Chapter 2 - In comes Rena

~Rena~

Man, that was tiring, I thought as I walked home through the forest on my way back from the city for work. I smiled to myself and sang a song in my head as I walked, work was good today, not too many complications and tricky people to…

I shake my head, don't think about that right now. I came to the clearing as usual, but that was when I noticed something was off, different slightly. I came to the door suspiciously, and opened it, walking into my house the way I normally would.

There sat in my house, were nine strangers, and they were pretty strange strangers I had to admit. I raise an eyebrow, but carry on as normal, shrugging off my cloak and unbuckling my sword. I walked towards the bedroom where I was going to dump my things before starting to ask the questions.

"MOM" Moriko shouts as she leaps across the room and into my arms. Grinning I picked her up and hugged her. The strangers looked so shocked they might have just fainted right then and there, obviously she hasn't spoken in front of them yet, she rarely ever does.

~Zoro~

I felt a presence at the door, a woman, with pale skin and jet black hair, walked in. She raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything to the bunch of strangers gathered in her house. The kid, Moriko, suddenly jumped up and shouted "MOM", leaping across the room to her. Holy crap, I thought the kid was mute.

When the initial shock wore off I registered what just happened. So this was the powerful mom, huh? she doesn't even look as old as me, I'd say she was 19 or 20, how the hell does she have kids? Well each to their own I guess. I look more carefully, and then I feel it. The kids were right to say that their mom was strong, I can feel the power surrounding her.

The whole group of girls that lived here, seemed to relax, even Kazue who I thought was the most relaxed out of all of them let out a short breath of relief. They're all girls, is this some kind of womens only house?

~Rena~

After putting my stuff inside my room, I came and sat down on the floor in the middle of the children. Putting Moriko down next to me, Tsubasa proceeded to crawl onto my lap and go to sleep while I played with her hair gently.

"Rena, this is the straw hat pirates, Luffy, Nami, Robin, Franky, Chopper, Brook, Usopp, Zoro and Sanji," Kazue said smiling as she pointed around the room.

"Nice to meet you," I said smiling, which I think shocked some of them. What have they being saying about me?

"I'm going to bring out some food," Kazue said as she got up.

There was a silence around the room. Robin was the first to speak up, "Rena? Doesn't that mean reborn?"

"Yes, I guess my parents were jokers, huh?" I say smiling. I feel some of the crew relax a little. Seriously what have they heard about me?.

"How old are you?" The abrupt question came from the tense swordsman with the green hair and the intense frown, Zoro I think he was. Sanji immediately went mad at him telling him that it was rude to ask a woman's age, especially when you don't know her.

"It's okay, Sanji-san," I say calmly, "I'm 20."

"Isn't that a bit young to have these children?" Usopp asks. I laugh, which made them jump.

"They aren't my biological children," I tell him, I'm used to that reaction by now.

"Then why…?" Nami asks. The crew look confused, I take a breath, talking about this kind of thing is hard, explaining your life story and why I took in these kids.

"We're all orphans," Kazue interrupted as she brought the food and laid it out on the table, "Rena is the oldest, she learned to survive, and then helped keep me alive when I became an orphan, from there our family just grew. Isn't that right, one-san?" I nod and smile.

"How old were you when your parents…" Chopper asks hesitantly.

"I was seven," I say, keeping a small smile on my face to try and reassure him that he didn't offend or upset me.

"My mother died from illness when I was younger, was that what happened?" Usopp asks. I shake my head.

"no, my parents were pirates, they were killed by the marines when they arrived here." The room got tense for a moment.

"YOUR PARENTS WERE PIRATES? AWESOME" Luffy shouts. I laugh, although his crew seem furious that he would react like that.

"My parents were awesome, they ran the only ship with two captains," I say smiling as I remember those days.

"SO COOL" Luffy shouts, his eyes twinkling. I pick up the food off the table, remembering that we should eat it before it gets cold. The rest follow suit. next to me I see Moriko about to shove some food in her mouth and I grab her wrist, giving her a meaningful stare. The rest of the room is tense, watching the exchange.

She glares at me before giving in and saying, "itadakimasu" I smile and release her wrist. When we finished eating I stood, "gochisōsama-deshita" I walk towards the door.

"Rena, where are you going?" Kazue asks. I turn and smile at her.

"I'm going to the bar."

Hi there, thanks for reading this story. I think I put in the right phrases for the meal times, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

So let me explain a little bit about this story, I'm also a massive fan of the inheritance cycle so there will be parts of the story that refer to that in the future, but they aren't overly relevant and I will explain them after the chapters so you don't get confused. anyway that's why I didn't put it under crossover I hope that's okay.

This is my first story that's not a one shot so I hope you like it, I've been enjoying writing it. I have written a lot already so I can hopefully keep it updated regularly. I've written a lot here oops. Please review I would love to hear what you think.