~Chapter 1: Discovery~

~Luffy's POV~

Luffy yawned and stretched. "I'm bored!" he complained loudly.

Zoro looked at him from where he stood lifting weights. "Then find something to do."

"But there's nothing to do! We haven't seen an island in FOREVER!"

"You can't expect to see one everyday!" Sanji snapped.

"LUFFY!" Nami yelled.

Luffy jumped to his feet and walked over to Nami. "What?"

"Did you spend money?" Nami demanded.

"Ummm... No not recently, no." Luffy said. "Why?"

Nami stepped aside and pointed behind her. A huge crate sat there.

"Woah! What's that? Is that full of meat?" Luffy asked.

"I'd like to know what it is too! And it better not be meat!" Nami snapped.

Luffy ran over to the crate and studied it for a minute. "Who sent it?"

Robin walked over. "The label only says: 'To Monkey D. Luffy. Please return to sender.' There's no return address."

"That's weird." Nami murmured.

"Let's open it!" Luffy cried.

"We should gather the rest of the crew first. They should see this." Nami said.

"Fine, but tell them to be quick! I want to open it!"

~Usopp's POV~

The whole crew stood there staring at the crate. Personally, Usopp thought that they should just send it back to whoever sent it, unopened, but Luffy refused to listen to reason.

"It could be a bomb." Usopp pointed out.

"Nah. Who would send us a bomb?" Luffy asked.

"The Government! Or maybe some pirate who held a grudge! We have a lot of enemies in case you haven't noticed!"

"Well, yeah. We are pirates." Luffy said, continuing to tear at the crate.

After that, Usopp had given up. There was no point in arguing with Luffy when he went into this mode. When his curiosity took over, he would not stop until he had discovered whatever had sparked his interest.

Usopp stepped back as Luffy finally pulled the crate open.

"GOT IT!" Luffy cried. He leaned over the top of the crate and stared into it in silence for a moment. "Hey, Usopp, get over here and tell me what this is."

Usopp stepped forward cautiously. Luffy hadn't exploded. Not yet anyway. Finally Usopp leaned over the top of the crate. His jaw dropped and he fell backwards with a cry of fright.

"What?" Zoro demanded.

"I-It's... i-i-i-i-it's...!" Usopp stammered, still trying to make sense of what he had seen.

"Speak Usopp!" Sanji snapped.

All Usopp could do was point at the crate as it began to rock back and forth. Everyone stepped back then, except Luffy. He just stood there staring at the crate.

With a bang, the crate fell onto its side and a small figure tumbled out of it. Usopp scrambled backwards and stared at the figure in horror.

"It's a person! The crate had a girl in it!" Usopp finally managed.

"She looks pretty dead to me." Luffy said, eyeing the girl. "And she's all wrapped up like one of those mummy things."

He was right in a way. Everything about the girl was white. Her hair, her skin, even the wrappings. She did look dead...

Chopper leaped forward with a cry of horror. "DEAD!?" He placed one of his hoofs on the girls wrist while he pressed his ear to her chest. "She's alive! She's breathing!"

"Out of my way moss-head!" Sanji snapped, shoving past Zoro. He knelt down next to Chopper with a glass of water and a plate of fruit in his hands. "Give the poor girl some food!"

Chopper nodded, but then frowned. "How?"

Usopp thought that this was a very good question. Like Luffy said, she was wrapped up. The wrappings were fashioned into a dress, her arms were pinned to her sides and the bandages (if that's what they were) came up over her mouth and nose.

"Just move them away from her mouth." Robin said, kneeling next to the motionless girl. She raised her hands to the girl and gave a gentle tug on the wrappings. Robin frowned.

"What's wrong?" Franky asked.

"They won't move." Robin said, her voice troubled. Everyone looked around at each other. Then Zoro stepped forward.

"Maybe we have to cut them away." he suggested.

"Oh no you don't, shitty-swordsman!" Sanji cried, getting to his feet.

"What?" Zoro asked.

"You're not touching this poor girl with your swords!"

"I wasn't going to hurt her, eyebrow-cook!"

"You'll scare her!"

"She's not even awake!"

"I think he should give it a try." Nami spoke up.

Sanji looked between Nami and Zoro doubtfully. "Fine!" he cried at last, throwing his arms into the air. "But if you get a single cut on her beautiful face, I'm gonna slice and dice you and serve you to Luffy!"

"Good luck with that, and besides, Luffy wouldn't eat me." Zoro groaned, stepping towards the girl.

"He would if I told him you were just meat. Wouldn't you, Luffy?" Sanji said.

"Did you say meat?" Luffy asked, obviously not paying attention.

"See?" Sanji laughed in triumph.

"Yeah, whatever." Zoro said, crouching by the girl.

Usopp watched anxiously as he carefully slid his sword under the wrappings. Usopp had never seen him being so gentle with his sword before. Wiht one quick movement, Zoro slid his sword towards the wrappings and it ripped slightly. Then, using just his hands, Zoro ripped it more until the girl's mouth was exposed.

Usopp let out a cry of terror as the girls eyes snapped open. They were blood-red.

"She's awake!" Chopper cried.

"Quick! Give her some food!" Sanji said, stepping forwards.

Usopp could do nothing more than stare as the girl sipped at the water, quietly. Sanji had to hold the cup for her, but he didn't seem to mind. Zoro was working on freeing her arms so that she could feed herself.

"Not bad moss-head."

"Yeah, whatever."

When the girl could move her hands, she picked up the pieces of fruit in her delicate fingers and took small bites.

"Sanji, you should give her some meat. Meat makes everyone feel better." Luffy suggested.

"Not now Luffy!" Sanji snapped. "She needs liquids more than protein!"

The girl finally finished her small meal and began to look around at the faces gathered around her. Her eyes seemed to flicker between everyone quickly, but when she reached Usopp's face she just stared at him. Usopp frowned and fidgeted uncomfortably. Why was she staring at him? It felt like it was impossible to look away from her eyes, but at the same time, he wanted to run away from her gaze. It felt like she was staring straight through his soul.

"W-Why's she staring at me?" Usopp whimpered.

"It's definitely your nose, long nose." Franky laughed, though it was a nervous laugh.

Robin was the only one who seemed unaffected by the girls strange behaviour. "Can you talk?" she asked gently.

Finally the girl tore her eyes away from Usopp, and he felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. She seemed to study Robin for a moment before she slowly shook her head.

Usopp sighed. Just great. First they find a girl in a crate, now she couldn't even tell them where she came from. This day just kept getting better.

~I hope you liked it! Thank you for reading! Please R&R! ~FoxEmpress