Warnings: Possible OoC-ness, Spelling errors, grammer misusage. No Sabo yet in this chapter or for a few more. Ace and Luffy are planning something with him for a special event.


"Oiiii!" A voice said, "Waaaaake uuuup!"

"Luffy!" A voice hissed, "Don't poke at the mermaid like that! You'll freak her!"

"Orah? Isn't it dead?"

A punch could be heard. "Baka! It' has a gender! She's alive! She's just asleep, dumbass!"

"Souka... can we eat the fish, Ace?"

Another punch could be heard followed by a cry of pain. "It's a mermaid! MERMAID! You don't eat them!"

Shirahoshi opened her eyes and slowly sat up, watching two boys fight with one another. She stared at shock at them; each one of them could possibly fit, sitting on her hand.

She cried out in shock when she recognized the smaller one. "You-you're that human boy I saw just two months ago greeting that man!" Shirahoshi cried out, pointing at the boy.

The two boys cried out in shock, forgetting their fight and looking up at her. Both mouths open in a dark 'o'.

"Who the hell are you?" The tall boy asked. He had dark eyes and black hair that went almost to his shoulders; he had a pair of cute, childish freckles as well.

Flustered, Shirahoshi replied quickly, not wanting to anger him. "I-I'm Shirahoshi! An m-mermaid! Nice-nice to meet you!" She squeaked, bowing quickly to him.

"You're big!" Luffy, the smaller one exclaimed happily, pointing out her enormous size. She was in the body of a six year old mermaid, only many times it in size, appearing as a giant child mermaid- which she was.

"Ha-hai! I get it from my father! Someday I'll be almost as big as him!"

"Ooooh." he jumped onto her tail lap, making her squeak. "Do mermaids poop?"

"Ah! Well-" Shirahoshi tried to answer the little boy's question.

"Baaaaka!" Ace cried out, punching the boy off Shirahoshi, "Don't ask her stuff like that!" he looked up at Shirahoshi and said, "I'm Ace," then jerking his thumb at his companion, "And that's my little brother, Luffy. Don't mind him, he's an idiot."

"Nice to meet you!" The princess said shyly.

"So why're you here? Aren't mermaids supposed to be in water or something?" Ace inquired, sitting down on the sand, his brother following suit.

"Y-yes! But I'm now living here at Dawn Island because of-of a situa- I mean a need for a change of scenery!" She replied, trying to not give away her true reasons.

She wanted to hide her past for now from them.

They must have found her while they were adventuring, she thought. Megalo had gone off to hunt for food, leaving her be for a day. She had just finished reading a chapter about transforming into human as a disguise, a rather hard feat from mermaid tail to human legs and feet. She had swum up to the surface and was resting on the beach, finally dozing off into slumber from the pleasant warmth of the sun and the ocean's waves.

"Oh... but It's boring here. Don't venture off onto the other side of the island either. You got some nobles there that would trap you, and try to keep you as a slave or sell you," Ace warned the female.

"Or kill you!" Luffy laughed out, getting yet another punch from Ace.

"Don't scare her! She's new!"

"Whatever!" Luffy looked up at Shirahoshi and asked, "How old are you?"

"I'm s-six!" Shirahoshi replied, looking at Luffy.

"Really! Me too! Ace here is three years older than me!" Luffy cheered, jumping up and down like a hyper monkey.

"Whoa!" In her excitement of making new friends, Shirahoshi accidently whipped at Luffy, sending him flying and crashing into a tree. "Ahhh! So-sorry!"

Luffy got up angrily, and shouted at her, 'Watch what you're doing!"

Immediately, Shirahoshi started crying. Ace glared at Luffy and smacked him on the head. "Are you just trying to get yourself beat up?"

"Hn! Not my fault! Why're you crying anyway," Luffy demanded towards Shirahoshi who was still crying.

"I-I've never been yelled at before!" Sobbed Shirahoshi, "My family never scolded me before!"

Luffy just looked at her, his mouth open, looking dumb. Then said, "Wow, you're a big cry baby, Nakimushi! I don't like you! Heh heh heh!" he laughed, earning another punch from Ace.

"Eh! Eh-eh-eh-eh!" Shirahoshi started crying louder, and harder.

"Why'd you call her that?" Ace screamed at Luffy.

"Because she is! I don't like cry-baby cowards!"

"Forget you," Ace said in dismay, kicking Luffy off some hundred meters. He looked at the still crying Shirahoshi and walked over to her. "Ignore that idiot! Wanna be friends," he asked, taking out his hand.

The mermaid looked up, her crying slowing down as she looked at Ace. "F-friends? Really?"

"Why not?" He asked.

"I want you to be my friend," Luffy called out, skidding to a stop in front of Shirahoshi and jumping onto her head.

"Luffy! I thought you said you didn't like her?" Ace said, frustrated with his little brother.

"She's funny!" He said cheerfully, "YOSH! We're friends now! Wanna go eat?" His stomach along with Shirahoshi's growled making her blush, Ace's followed after.

