A/N: So sorry I haven't updated for a while but I got a new job and had to deal with graduation but I should have a bit more free time now so I will try to update more often.

Anyway this chapter is gonna be where Luffy and Sora meet Shanks. Before they set off from their home island in chapter four, however, in chapter three there will be a very brief mention of Dadan, Ace, and Sabo, then a summary of their training with Garp as well. Instead of having one devil fruit, Shanks will have two. Don't worry; Luffy will still be his stretchy self throughout the story.

Another thing, I forgot to mention that this is sort of an AU. There are things I plan on having Sora do later on that change some major things with the story.

I would like to thank FlamingCatDemon13 for being the first to review.

Also should Luffy and Sora be Co-Captains or should Sora just be the first mate, your thoughts? I'm leaning towards first mate, myself.

*Last Chapter- My guess is that Dad is planning to leave us to protect us, because I remember from the story that Dragon was never mentioned as being there in Luffy's childhood and his mother wasn't ever really mentioned at all… wait does that mean Mom is going to die? Because Mom doesn't seem like the kind of woman who would abandon her children… wasn't Luffy raised by mountain bandits and that's how he met Ace and Sabo, and then later didn't he stay with Makino after Garp trained him to be strong? Ahhh, our childhood is going to be hell! I really hope I survive Garp's training too… this is going to suck.

Chapter 2: Meeting the Red-Haired Pirates

So I was right about Dad leaving and about Mom dying, unfortunately. Giving birth to twins had taken a lot out of Mom and she never fully recovered, in fact she only got worse over time. She tried to ignore it but eventually she had to contact Garp because she could no longer care for us on her own, especially since Luffy was a rambunctious and I tended to get into things do to my curiosity.

I remember meeting Garp for the first time, haha he didn't even know how to act around infants. He was really big too, all muscle, and he made sure to be very careful when handling Luffy and I. Garp stayed with us for a while, taking leave with the Marines so he could help our mother care for us.

It was a few weeks before Luffy and I's first birthday when Mom passed away, I remember that Luffy and I cried for almost a week, calling out for our mother with our own butchered versions of the word "Kaa-chan". Garp had looked heartbroken on our behalf and tried to comfort us the best he could, while he grieved as well. About a week later Garp left during our nap and came back with a hired nanny, who happened to be a girl named Makino. When Garp's leave from the Marines was up and he had to go back, Makino offered to let us stay with her. Makino took the role of big sister and caretaker, she taught us how to talk, read, and write over the years. By the way it's seems I was wrong about staying with mountain bandits first and then with Makino, I must have just switched them around.

Time Skip

When we were 7, Shanks and his crew showed up in Foosha Village, I remember when they first walked into Makino's bar. Luffy and I were sitting at the bar counter, Luffy was drinking some milk while I had a glass of water and a book to read, and we didn't really notice them until Makino asked if they wanted something to drink.

*** Flashback***

-Makino's POV-

'Pirates! What are they doing here?! Foosha Village doesn't get pirates…what is this!? Oh I hope Luffy doesn't do anything rude' I thought helplessly.

In polite and calm voice I asked them "Do you gentlemen want something to drink?" All the while I was watching the kids from the corner of my eye, praying they would behave. A red haired man wearing a straw hat stepped forward with a smile on his face.

"Ah, yes that would be-"

"Wow, your hair is really red, Scar-face" Luffy exclaimed.

"- nice." The red-haired man finished looking towards the children.

'Luffy, why!?' I thought as I internally cried.

"Luffy-nii! That was rude! Apologize to Pirate-san." Ah, it seems Sora beat me to reprimanding her brother. Luffy started to pout and looked at his twin indignantly; it seems an argument is about to start.

"No! I was only telling the truth. His hair is really red and he has scars on his face. Besides it was a compliment, his hair is really cool!"

"Still, nii-chan, you could have said it less rudely. You should have said 'Pirate-san, I really like the color of your hair, it's really cool', and you should have waited to talk until Pirate-san was finished speaking." Sora sighed and put her book on the counter, in preparation for a long argument.

This was a common argument between the two, Luffy saying something rude and Sora telling him to apologize.

