made at her if he saw this. Raine picked a random direction, west, to find a source of water.
It felt like hours before Raine finally found a source of water which was annoyingly a tiny stream of water. She couldn't wash anything like this. The girl knew that the stream had to lead to larger body of water. Raine followed the stream down and down and down and down. The stream quickly connected with other streams creating a river, big enough for her to swim in and take a bath.
A loud roar echoed in Raine's ear drums, coming from farther down the river. She knew she probably shouldn't… but curiosity got the best of her. She ran as fast as the river was running and finally she found it.
A gorgeous waterfall before her roared like the king of the forest. The cliff curved like a crescent moon with vines hanging off. The waterfall itself wasn't that high maybe 30 feet? There was still forest beyond the waterfall down there so she could keep exploring… And plus she hadn't taken a shower yet…
She hastily pulled her off ragged brown T-shirt and the denim short and threw it over the cliff to the area that was dry and next to the water fall.
What remained of her was her spear, bra and underwear. She took a couple steps back and jumped as far as she could making an animalistic jungle yell.
In midair she took a dive position, to her, those moments in the air was as good as the contact into the water because adrenaline is pumped throughout her body. Her heart beat so fast she thought it was about to burst in till she hit the bone chilling water that shattered her control. The water took all the weight from her body and made her feel like a feather. Raine closed her eyes in the water to take in the beautiful moment as long as she could.
Shanks loved adventure, and it was no different being in that forest. Where would be the first place someone would hide gold? The first places that came to mind were the tree tops. It was a great place to hide gold considering they wanted someone to find it but not that easily.
He knew his crew wouldn't put it in just any tree, but the tallest tree. The first step was to find the tallest tree which he couldn't do from the ground so he decided to climb the one next to him.
He found a sturdy tree and hopped onto the giant roots. Climbing a tree was easy, the bark was rough enough for him to grip on when there was no branches.
Once he reached the top and highest branch he sat down and took in the view. In the distance, not that far from him he spotted a tree that caught his eyes. It was thicker and taller than all the others. It was to the west of him.
Shanks smiled to himself as he jumped from branch to branch making his way to ground level.
He was thinking about what he would want from her if he won. There actually wasn't anything he could have her do. Normally when winning a bet he'd just have the loser pay for all the sake he and his crew could drink for one night but that girl was broke. He'd think of something.
A loud thud came to his ears as he hit the blades of grass, crushing them under the impact. Shanks slowly meandered toward the direction of the giant tree that's direction curved downhill.
Shanks face had been stuck in the same expression. A confused one.
He was lost.
Shanks took a look up at the sky to find the clouds were dark and a storm was brewing in the cold air.
What was he going to? His crew wouldn't come look for him! They'd just think he was fooling around. When did this forest start looking so confusing? Was he going in circles? How long has it been since he was out here? And what was the noise?
It was a loud roar that made the ground under him vibrate subtly. He hadn't noticed it before but it caught his attention now, slowly he made his way toward that sound causing the vibrations to be more and more noticeable.
Suddenly something sharp grazed his shoulder in a fraction of a second. A stream of blood from his shoulder ran down his arm, staining his bleach white shirt.
A/N: I hope you guys liked it. I would like to know your thoughts on this, should i continue? I'd love any reviews or constructive criticism but please no flames. Oh and sorry if there are any errors like in grammar, i tried to get those out of there. Thank for reading :D