Chapter 2:
"Who's that Luffy?" Chopper asked as the captain was walking back to the ship with Robin and a girl on the other side of him who was staring in awe at the amazing pirate ship.
"She's, uh," the man scratched his chin and looked down, "What's your name?"
Arya almost responded with, 'no one,' but she wasn't in the House of Black and White anymore. She didn't have to pretend. "I'm Arya, Arya Stark."
"Cool," Luffy said with a smile and then looked back to the ship, "She's Arya. She's our new crew member."
"Ehh?!" Chopper exclaimed and the girl saw who the pirate was talking to for the first time as they climbed up on the ship. There was a small furry creature standing on two feet and it was wearing a red hat, red shorts, and had a blue backpack on. The furry thing looked at her and smiled, "Hi, I'm Tony Tony Chopper, but you can call me Chopper."
"You're a talking reindeer," Arya said, questioning whether joining this crew of weird people was actually a good idea.
"He can transform into a bunch of different forms too! He's a cool monster," Luffy told her and the small creature turned huge and punched him on top of the head.
"I'm a doctor too damn it!" Chopper yelled and then saw he scared the girl and turned back to his cute form. "Doctor Chopper at your service."
"Huh," Zoro walked over to the side of the deck and tilted his head at the girl. "She's on the crew now? What can she do?"
Arya saw the three sword hilts at the man's side and her eyes widened, "I can use a sword," she exclaimed and Zoro grinned.
"Really?" He asked and she dropped the clothes in her hands. She was in gray and black clothes which was very different from the vibrantly dressed crew around her. The clothes she had dropped, and she had something still in her hand that was hidden inside her extra shirt.
"Oooh, you're a swordsman?" Luffy asked and Zoro saw his captain was surprised and asked why he invited her in the first place. "Because she's cool."
Chopper and Zoro sweatdropped as the girl drew her sword. It was a thin blade and looked masterfully forged, "It's called Needle," she said.
"Oh, a named blade," Zoro said and nodded. "The best swords are all named."
"Do your swords have names?" Arya asked with a look towards his waist.
"Yes," a frown appeared on Zoro's face as he felt one of the hilts on him, "though Yubashiri was recently," he lifted it out of the sheath and the girl saw the blade was nothing more than a fragment now. He put the hilt back in its sheath for safe keeping until he could give it a proper funeral. "Then there's Sandai Kitetsu, and Wado Ichimonji." Each time he spoke he moved his hand to one of the other hilts.
"What's the point of having three?" Arya asked. The other three members got bored of sword talk and walked away from Zoro and his new best friend.
"I use three swords, it's called Santoryou." The man grinned at her astonished reaction.
Arya looked over in Luffy's direction and he was strong enough that she expected he didn't use swords. But this man, "Will you train me?" She asked and stared up at the taller swordsman who opened his eyes wide at the question. "I need to get stronger."
"For what reason?" He asked.
"Revenge," the girl responded. Zoro saw the intense, unwavering determination in her eyes.
"That's a dangerous thing to look for," he stated but she was unfazed. "I will become the best swordsman in the world," Zoro continued, "why should I spend my time training you?"
"We're on the same crew now," Arya answered smugly, "wouldn't you prefer someone strong watching your back?"
The man with green hair smirked at her response, "I guess." She smirked back at him but before they could continue talking, a loud voice shouted from the edge of the ship, "Who's the cutie I see?!" Arya turned and saw a man with blonde hair jump up in the air and land next to her on one knee.
"Oh no," Zoro muttered and decided to get it out of the way, "she's on the crew now ero-cook."
Sanji was too happy to even get mad about the insult. "Luffy you're the best!" He shouted to the captain chasing around Chopper on the grassy deck behind Zoro and the girl.
"Really?" Nami asked as she climbed on board and saw the girl standing there. She had a thin sword in her hand and a smirk like Zoro's on her face and the woman sighed, "At least she's a girl."
"You look like you're in a foul mood," the male swordsman commented as Nami walked past.
Sanji stopped smiling madly at the cute new girl and he looked serious as he lit up a cigarette. "The people around here haven't heard of a Log Pose."
"That's, disturbing," Zoro muttered as he thought of possible consequences of that fact.
"What's a Log Pose?" Arya asked and the two men on either side of her frowned.
"It's how we navigate to different islands on the Grand Line," Sanji answered the younger girl.
"What's the Grand Line?" Arya asked and the mood around her got even more grim.
Nami turned back around and said, "It's like no one's ever been anywhere besides this island!"
"I'm from Westeros," Arya called over to the woman.
"Okay, no one's ever been anywhere but those two places," Nami scowled and the girl didn't correct her this time.
