Disclaimer: If I owned One Piece, I would be in Japan, working hard to reach the deadline. But I'm in America typing this fanfic, so yeah. I don't own it.

Me: THIRD CHAPTER AND COUNTING~! Ugh. I want ramen. (U U)

Pairings: Phht. There are three guys in the crew. I can promise that there's going to be no yaoi in this fic. Hahaha.


"No?" Recca asked. "Why not? You could find out more about what other people want if you travel!"

"Then I'll travel with my friend, Ash," Hikari said.

"I doubt you'll be able to survive long without a navigator," Tazer pointed out. He then added with a slight anger. "Where's our food?"

"Forget it! I'm not feeding pirates!" Hikari snapped.

"Is she a prejudice person, too?" Jae asked Tazer.

"Probably," Tazer stated, glaring at Hikari. "Tsk. All people are the same. Always thinking that all pirates are murderers."

"Because it's true!" Hikari snapped at Tazer. "You pirates killed the person that adopted me! Why couldn't you pirates kill the people that show no compassion towards the ones that have no homes?!"

"Pirates aren't tools to fulfill your revenge, you narrow-minded brat," Tazer shot back.

"It's not revenge! You pirates kill people who others hold dear, you cold-hearted bastard!" Hikari snapped. Tazer gritted his teeth and slammed down his hand onto the table, standing up. He walked towards Hikari, who stood her ground.

"What did you say, you little piece of trash?" Tazer snapped. Jae stood up and walked towards Tazer, dragging the hot-tempered male into his seat.

"You shouldn't refer to people as trash," Jae stated, angrily. He then turned towards Hikari. "And you. Stop grouping all pirates into murderers just because of one experience you had. It gives you a narrow-minded air around you." Recca sighed deeply.

"Geez. One question caused such a ruckus," Recca said, leaning back on his chair. He glanced towards Hikari "All I asked was if you wanted to join my crew. You could have just answered with a polite 'No, thanks.'"

"…Let me join your pirate crew," Ash suddenly stated, breaking the tension building within the restaurant. Recca brightened.

"Really?!" Recca asked, happily. Ash nodded.

"I have something against the Marine Government," Ash stated. "I'm sure that being a pirate is one way to get back at them."

"What occupation are you?" Recca asked.

"I guess you can say an information gatherer," Ash said. "I'm also a historian."

"WOW! So you're like Nico Robin!" Recca stated, excitedly. "That's so cool!" Ash's eyes took on a lost edge, but it disappeared before anyone noticed.

"I also worked on a pirate crew, so I know how they can be," Ash said. "I worked with a lot of them, but I settled down. Are you guys Peace Mains or Morganeers?"

"Peace Mains," Recca said, grinning. "Morganeers give pirates a bad name. I think the ones that killed your family are Morganeers, Hikari." Hikari just ignored him and walked into the kitchen.

"Peace Mains, Recca-san?" Jae asked, wanting an explanation.

"Peace Mains are pirates who go on adventure by feeding on Morganeers," Recca said. "And Morganeers are pirates who pillage."

"I see," Jae said.

"Hey… Ash… I think?" Recca asked, sheepishly. Ash nodded.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Could you try and make your friend join too?" Recca asked. "It would really be nice to have a cook on this crew."

"She will, don't worry," Ash said. "She won't just let me go sail with random people."

"Oh, right," Recca said, hitting his palm with his fist. "I'm Recca Torazane!" Ash blinked in surprise.

"Oh… introductions," Ash said, making Recca nod. "I'm Ash Yelts."

"I'm Axia Jae," Jae stated. Tazer snorted and didn't answer, earning a jab on the side by Recca and a yank of the ear by Jae.

"… I'm Tazer," he growled, angrily. "THERE, HAPPY?!?!"

"Yes," Recca and Jae said, simultaneously. Ash laughed.

"You guys are funny," Ash said. "I'm sorry about Kari."

"It's fine," Recca said, grinning.

"But… what exactly happened to her?" Jae asked.

