The small harbor was bustling with activity a the latest shipment of merchandise was being sorted and distributed to the appropriate warehouses. Many of the workers were especially happy about a large shipment of liquor that had come in. As the sun reached its peak a foreman blew a loud horn signalling the afternoon break. Many of the workers took off towards the tavern or their own houses for a good meal, leaving only the ten men who made up the dock guard to watch over the warehouses.

XxXxX

"Hehehe." Laughed a man with long unkempt black hair and a short and scraggy beard. His clothes were a tattered and patched mess, with his sleeveless shirt being left open to reveal powerful pectorals and arms. However, in contrast to this the man had a large potbelly and short thin legs. "Well boys those damn dock workers are on break so it's about time to end ours and do some plundering, What do ya say?" The man asked as he strode across his ship. It wasn't a large vessel but it fit him and his thirty men comfortably, as well as flying a simple jolly roger. The men gathered around with swords and guns at the ready, yelling for blood. The large man laughed again at his crews excitement and barked orders to the helmsman as the ship raised anchor and sailed straight for the docks.

The guards triggered the alarm as soon as they saw the jolly roger flying on the mast of the ship. Many of the workers returned to the docks with weapons as the pirates began disembarking and hacking slashing at the guards. The large man jumped from the prow and landed on the dock with a smirk, he was now carrying the large steel mace in which he got his name from, Norbert the "Heavy Hand." He preceded to gleefully swat away the charging guards and the workers who had come as reinforcements. "Keep hammering away boys they wont last long!" Norbert crowed. Suddenly something strange caught the large mans eye, a pair of teenagers were casually strolling and talking amongst themselves while examining the ships, an odd occurrence since a battle was happening just meters away from them.

"Hey brats bad time to be taking a stroll!" The man shouted angrily. Feeling especially irritated he charged forward and swung his mace down towards the young boy, smiling as he heard the thunk of his mace. His smile vanished when he noticed that his mace's descent had been stopped and that the black haired boy had stopped it with just his left hand.

"Damnit," The boy said as he tussled his spiky black hair with his free hand, "if you'd just left us alone we could have all been on our merry way." Despite the boys lanky frame, made apparent by his tight red long sleeved shirt and form fitting blue jeans he possessed an add aura that made Norbert back off in fright. "And you made one more mistake I wont forgive Fatso, calling yourself a pirate when you are so weak!" The boy twisted his body sending his right foot into the air. Norbert stepped backwards to dodge the blow but, was caught unaware as the boy shifted his weight and used the momentum of his first kick to twist in the air and bring his left heel down on the massive man's head.

"What happened to being inconspicuous, Thomas?" the girl asked. Like the boy her hair was black but much longer and in pig tails. She was head shorter than the boy and she rocked a Gothic Lolita outfit with a black tank top, plus black and red plaid mini skirt.

"Oh right, the guy pissed me off so much I forgot, sorry Anna." Thomas said, absentmindedly as he scratched the back of his head. As he stared down at the motionless man's body. Thomas had managed to kick the man's head into the concrete hard enough to leave cracks in it. Coupled with the steel plating on the heels and toes of his shoes, the damage was enough to crack the mans skull and cause a pool of blood to begin forming.

"Captain!" Two of Norbert's crew had broken free of the workers defensive line and were charging at Thomas with their swords raised in an attempt to cut him down. However, they didn't make it that far as small a pair of small throwing knives embedded themselves into one eye each on both of them.

"Nice aim as always Anna, but brutal as well." Thomas said as he flinched at the sight of the two men screaming and grasping at their now useless eyes.

"Calling a young lady brutal, hmm?" Anna said as she pulled two more knives from under her skirt and held them loosely in her left hand. "I can't say you are completely wrong, but I don't have to like it."

"YOU BITCH!" One of the men shouted as he stood up, his eyelid closed over his left eye as he ran towards Anna, intending to run her through with his sword.

"Interesting last words." She said as she threw both knives at the man. They sunk into his left breast, which he clutched as he fell face first to the ground. The other man, along with what was left of Norbert's crew had lost morale and was attempting to retreat. Anna drew another knife tossing and burying it into the back of his neck.

"There isn't enough cannon fodder here for this to be any fun." Thomas sighed as he began picking up Anna's knives. She always insisted that retrieving and cleaning her weapons wasn't something a 'lady' should do. After retreiving and cleaning all five knives he returned them to Anna. She quickly slid them into the sheathes around her thighs.