"Pft, hahaha. It's fine, it's fine. No need for an argument" the pirate laughed.

'Thank goodness, it seems these pirates are kinder than most' I released the breath I didn't realize I had been holding as I started pouring drinks for my customers; there were about thirty of them, 'I might need to restock my liquor stores after they leave'. The crew scattered around the bar, sitting at separate tables in small groups, while the red-haired man (probably the captain) and his blond friend took a seat at the bar next to the twins.

-Sora's POV-

To say I was surprised was an understatement; there was Red-Haired Shanks standing at the entrance of Makino's bar with Ben and Yasopp flanking him, with the rest of the crew behind them. Then Luffy said something rude and ruined the moment. I immediately began scolding him for it and told him to apologize; which, of course, started an argument between us. Don't get me wrong though, Luffy and I are super close and we usually get along great, it's just that he doesn't have any tact and I try (am still trying) to teach it to him. Our argument ended however when Shanks laughed and said it was fine and not to argue anymore. Then Shanks' crew scattered around the bar, and he came to the counter to sit with us, as did Yasopp.

"So", Shanks started, "I'm guessing you two are twins, huh? That's pretty rare"

"Yeah, but Sora-nee has blue eyes. Oh! And she's a girl"

"Luffy-nii and I would probably look the same, if I didn't have blue eyes and was a boy" We probably would too, we look pretty similar now. We both have black hair, tanned skin, and similar body structures; the differences were our gender, eye color, clothing choices, hair length, and hair texture. Luffy's hair is rough and spiky, while mine is soft and straight, though mine curls when its wet and stays that way if I let it dry without brushing it thoroughly.

"How old are you two anyway?" Yasopp asked.

"We are seven, Mister…?" I had to pretend that I didn't know his name because it would probably raise some suspicion if I did, though he is wearing his name on his headband? So I could have? Oh well doesn't matter now anyway.

"Oh, my name is Yasopp and this guy next to me is my captain, Shanks"

"Stabs-san" I muttered.

"What was that?" asked Stabs-san.

"Sora-nee said Stabs-san! She likes to give people nicknames, so she gave you that one. Cool, huh?"

Shanks' face went blank for a moment before his brows furrowed in confusion.

"Why Stabs? I don't understand."

"To shank is to stab something, so Shanks translates into Stabs" I explained. Stabs went quiet for a moment; he seemed to be contemplating something.

"Well since you gave me a nickname then I should return the favor. Hmm… your nickname will be… Chikyū-chan!" he exclaimed.

"Chikyū means earth and Sora means sky, so you just used the opposite of my name." So it kind of made sense… sort of. Still the nickname was… better than I thought it would be, so I couldn't really complain much.

"Hey! Don't I get a nickname, Stabs-san?!" Luffy exclaimed, loudly.

"You can be Anchor" Shanks disinterestedly stated.

"What?! Why Anchor?"

"Because that's what your shirt says"

Made sense to me, plus there was the fact that Luffy couldn't swim. I could though because I loved swimming in my last life and it's not a skill that's easily forgotten. It was then that Yasopp decided to change the subject.

"Anyway, you two are seven, right?" At our nods, Yasopp grinned. "You two are the same age as my son Usopp, he's a great kid, I wish you two could meet him. Hey! How about I tell you both about him?"

Just then, I saw Shanks roll his eyes and I had the feeling that he has heard a lot of stories about Usopp over the course of his crew's travels since Yasopp joined. With that in mind, I got comfortable in my seat and waited for the inevitable hours of hearing Yasopp's stories to begin.

*** Flashback End***

After that Shanks' crew became a familiar sight in Foosha Village. Luffy and I were proud to claim them as our friends and went out of our way to spend time with them. Luffy had already decided that he wanted to become a member of Shanks' crew and told me that if he was going then I had to come too, because quote 'Twins have to stick together! It's like a law or something!'

Luffy even went so far as to stab his own face to prove his courage, I tried my best to prevent it and got a large, deep gouge on the back of my right hand to prove it. The crew freaked out and rushed us both to Makino's bar because that's where the ship's doctor was. The wound on my hand needed five stitches, while the one on Luffy's face only needed two.