Arya looked at them and asked, "You're not from Westeros or Essos?"
"No, we come from very far away," Nami answered and walked closer to the new girl, "My name's Nami."
"Arya," the girl replied back.
"Well Arya, have you ever heard of travelers from other lands?" Nami asked her.
She paused and then responded, "The First Men," she answered, "no one knew where they came from and it wasn't Essos. But that was thousands of years ago."
"Luffy!" Nami shouted and the captain stopped running around with Chopper and they made their way over. The pirate in the Straw Hat asked her what was wrong and she had a lot to say. "It doesn't seem like anyone's ever heard of a Log Pose before, which means we have no idea when it'll change again."
"Hmm," he scratched his chin, not really understanding what that meant.
"It could be a hundred years Luffy," Sanji stated and that got the pirate in the straw hat nervous.
"We can't stay here for a hundred years!" Now the entire crew was gathered around except for Franky and Usopp. "Make it go faster," Luffy demanded and the woman punched him on the top of his head.
"I can't," she exclaimed, exasperated by her captain. "And we can't just sail randomly off into the Grand Line."
"That's suicide," Robin agreed and the others all grimaced.
Chopper looked around panicking, "So what are we going to do?"
"All Blue," Sanji muttered, "I may never reach it now."
"My map of the world," Nami sighed with a sad whisper.
"A miracle cure for all illnesses, I'll never find it now," the reindeer whispered and pulled his hat down over his eyes.
Zoro didn't say a word but he was wondering how he'd ever be the strongest stuck in a place like this. Robin didn't think she'd find the truth behind the Void Century here.
Luffy frowned at all his pessimistic nakama and scolded them, "We'll just have to wait here until the Log Pose adjusts. And if it doesn't, then," he didn't know what to say if he couldn't become the King of the Pirates.
Arya could see the disappointed and solemn looks of the crew who believed they would never get back to sea and she exclaimed at the man next to her. "There are hundreds of strong swordsmen on Westeros, and it's so big that I've never seen a map around the entire thing!"
Both Zoro and Nami looked down at the girl and small smiles appeared on their faces. Arya continued, "There are sick people all over the place who could use help and the rulers in charge are monsters. There should be a new King."
She didn't want them to just sit around and wait so she had to take matters into her own hands. "I've always wanted to be the King of the Pirates," Luffy whispered. "But I won't waste my life trying to find a way back to sea. If I can't be the King if the Pirates, I'll be the King of Wesledorf." Arya sweatdropped at the mispronunciation.
"We can always leave when the Log starts pointing somewhere else, but I would like to make a map in the meantime," Nami agreed.
"And I could help cure those sick people!" Chopper exclaimed, blissfully unaware that the girl mentioned that part just for him.
"As long as I'm cooking for beautiful women, I'm content," Sanji shouted and twirled on his feet as he looked at the younger girl with them now. She was younger than their captain by at least a year but she was a growing girl and he called out, "Nami-swan! Robin-chan! Arya-chwan! I'm going to make some lunch with some of the remainder of our food."
"Don't call me that," Arya muttered in annoyance and Zoro laughed at the crestfallen look on Sanji's face.
"You didn't get more?" Luffy asked with a panicked look on his face.
"The currency here is different from everywhere else," the chef grunted as he walked towards the kitchen. "We'll have to go find some more treasure."
Robin waited until almost everyone was walking around the ship again and she turned to Arya, "There doesn't happen to be, some sort of mysterious missing history here does there?" She knew it was a shot in the dark, but the others were all adapting to the situation and she would at least give it a try.
"Umm," Arya figured out the others all had dreams and things they wanted to do and this woman twice her age was the same way. Her face lit up at a story she was once told by her father, "The most powerful country that ever existed, Valyria, was destroyed and no one knows how."
Robin's eyes popped open as that sounded very, very similar to what she knew about the Void century. "Valyria fell in what was known as The Doom, and the Stone Men rule over its ruins now. If one of them touches you, your skin will start to crack and turn gray with Greyscale, and then you'll turn into a Stone Man yourself."
"Is this all true?" Robin questioned and Arya nodded fast. The mystery of Valyria sounded believable, but the Stone Men sounded like zombies to her.
The child looked down and spoke in a quieter voice, "A friend of mine from childhood once came in contact with a man with Greyscale. It slowly spread around her body and my father had to order her killed so it wouldn't spread to anyone else."
"Your father?" Robin questioned, wondering why he would have the authority to do so.
Arya remembered these people weren't from the Known World and wouldn't know anything of lords and families. "A high lord of Westeros. Lord Eddard Stark."