"You kids sure are something else, you made taking out that guy look easy." A worker said as several of them approached, carrying bloody weapons and a few leaning on each other for support. The remaining pirates had surrendered and were being tied up by several workers and the heavily injured workers were being taking to a nearby clinic.

"It was easy, you guys are just weak." Thomas said as he waved his hand in a dismissive manner. This statement shocked the workers, but they recovered quickly enough.

"That's fair I guess," The one who had spoken before said. "We would have lost had you not taken out that guy with the mace." He said glancing at the body. "Anyway we need to thank you somehow and i'm sure the mayor would like to meet you would you mind coming?" He asked.

After a quick glance at Anna, Thomas shrugged, "Why not?"

"We would be delighted." Anna said.

XxXxX

They arrived at the massive townhouse quickly, and were asked to wait in the foyer for a few minutes while the mayor handled some paperwork. The workers who had guided them to the building had left at the door and been replaced by two of the mayors assistants. Soon they were escorted into the mayor office and ushered forward by the assistants. "Sir these are the two people who helped with the dock incident." One of the assistants said gesturing at Thomas and Anna.

"Ahh so you are the ones I heard about." An old man said looking up from a pile of papers. The old man was dressed in a brown suit and wore large circular lns glasses with red rims that clashed with his white hair. "The name's Daniel Dyman, but everyone calls me Mayor Dandy and I can't figure out why." Daniel shook his head to clear his thoughts, "So what are your names?" He inquired.

"Thomas Rouge is my name, Mr. Dandy." He said, visibly fighting against his laughter.

"My name is Anna Kerchief, pleasure to make your acquaintance Mr. Dyman." Anna said formally.

"Well we are glad to have you both in town, the marines have already been informed and are on their way." Daniel said as he fiddled with his glasses. "The closest base is a day away so you could stay here for the night and collect the bounty for that pirate tomorrow."

"Sorry, but we have to decline, we aren't big fans of the Marines and we aren't heroes either." Anna said as an evil smile crossed her lips and she pulled a pair of knives from under her skirt.

"Happy to say that we are pirates, and i'm the guy who's gonna be king." Thomas said as he twirled and punched one of the assistant in the jaw, dropping him instantly. "We don't have a name, ship or crew yet, but one day we'll be even more famous than the Gold Roger!" At that declaration he rushed forward deking the remaining assistant in the face, also knocking him out. As Thomas dealt with the assistants Anna slid a knife from under her skirt and held it up to the Daniel's throat.

"We have a few demands Mr. Dyman." She said smiling, "We want the largest ship two people can sail prepared and loaded with provisions and at least 100,000 Beri on board. If you can't meet those demands within the next two hours we start killing people." She spoke calmly with her eyes locked onto the old mans all the while spinning another knife absentmindedly.

"Calm down will you Anna, you seem less like a pirate and more like a demon right now." Thomas laughed as he began inspecting some of the antiques weapons on the wall. "The old guy doesn't strike me as a swordsman, what a waste for some of these swords, especially this one." He said picking up a sword with a pure white hilt, circular guard and a white painted sheath. He drew the sword to reveal its straight blade and whistled, "This is the Wado Ichimonji isn't it?" He asked directing the question towards the old man.

"Yes," Replied the Mayor, "it is quite unusual to come across such a rare sword for sale. You have a good eye for blades I take it you have some level of skill with swords?"

"Ugh boys and their toys." Anna grumbled as she made herself comfortable still spinning her knives.

"Ha, i'm no good with swords, I've just seen a picture of it in a book once. Though I will take this sword it could come in handy." Thomas laughed.

XxXxX

The hours passed and the pair boarded their new boat dragging the Mayor along with them, after checking that the provisions and money had been placed they set out to sea. After the two had cleared a safe distance from the harbor they dropped the old man into a dingy and lowered him into the water to make his own way back. "so you've finally got a ship Captain Thomas so what's next?" Anna asked smilingly up at the crows nest from the helm. The ship wasn't a large one but it could house about five people comfortably.

"Why even ask Anna? I already said I'd leave the route to you so longs as we go places where we can have some fun." Thomas called down as he scanned the horizon of the North Blue with a giant smile on his face.

Anna sighed at her childhood friends irresponsibility, though she had always known that things would end up like this so she had worked her self to the bone studying navigation. "We'll go to the Silvy Islands first then, it's nearby and is a great place to start looking for more crew mates."

"Silvy Islands?"

"It's a chain of pirate controlled islands, there isn't much of a Marine presence in the area because of it." She explained.

"Sounds fun." He said with a smile.