After we were all patched up, Luffy, again, tried to convince Shanks to let us join the crew. Of course, Stabs wouldn't have it and distracted Luffy by giving him some milk, then laughed at him and said that real men don't drink milk. Luffy got really mad and stormed over to the counter to get something to eat, while dragging me behind him by my uninjured hand. Fun Fact: when Luffy gets mad he does one of two things, a) he hits whatever pissed him of in the first place, or b) he eats to vent his frustrations. Since he didn't really want to hurt Shanks, he chose option b.

However, Makino was busy when we got over to the counter, and told us to be patient. This led Luffy to notice the treasure chest at the end of the counter, where we both found, not one devil fruit, but two! I remember in the storyline that there had only been the Gum Gum Fruit. In the chest there was the Gum Gum Fruit, which was round, purple, and had a devil fruits characteristic swirls, and another devil fruit, which was light blue, pear-shaped, and had a swirl pattern also.

"Here, Sora-nee, you can have the blue one, cuz it matches your eyes" Luffy said as he handed me the unidentified devil fruit, as he took the Gum Gum Fruit for himself.

I paused as I looked at the fruit in my hand. 'To eat, or not to eat, that is the question. Well, eating it will probably help me keep up with Luffy's strength later on and I doubt that Shanks would take a useless fruit with him, but on the other hand swimming is a useful skill and I love it… but… Oh, to hell with it!' With that thought, I took a huge bite of it and… it tasted terrible! I swallowed it in hopes to get rid of the taste quickly. It was the worst thing I had ever tasted in my life! Both of my lives in fact! It was unimaginably bad, I couldn't even describe the flavor, I don't know how Luffy is able to ignore the taste and keep eating!

I collapsed to the floor, half-eaten fruit still in my hand, which drew the attention of the adults who, seeing the half-eaten devil fruits in our hands, promptly began to freak out. Shanks practically flew over to us, grabbed Luffy by his ankles, and began to shake him upside down by his ankles.

"SPIT IT OUT, BOTH OF YOU, SPIT IT OUT RIGHT NOW!" He sounded both furious and terrified at the same time.

I don't know whether it was Shanks' yelling or the fruit, but all of sudden my head started spinning and I curled up in fetal position on the ground, clutching my head in my hands. Somebody came towards and tried to pick me up. At that moment, simultaneously, Luffy's legs began stretching and the person who tried to grab me flew into the wall on the opposite side of the bar.

"GOD DAMMIT, WHY DID YOU TWO EAT THOSE?! THOSE ARE DEVIL FRUITS, NOW YOU TWO WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO SWIM AGAIN, LET ALONE BE SAILORS!"

"WHAT?!" Luffy screamed in shock.

"What are devil fruits? What do they do?" I asked, as I dazedly stood. My head was killing me, I was so dizzy and all the yelling wasn't doing anything to help.

Shanks sighed angrily and looked at me "Devil Fruits give the consumer all sorts of strange abilities depending on the type, but they also take away the ability to swim forever, and the sea becomes the user's mortal weakness. The fruit you ate is called the Psych Psych Fruit, I don't really know much about it though." Shanks sighed again and looked at Luffy "As for you, Luffy, you ate the Gum Gum Fruit, it makes its consumer a literal rubber man. I'm sorry you guys but you'll never be able to swim now." Shanks sounded like he was miles away from me in that moment.

The world was spinning and blurring around me at this point and when Shanks decided to pat me on the head, I fainted and crumpled to the floor.

When I woke up, it was the next day and Makino told me that Shanks' crew would be back in a week or so, a week I spent recuperating and trying to learn how to control my powers, so they wouldn't overwhelm me again, like they had the day before. Luffy also took this time to get acquainted with his new powers. It didn't take me too long to figure out that the Psych Psych fruit gave me telekinesis. It took a lot of practice at first because it took a lot of focus to do and I could only do small things at the moment, such as an apple. The biggest thing that I could manipulate right now was a bar stool, anything bigger and I would start getting light-headed and if I pushed myself too far I would get a migraine and pass out. It was going to take years to work up the mental strength to move something truly big like I wanted to, such as a person or ships of varying sizes. Thankfully, however, in my last life I had been pretty good at multi-tasking, so once I got the hang of manipulating small things I was able to split my focus between what I was manipulating and what was going on around me.