"Westeros is where we're heading correct?" Robin asked the girl and Arya was a little flustered that she was directing where they went. She was the only one who knew the lands so it made sense, but she just got on the ship. "Would you mind going over some of these Lords?" The woman asked.
"Huh, why?" Arya said confused.
"Knowledge is power," Robin replied. "I'd like to know more about this place before we get there."
"Umm, sure," the girl said. Robin started walking away and she followed the intelligent woman. They walked up to a door on the upper deck and when they walked in, an amazing scent hit her nostrils.
"Ladies," Sanji sung to them and spun over with three plates in his hands. "Bon apetite," he said as they grabbed them and thanked him. "Nami-swan!" He yelled and ran out the door to find the third woman on the ship.
"Weird guy," Arya muttered.
"You'll find our crew is full of strange characters," the older woman agreed.
"Yeah I've noticed," Arya thought about the rubber man and the talking reindeer too. They walked over to a staircase and down into a room with two large beds in it.
"This is the women's room," Robin said and smiled at the amazed look on Arya's face. "I'm sure Franky, our shipwright, will be happy to make you a bed when he returns from town."
Arya nodded and then sat on the bed opposite the one Robin took a seat on. "So, I guess I'll start out with the big houses. There are seven kingdoms and each one is ruled by a major family. The Baratheons rule all of Westeros, and then there are the Martells, Tyrells, Lannisters, Starks..."
The girl took a bite of the snack Sanji made for her and stopped speaking as she chewed the cake. "This," she said with an open mouth and the plate started shaking in her hands, "is the best thing I've ever eaten."
Robin smiled warmly at her, "I'm sure Sanji would be more than pleased to hear you tell him that."
The two girls talked for a lot longer in the girls' room. Arya talked more about Westeros, but the young teenager was curious about where the pirates came from too and Robin talked about the outside world for a little. At one point Usopp and Franky poked their heads in from upstairs since they weren't allowed in the girls' room and they introduced themselves to Arya.
She was surprised to hear that on this large ship, she'd already met the entire crew of eight, now nine including her.
That night, the crew had an important meeting after the most delicious dinner Arya had ever eaten. She told Sanji so, and he fell over at the praise from a beauty. The meeting was about how they couldn't set sail to the next island on the Grand Line until the Log set, and they had no idea when that would be. A few of them remained optimistic that it would switch in a few days, but they had nothing to base that on and they all knew there were islands on the Grand Line that took many years to adjust.
"So now," Luffy shouted and stood up facing his crew, "we're going to explore these huge islands and I'm going to be the King of Wesslefort."
"It's Westeros," Arya corrected for the third time that night. "And we have to cross the Narrow Sea to get there, which despite its name, isn't so narrow."
"But this sea follows normal sea travel," Nami continued, having asked the girl about it before. "All we need to do is travel west to get there."
"When was the last time you were there?" Usopp asked the new girl.
"Actually, I only arrived in Braavos recently," she told them. "I spent my entire life on Westeros. You may call it an island, but it's an enormous continent. Directly to the west of us," she thought about the geography for a second, "is the Eyre. My aunt ruled it for the last few years but now my cousin is in charge. He's a snobby little brat and won't help us."
"We don't need help," Luffy stated and grabbed his bicep. "We can take the kingdom on our own."
Arya stared at him to see if he was serious and when she saw he was she started laughing. "Tywin Lannister has a huge navy and army at his disposal. Stannis Baraetheon is trying to take the kingdom for himself since the King, his nephew, is supposedly not actually the rightful king. He has a huge army too and the other houses are going to side with them if you charge in to attack. Hundreds of thousands of men trained since birth how to fight, can you really take them all on without any help?"
"L-L-Luffy, maybe we should think of conquering something smaller," Usopp suggested.
"I agree," Chopper raised his hand.
"Me too!" Nami shouted.
"The King can do whatever he wants right?" Luffy asked Arya who nodded. That seemed to be all he cared about, the pirate only wanted as much freedom as he could possibly have.
Arya never really thought these pirates could take on the seven kingdoms, but she wanted them to make her stronger and Luffy wanted to be the King. If she could convince them to take her along for at least a little while, it would be worth it, "It's not impossible, if you get an army behind you, you can take-"
"Nope," Luffy said and crossed his arms, "I don't want a whole bunch of people following me who I don't know. I only want my nakama at my side when I take Wesleyan."
"Westeros," Nami and Usopp corrected him but he ignored them.
"Yeah Wobbufet," Luffy said and then kept going. "I'm strong enough and I have faith in my crew. You're all strong too."
Everyone, including the few who were previously against the idea smiled. "That doesn't make me happy you idiot," Chopper exclaimed.
"Captain Usopp is here so it will be fine!" Thee long nosed sharpshooter grinned and tapped his nose with his finger.