"… Jae, you talk to people so fast now," Tazer mentioned. "It took you two whole days to talk to me. But only a few hours to talk to these two, care to explain why?"

"… That's because Yunae-san talked to you… but I still was a bit uncomfortable with you," Jae explained. "It took me half a year to talk to Yunae-san and Elle-san. Two days is nothing. I had no other choice but to talk. Do you know how difficult that was for me?" Jae frowned. "I didn't even communicate with anyone else on the island except for Yunae-san and Elle-san for the two years I lived at Alde Nare."

"Then was it within the first two of the six month that you told them personal information?" Tazer asked. Jae shook his head.

"The last two," Jae said. "I didn't talk to anyone for the first year, but I got comfortable in the next year and spoke to Yunae-san and Elle-san in May and June."

"… What are you guys talking about?" Recca asked.

"Oh… hey, Kari," Ash said, seeing her light-blue-haired friend walk out of the kitchen with a tray. Hikari walked over to the table and roughly placed the dishes in front of the three. They looked up at her, confused.

"You guys ordered and I'm not the type of cook to just overlook an order because I dislike them and are pirates," Hikari said, before walking away. Ash chuckled, earning a sharp gaze from Hikari. They stared after her and looked down at the food, suspiciously.

"Don't worry, she didn't poison it if that's what you're wondering," Ash said. Recca took a bite of his gyudon and suddenly gasped and grabbed his throat, dramatically.

"What's wrong, Recca-san?" Jae said, startled from Recca's actions.

"It's… it's… SO GOOD!" Recca exclaimed, grinning. Tazer's fist connected with the top of Recca's head roughly.

"Don't be overly dramatic," Tazer said, taking a bite of his tonkatsudon. He looked a bit surprised. "Huh… It's edible." Jae took a bite of his curry and blinked.

"This is really good," Jae said.

"Of course it has to be good, Jae," Ash said. "She's a cook wanting to create the sought-after recipe." Jae chuckled.

"That's true," Jae agreed, scooping up some more curry. He held it out to Ash. "Want a bite?"

"Huh?" Ash asked, confused. "Oh… thanks." She closed her mouth around the spoon and pulled away, chewing. Tazer raised an eyebrow at the sight but decided not to mention Jae's gender… until later.

"We should really Hikari-san as our cook," Jae said, continuing to eat.

"I want her to, but she doesn't like pirates," Recca said, taking another bite of his gyudon. "Stupid Morganeers."

"Like I said, she'll come. She won't let me sail with random people," Ash said. "But… you might want to do something that will make her thankful towards you three. She always repays a debt."

"… But what can I do?" Recca asked.

"That's for you to figure out," Ash said, smiling. She stared at Jae. "Hey, is that your real hair color?" Jae looked up from his curry.

"Me?" Jae asked. Ash nodded. "Yes. But I think I'm going to dye it another color."

"Dye it?" Ash asked. "Why?"

"Because I want it to be a bit darker," Jae said, taking another bite of his curry. "I think it's too light for my taste."

"No, it looks good on you," Ash said. "If your hair becomes darker, your skin will look even paler. You look fine as you do now."

"Really?" Jae asked, dropping the spoon on the finished plate. "I was thinking of changing it to black."

"To make it like Yunae's, Jae?" Tazer retorted, finishing up his dish. Jae turned red.

"T-that's not it!" Jae stuttered.

"… Who's Yunae?" Recca asked. "I've heard her name for a while and I'm curious on who she is."

"She's Jae's girlfriend," Tazer said.

"She's not," Jae objected. "She's a really good friend of mine."

"Wait… did you just say girlfriend?" Ash asked. Tazer nodded.

"Isn't Jae a girl?" Ash asked.

"No, I'm a male," Jae responded. Ash paled.

"Then why did you offer some curry to me?" Ash asked.

"I used to do that with Yunae-san and Elle-san," Jae responded. Jae blinked at Ash's agape expression. "Is it not normal behavior?"

"That's an indirect kiss!" Ash exclaimed.

