Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and all characters therein belong to Rumiko Takahashi. One Piece and all characters therein belong to Eiichira Oda. Vengeance demons and Arashmaharr belong to Joss Whedon. Only the plot belongs to me.

Summary: After Shampoo makes a wish, a vengeance demon sends Akane to the One Piece universe. After being saved from drowning, she joins the Straw Hat crew. Eventual Akane/Zoro romance.

Author's Note: For those of you who follow my stuff, I'm sorry I started yet another fanfic. My husband finally got me to watch One Piece and this idea beset me like a fever dream. As long as I'm writing something, yeah?

Being a vengeance demon in the Nerima ward of Tokyo, Japan was a difficult thing but Makoto was determined. He was one of the few demons that dared to encroach on oni territory and was successful. It was likely because of his subtle nature and those that he helped to avenge – those that suffered from unrequited love.

He had been feeling the pull of this place for almost two years before he finally traveled to Nerima after a near explosion of emotion. Yes, the New World had more instances of unrequited love than he could ever handle in a hundred years but when the Japanese did something, they had the potential to do it big.

So, he'd watched the center of the influx of unrequited love for about a year, waiting for the wish that he wanted and planning a good exit strategy. He would have to leave immediately because the Japanese demon community would instantly be attracted to the magic use. Watching and waiting and being nothing more than a being of minimal power among outrageous martial artists was the best and most prudent plan.

Akane had been the first to notice him and Makoto had instantly realized why so many were in love with her. Her pseudo-fiancé's charms were so obvious it hurt – Ranma was the ideal specimen of man, his off-color transformation notwithstanding. He caused girls to swoon merely by crossing their paths. The girl, however, was sweet and understanding and had that aura of strength that came from being a trained martial artist.

He often wondered why her compassion didn't extend to Ranma. That is, until he witnessed one of their arguments, a flurry of insults which Akane felt too keenly and it seemed Ranma often didn't feel at all. Some questions about his past had answered why – his father trained him with negative reinforcement. Thus, the younger Saotome took the insults as encouragement to be better while the youngest Tendo alternately stewed and retaliated against the treatment.

It was no small wonder that after that debacle of a wedding, she managed to pull herself together enough to force her father to reteach her from the basics. Her katas were more precise and fluid and her strength had increased twofold in the time since they'd met. However, she still lacked speed and her endurance was very low when compared to the other aspects of the Art.

"Makoto!" Akane called, throwing the demon out of his thought process momentarily. "You coming?"

He smiled at the girl, flicking his glance to Ranma. They were in a big group, attacking the nearest cineplex in force following the graduation ceremony. Going through the motions of humanity, he joined them inside the theater, allowing the emotion that gave him power flow over him in waves. It had been building for a long time but he had to be sure about what he wanted done.

Akane was the key. Oh yes, Ranma was the center, drawing people to him almost like gravitational pull, but if the girl was gone, the chaos that ensued would be uncontainable. Grinning to himself, he allowed the darkness to consume him. The time for action would come soon enough.

Not thirty minutes had passed before he heard murmured directly to his left. It was the Chinese adolescents – Mousse and Shampoo – having a deep conversation in their native Mandarin. It was a good thing for Makoto that language was not a barrier for him.

{She'll be gone to university soon,} Mousse was assuring the girl gently.

{That's not enough!} Shampoo whispered sharply.

The boy sighed and Makoto saw him push his glasses up on his face. {What would be enough, dear Shampoo?}

She handed him a glare at the use of the endearing honorific. {I wish…} The demon held his breath and allowed his focus to zero in on them. {I wish she was gone forever, never to return.}

The demon allowed his face to break out in a grin. Success! He lightly touched the heavy sapphire gem that lay beneath his shirt and whispered, "Done." In the blink of an eye, Akane had disappeared to a place that Makoto did not even know. As the knowledge of a completed mission filled him, he disappeared as well, to the realm of Arashmaharr.

The Japanese demons, hybrid and otherwise, would be flooding the theater soon enough and he had no need to spill the blood of his own kin.

Zoro laid on the rear of the ship, trying to lose himself in a nap. However, Luffy and Usopp were dancing around the ship, singing loudly. If they were on the other end of the ship, he could have almost pretended they weren't there but no such luck. As it was, he just laid very still and let everyone believe he was unconscious.

Then suddenly, a scream ripped through the air, jerking his eyes open. He sat up immediately and looked over the railing in time to witness the large splash. Looking across the expanse of open sea for other vessels, he wondered where… whoever it was had come from. There were no other ships in sight and from the magnitude of the splash, the person had dropped from a great height, almost as if from a crow's nest.