I have a theory that my mind will become stronger by way of three things, gaining vast amounts of knowledge, meditation, and growing older. After all, even if I had the consciousness of an adult, my actual physical brain was that of a seven year old and would take years to reach full maturity. So to train my brain in the meantime, I have decided to read as many books as I can, on a wide range of topics.

I don't mind having to wait to be more powerful though because this ability will be a major help when I have to fight as a member of the Straw Hat Pirates in the future.

Speaking of the future, in the next year or so, Shanks and his crew will be leaving Foosha for good, after that Garp is going to make us stay with Dadan and her mountain bandits, where we will meet Ace and Sabo, and after a year or so of that Garp is going to put us through the painful torture he calls training, and then we will have to wait until we're 17 to actually set off and start gathering our crew members.

Heh, it's going to be a rough ten years ahead of us, but oh well.

Slight Time Skip

Higuma and his posse of mountain bandits had confronted and made fun of the Red-Haired Pirates. Which made Luffy angry and led him to criticize Shanks for not fighting back, and when Shanks replied that there was no reason to fight, Luffy stormed out of the bar and I followed him after apologizing to Shanks on his behalf. I tried to calm Luffy down and explain why Shanks had acted as he had, but he was too angry to listen at the time. Shanks and his crew left again to give Luffy some time to cool down about the situation.

The next week, Higuma and his crew returned, though I wasn't there because I had pushed myself too far with training, passed out, and had to stay in bed until that evening. But I had been told what happened when I saw Shanks with only one arm. Just like in the story, Luffy had confronted Higuma and had been taken hostage, Shanks and his crew then found out and went to rescue him, when Higuma's posse had been defeated he fled with Luffy still in his possession, Higuma got eaten by the Sea King in the bay, Shanks found Luffy and protected him from said Sea King and lost his arm in the process.

After Shanks was well enough, he decided that they had spent too long in the East Blue and would be leaving for the Grand Line. Just before they were set to leave, Luffy and I went to see them off, and Luffy declared the he would become King of the Pirates and find Gold Roger's One Piece. Shanks then gave Luffy his signature straw hat and told him to return it when Luffy became King of the Pirates. Unlike in the storyline, Shanks actually gave me something as well. It was a compound bow they got years ago from a raid on another pirate crew; it was simple and was black with blue accents, with a large quiver to match.

***Flashback***

"Now, Chikyū-chan, this bow is a little unusual, it's more mechanical then your traditional wooden bow, and it's made out of some kind of metal alloy that makes it way lighter than a normal one, though it's got a pretty strong draw too. I'd say it's around a 75 pound draw, but if you use your telekinesis to help pull it back, I'd say it's the perfect weapon for you."

"Why do you say that, Stabs?" I asked curiously.

"Well Chikyū-chan, due to your devil fruit powers, you are more suited to be a long-range fighter that can also support close-range fighting allies from a distance. A bow is a perfect weapon for you because once an arrow is fired you can manipulate its flight course with your powers, so you can always hit your target. You can also use your powers to help pull back the string until you work up the muscle to pull it back without your powers."

"Wow, Stabs, you really thought that through, huh?" I was kind of surprised he thought that through so well. His theory made a lot of sense though.

"Anyway, Luffy, Sora, my crew and I will be setting off now. Remember to watch out for each other. Luffy you better grow up quickly or else I might beat you to the title of Pirate King, by the way take good care of that hat. Sora, try to keep your brother from doing anything too reckless and take care of you both."

With that the Red-Haired Pirates left Foosha village.

A/N: I will again apologize for taking forever to update, it's just that I've been busy with work and my muse completely abandoned me until yesterday (because it's midnight right now) and I'm so sorry!

Anyway, how was the chapter? Did you like it?

Please, please comment! I know this sounds desperate! It should, because it is. I can't fix anything if I don't know what's wrong.

If any of you have ideas, I would be happy to hear them (read them)

By the by, if any of you are curious about the Japanese in the first chapter, I used Google Translate, so you should be able to just copy and paste those parts in to get the translations.

-See ya later, Drakon-Flame out! XD