Chapter 1: Dali Meets Shanks
"Give it up girlie!"
"There's no where for you to run!"
"Leave me alone!"
A group of men was chasing a young girl, she was running for her life. Her breathing got heavy as her pace was picking up.
I-I can't shake them off my track, I'll never make it. She thought.
Just as things started to get fierce a gun fire was made, she stopped at a dead end.
She was backed up onto a corner like a cat trying to escape a gang of dogs, they were laughing like mad.
She clenched her fist.
"Fine, if you wanna play rough?"
She looked up with a glare in her eyes.
"Then I'm not gonna hold back!"
"Heh, you've got sharp words for a girl." A man chuckled.
She smirked.
"I dare you to keep up with me." She said.
She laid a hard kick to the guy's face, and doges a left hook from the other guy.
Just as she dropped to the ground for a split second she kicked the guy's knee cap.
Ugh! He cried.
"Why you little bitch!" The third man said.
He went to swing his knife at him but missed, she caught him by his wrist and held his hand towards his throat.
"H-hey, w-wait a sec." He panicked. "C-an't we talk about this?"
"Chh...first you chased me, then you cornered me like an animal." She said. "Any other person would kill you, I'm not like that."
The guy was sweating bullets as she puts pressure against his throat.
"That's enough."
The girl looked over her shoulder, she saw four men standing at the other end of the ally, one of them walked up to her taking the knife away from her.
She looked up at the man and then it started to pour rain.
"Come on, let's get you out of the rain." The man said.
"Good thing we saw what was going on and made it in time, Eh boss?" asked a guy.
The man smiled.
The young girl was so exhausted that she fainted, lucky the man caught her before she hit the ground.
"Whoa, easy now." He said.
XXX
Once the girl woke up she found herself in a warm bed, and across the room was the man from earlier.
"So, your awake." He said.
She didn't say anything, just looked away.
"Hey, I don't bite." He said.
"Thank you." She said.
The man smiled.
"But I would've been fine on my own." She added.
"Really?" He asked.
A pause.
"But, thank you for helping me." She said.
The man smiled.
"So, what's a wild rose doing out and about all by herself?"
The girl blushed, she was surprised on the compliment.
"I'm training myself to become stronger, so I can take on my brother." She said.
"A brother sister rivalry?" He questioned.
She shook her head.
"No, more like a test of strength." She said.
She looked back at the red haired man.
"I don't suppose, that I could get your...name?" They both said at the same time.
They laughed.
"I'm Victoria." Said the girl.
"Victoria? What a lovely name." Said the man. "I'm Red hair, or you can call me Shanks."
"Shanks huh?" Victoria replied.
"Come on, I'd like you to meet my crew." Shanks said as he held out his hand.
Victoria hesitated, then held his hand.
She felt her heart skip a beat, her nerves were starting to go off as she stood on her feet.
"Easy now, you don't want to hurt yourself." Shanks said helping her.
Victoria nodded.
As they went out on his deck she couldn't believe her eyes, the view of the sea was breath taking.
"Beautiful isn't?" Shanks asked.
"It's amazing, and to think that it was just a mere childhood dream to actually be out at sea." She said.
Victoria smiled at Shanks.
"I'm so happy, I-I don't know what to say." She said.
"You really don't need to, just to see you smile is plenty enough." Shanks said.
She looked back out to the sea, he blushed.
Too be continued.