"What was that?" Nami asked as she made her way to Zoro's general vicinity, the sound of the splash probably distracting her from her maps.

Then the person bobbed up to the surface. "Help! I can't…" Zoro realized the person in need was a female, something he'd already guessed from the high pitch of the scream, with dark hair made black by the water.

As she lost her battle with the surface, he pulled his boots off his feet and his remaining katana out of the loop that held it. He stood and leaped over the railing, finding his rhythm as soon as he hit the water to swim out of the drowning girl. The change in temperature sent a jolt to his system, fully dragging him out of the lethargy that plagued him when he sought sleep.

His eyes focused and he could see the girl sinking slowly, already having lost consciousness, about ten meters from his current position. Powerful strokes of his arms took him quickly to her side and he scooped her at the waist and brought them both to the surface. After he breathed in a lungful of air, he took a moment to survey her features.

Upon closer inspection, Zoro could see that she had dark blue hair like Kuina's but that was where the similarities ended. Her face was heart-shaped, different enough from his late friend/rival's that the memories remained where they were instead of brimming to the surface, and she was very small. Or it had seemed when she was sinking but his hands could feel hard musculature beneath the skin. The girl was a fighter, though he wouldn't know what kind until she was awake again.

He grabbed hold of the rope that Nami had fed down to him with one hand, looping the end of it around his ankle with a quick movement. The navigator and Usopp heaved him back on deck and he laid the girl down gently. He immediately leaned his ear over her mouth to begin first aid.

She wasn't breathing!

Fighting the panic that clouded his mind, Zoro leaned down to begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation. As such, his face was only inches from her face when she coughed and sputtered, sending a spray of sea water and saliva into his face. The shock of her suddenly coming alive without even the slightest chest compression or act of CPR caused him to rock backwards, catching himself on his heels before he could make a complete fool out of himself.

Her body convulsing with the action, the girl rejected the water that had likely found refuge in her lungs and she moved herself into a sitting position. She pressed a hand to her chest as the expulsion of water slowed and finally opened her eyes.

It was like looking into liquid chocolate, was Zoro's first thought. He could see the confusion flash in those eyes, quickly followed by alarm and… determination?

She scrambled to her feet instantly, her body pulled into a defensive stance despite the way her wet dress tried to keep her legs from making the movement. "What's going on?"

Zoro stood but didn't move closer to her. She seemed on edge and he knew personally that being female didn't keep someone from being skilled. "I saved you just now," he told her gently. "From drowning."

She pinned him with a hard stare, searching his dark eyes with her own, before she turned thoughtful. He could literally see something connecting in her mind but he knew he might wait for some time before he knew what that something was.

Suddenly, Luffy was there, breaking into the girl's very obvious personal bubble. "Hey, who're you?"

Her pensive state must have kept her from noticing the captain's approach because she made a muffled shriek, almost as if she swallowed the sound, and punched him dead in the nose. Now Nami had done the same on several occasions and it had only served to knock him to the ground; the punch from this girl that seemed so small knocked him back with enough force to shove him into Zoro and force them both to the ground.

With a gasp that sounded very feminine, she covered her mouth with her hands and moved to help them both to their feet. "I'm sorry. I just—And he was—" She stopped herself and took a breath. "I'm very sorry. I'm Akane."

Nami laughed heartily, her eyes dancing merrily at the sight of a girl knocking both Luffy and Zoro to the ground. "They're fine," she assured her immediately. "I'm Nami, they're Luffy and Zoro, and this is Usopp. Our cook, Sanji, is in the galley. We're pirates," she told her with a wink.

Concern flooded Zoro when he saw alarm flit across Akane's face. "Pirates? You're not gonna kill me, are you?"

"Wow, you're strong!" Luffy exclaimed suddenly, probing his nose experimentally. He winced slightly at the touch and then grinned at their newcomer.

However, the compliment was not taken as well as the swordsman would have expected, as Akane's face turned dark with some errant thought. While he knew that Nami saw the expression, she moved to make the girl feel at home again. "Come on, let's get you some dry clothes."

Akane frowned at the sodden dress and a smile finally spread across her face, though Zoro could still see the misgivings in her eyes. "Okay, thanks."

The green-haired swordsman stared after the departing girls and then looked at Luffy's slightly swollen nose. The captain was grinning as if he had already decided something. As for the first mate, he knew what it meant: they had gained a new nakama.

Now, they just had to convince her of that.