"Where," Shirahoshi asked her new found friend, Luffy. She could eat in her cave, and take them with her. But the dive would be long for them, and she didn't want them to die on her.

"At Makino's place, of course!" Luffy said as if he was stating the obvious.

Ace sighed in frustration, "How do we bring a mermaid bigger than any human over to the bar? Huh? We can't cook!"

"U-umm... I can try to transform my tail and turn myself into a more human-like size," Shirahoshi said quietly.

Ace and Luffy looked at her in surprise. "You can do that?" Luffy wondered.

"Yes! I haven't tried though..."

"THEN TRY!" Laughed Luffy, pumped up with excitement, "Come on, Nakimushi!"

"Yes!" She squeaked, being pressed by his expectations.

She thought back to her book, remembering its lines. She had to think of land, see only land in her thoughts. But, water kept popping in her mind, trying to force her away from thinking of the foreign land of her habitat.

Mermaids rarely were able to do this, rarely few could. The ones that did were always very old after's years and years of practice. Shirahoshi couldn't give up! Her new friends wanted to go out with her. She thought back to the village she saw, and imagines being with Luffy on the dock, staring up at the red-haired man, and then back at the village, seeing only land, and big green trees.

Shirahoshi felt rather light, almost float like. She imagined legs, smooth and pale like her skin, and toes gripping a moving in the sand and grass. She could feel it; it was so strange, kind of like how her hands felt when going through it, only this was a little more wondrous and sensitive. She could feel large pieces of flesh, feeling the rough, yet soft sand, and they wet smooth grass, like her tail only two. She felt smaller as well... not as large as she usually felt.

Faintly, she could hear a gasp and an exclamation of wow.

"AMAZING! NAKIMUSHI!" Luffy exclaimed.

Startled, Shirahoshi opened her eyes to look down at them but saw only sand, and close up. She saw only feet. She looked up and saw Ace and Luffy, both staring at her in wonder. Did she do it? She looked swiftly at her tail, only not to see a tail, but human's legs and feet! Where her neither regions where was a pink and light pink swim bottom, with a sort frilly skirt attached to it at the top, almost mimicking her tail style. Her top was the same; her hair was the same as she touched it.

Gasping in wonder, she beamed up at Ace and Luffy, exclaiming, "I did it!"

"Amazing, Nakimushi!" Luffy repeated. Grabbing one of her hands and helping to steady her with Ace. "You started glowing really bright! A pink-y color! And you shrank and then you reappeared like this! AMAZING! I guess you aren't that worthless, Fukimushi!"

"T-thank you," she stuttered. She realized she was smaller than Luffy but about an inch or two.

"Can you walk?" Ace asked, still holding her hand.

"You take a step... step forward?" Shirahoshi asked, hesitantly lifting the human leg up in front of her, and then setting it down.

"Yeah!"

They helped Shirahoshi practice walking, then onto running, which she was surprisingly fast. It was getting a bit late, the sky turning orange by the time she could fully master it. She tripped a lot; face planted a lot as well, landed on Ace more so than Luffy. And had gotten closer to her new friends.

Finally, unable to hold his hunger anymore, Luffy started to drag Ace and Shirahoshi off to the village. But they had to go through the forest which started making Shirahoshi crying all over again from the strange scary noises. Ace ended up punching Luffy again for teasing the small mermaid, and carried Shirahoshi on his back to the village.

It was dark now, and Shirahoshi was now only sniffling. She could hear Megalo crying out for her, obviously back from hunting. She sent a little mental call to him, saying she was safe and sound, making new friends -which he was glad to hear for-, and might be staying over -he was a little hesitant to agreeing- since she could hear Luffy and Ace talking about keeping their new friend with them to protect her from mean nobles and what-not.

She couldn't help but giggle when Luffy bolted off screaming "FOOOOOOOOOOOD' when they came into view of a building with its light on and laughter ringing from it.

Ace chuckled, and sped up his pace until he saw the ship docked. "Shit," he cursed underneath his breath. He glared at the ship on the dock, causing Shirahoshi to look as well.

It was the ship the red-haired man came off of.

She looked at Ace, and innocently asked, "What's wrong?"

The young boy glared more at the ship and faintly they could hear, "Shanks! You're here!"

"That man. Shanks." He growled, walking slowly to the pub.

"What's wrong with him? Is he mean to you?"

"No... I just hate his guts," He said darkly, nearing the place.

She didn't bother pushing the subject, not wanting to upset her new friend. "Hey, Shirahoshi," Ace said as they were close to the door.

"W-what?" The mermaid asked, looking at him, questionably. A rather cute expression, making him blush a bit when he looked at her.

"Don't tell them you're a mermaid, okay? Just make up a story about where you came from. I'll stop Luffy from blabbing about it, alright? We're gonna keep you safe!" Ace said determined.

Shirahoshi couldn't help but blush. "Thank you... Ace-sama," she muttered.

And they entered the pub.


Another short, quick chapter. Sorry. Now onto next chapter!