"But wait," Nami stopped them all and then growled, "we don't have any money. Where are we going to find enough cash to supply ourselves for a trip across this sea. According to Arya it's a long trip and we can't use any of the cola for Coup de Bursts."
"Sorry," Franky said and tapped on his iron chest that Arya was still getting used to. "There wasn't any cola in the city so I need what we have left for Sunny for myself. It's a good thing we stocked up on so much before leaving Water 7, but we had to use some getting away from Straw Hat's grandpa."
"You're grandpa?" Arya asked.
"He's one of the highest ranking Marines in the world," Usopp exclaimed but the girl wasn't too impressed. "And he was strong enough to throw a cannonball bigger than our ship at us."
The girl's eyes turned huge and Usopp grinned at the reaction he was looking for. She heard from the others that he was a liar, but their expressions showed it really happened to them. "I didn't know people could become so strong," she whispered.
"Everyone focus!" Nami shouted and slammed a fist down on the dining room table. "Money!"
Arya looked at the orange haired woman nervously. She didn't look as strong as some of the other pirates, but she was intimidating. The girl started speaking, "There's a bank here, the Iron Bank of Braavos. They lend out money to the big houses of Westeros and..."
"It's settled then," Nami exclaimed with a huge smile. She ran over and hugged the shorter girl. "You're a lifesaver Arya," she released her and then turned to the crew, "Alright everyone, tomorrow I'll head to the bank with Luffy and Arya. The rest of you ask around town for information. Got it?"
"Roger!" The crew shouted in unison except for one girl.
Arya was standing still where she was when Nami hugged her. Her mind was racing and she could still feel the woman's arms around her. She hugged me, the girl thought. She was a strong child, had been through a lot, but for years she'd never been hugged by anyone. The last person who did was Yoren of the Night's Watch who pulled her away from her father's execution half a decade before.
All her companions over the years, none of them ever started out so friendly towards her. Nami noticed the others were looking behind her and she turned to see the younger girl standing still with her eyes shadowed, staring straight down. She hadn't moved since Nami surprise hugged her and then she suddenly walked out of the kitchen and out on the deck.
They were still docked at the same place in Braavos but she ignored all the sounds of the bustling docks even at night. The crew dispersed after dinner, but a lot of them were watching Arya as she walked across the grass deck.
The girl walked all the way to the bow and stared at the Sunny's lion figurehead. I'll get stronger, and when I do, I'll avenge you all. Dad, Bran, Rickon, Mom, Robb, Sansa. I'll make them pay.
That night, the Straw Hat crew went to bed early since Nami wanted them to get up early the next morning. Franky hadn't gotten to making Arya a bed yet so the orange haired woman offered to let the girl stay in her bed with her.
Arya accepted the nice woman's offer and lay in bed facing the ceiling as she thought about the day. She'd abandoned her plan to join the Faceless Assassins, and was now a member of a strange pirate crew. Her thoughts strayed farther back in her life and she frowned. Arya turned her head to the left a little, checking the rest of the room.
Robin was asleep on the other bed and Nami had her back to her, turned on her side. She stared up at the ceiling and started in a quiet voice, "King Joffrey, Cersei Lannister, Walder Frey, Meryn Trant..."
The woman next to her who was trying to get to sleep had her eyes open and stayed still as the girl spoke. She kept listing names and Nami could hear the malice in her voice as she continued.
"...Beric Dondarrion, Illyn Payne, The Mountain, The H-" she stopped and thought about the man she left bleeding and dying in the Vale. If he wasn't dead, she didn't know if she wanted him dead anymore and she kept staring up at the ceiling in the dark room. "Brienne of Tarth," she finished, adding another name on her list to replace the Hound. He'd watched her for a long time without touching her or beating her, and she knew he could have. Then that woman killed him.
"Who are all those people?" Nami asked and rolled onto her other side. The girl was surprised she was awake but didn't show it while she kept staring up at the ceiling.
Arya spoke in a dangerous tone, "They're the people I need to kill."
"Kill?! Why?" Nami exclaimed, trying to stay quiet enough as to not wake Robin.
The younger teenager closed her eyes, "Because they deserve it."
A/N Hey everyone here's the next chapter! I can't believe the great feedback I received from this story so thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited the story. If you feel the crew gave up on escaping too soon, well, I don't want to spend five chapters of them looking around and then finding some random castaway who says he's been waiting there for a hundred years or something of the sort. Instead imma push along the story at a little bit of a faster pace so I hope you liked Arya's introduction to the crew. This was a quick update but I think I might update pretty quickly for this since I haven't stopped writing this story since Saturday and it's probs over 50,000 words already! Thanks for reading and till next time!