"… Is that a bad thing?" Jae asked. Ash flushed and ran into another room. "…"

"It's a bad thing, I guess," Recca said to Jae. Jae just shrugged.

"I want more curry," Jae muttered, looking at his empty plate. "Oh well." He stacked the plates on top of each other. "I'm going to Hikari-san to figure what the cost."

"You do that," Tazer said, yawning. Jae stood up and walked into the kitchen. He saw the light-blue haired girl coming out of a large refrigerator. HIkari narrowed her eyes at the sight of Jae.

"What are you doing here?" she growled.

"I wanted to ask how much the meal was," Jae said. "We have to pay, right?"

"It's 6,700 beri," Hikari said, after calculating the numbers in her head.

"Okay," Jae said, taking out his wallet.

"You like navigation, huh?" Hikari said, noticing his wallet.

"How did you know?" Jae asked, taking out some beris.

"Your wallet looks like a map," Hikari said, pointing at the object in his hand.

"Oh," Jae said, holding out a 10,000 bill. "Here you go." Hikari snatched the bill out of Jae's hand with two fingers.

"Sorry, no change," Hikari said, pocketing the money.

"Then it's tipping the cook," Jae said, smiling. "The food was great. You should really reconsider Recca's offer. Chances are it's much easier to fulfill your dream sailing and experiencing new things rather than stay here and try." With that, Jae left the kitchen, leaving a debating Hikari.

"Let's leave since we had our meal," Tazer said, standing.

"What took you so long anyway?" Recca asked.

"Putting in a good word for you, captain," Jae said, putting his wallet in the front pocket of his bag. He slung it over his shoulders, readjusting the straps. "… What about Ash-san? I think she's a bit shocked by that incident."

"Well, whatever it is, of course, she would be," Hikari's voice stated behind them. They turned around, surprised. "Her guard is up around the male gender. She's afraid of men and extremely shy around boys."

"But she talked to us just fine?" Recca asked.

"That's probably because of Jae," Hikari said. "Since Jae is a girl, she felt more comfortable around you two."

"… Hikari-san, I'm a boy," Jae said, sheepishly. Hikari blinked.

"… Wait… then what's the incident?" Hikari asked.

"She ate off my spoon," Jae stated. Hikari rolled her eyes.

"Oh boy," Hikari said. "She mentioned indirect kiss, didn't she?" Jae nodded. "I'll be right back. Wait for us." Then Hikari disappeared into another room.

"Where's she going?" Recca asked.

"She probably went to fetch that brunette," Tazer said.

"Oh," Recca said. "Do you think Hikari's going to join us?"

"I think so," Jae stated. "Ash-san did say that Hikari-san won't let her sail with strangers and Hikari-san also does have the dream to think about."

"Keh, she's a little brat," Tazer stated. "We're better off with another cook."

"You dare say that?" Hikari's voice stated behind them.

"Ugh… let go, Kari!" Ash grumbled.

"Let us both joi-" Hikari said, but was cut off when something crashed into the restaurant with a loud bang. The object that fell in dashed and took off with Hikari.

"Kari!" Ash shouted, running after the two.

"No one's kidnapping my soon-to-be nakama!" Recca shouted, running after Ash. Tazer and Jae glanced at each other.

"I'm pretty sure that girl won't mind me borrowing her cap," Tazer said, snatching a cap on his way out. Jae laughed, seeing the older male place the cap on his head, and followed after him.


Me: Eh… it's a bit short this time. Imma sorry~! And once again, I apologize to those readers who had to deal with this story-changer. I'm grateful to them for reading my fanfic before and if you previous readers are sick of me about now, I don't blame you. My friend told me that if I kept re-writing this fanfic, I was going to lose my readers. And knowing that, I still continued it. Thank you, my previous readers for sticking with me in the past.

I also debated in adding in this one scene. Know how Jae wanted to change his hair color, I was going to make Ash use her illusions to change his hair color, but in the end decided against it because I want the others to find out her powers later. Hahaha. It's more interesting that way, right?

-rereads the chapter- I feel like I made Hikari too much of a jerk. Or it that just me?