Shade- I still don't own One Piece.

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Chapter 4: Boarding

"Thanks for listening to this, I think leaving is the best way. It's just too bad I won't be able to see you again." Monoka stood up slowly and stretched since she was sitting there for hours. She flicked her last cigarette into the sea and walked back under the balcony. Bo followed her and tried to slip through the kitchen unnoticed by his boss who was probably furious with him for skipping work. Once they were in the clear, they started to walk back to the warehouse.

"Does Hibo know?" Bo walked alongside Monoka through the center of town. He stopped for a second to quickly buy a new lighter from the magazine stand. Catching up to Monoka's stride, he got his answer.

"No, I haven't found the right time. Maybe if I tell him now, with you there, it'll be better?" Monoka looked at Bo to see if he agreed and he nodded. He got closer to Monoka and wrapped his arm around her shoulders in a friendly way as they got into sight of the warehouse. As they walked, they passed the opening toward the docks where the ships were at bay. Monoka looked toward the sea and saw the ship she was at before gone. A small smile found its way onto her face and she turned back to where she was walking.

"Hibo! I'm back! Sorry I took a while longer than expected… Hibo?" Monoka walked in through the door that oddly stood ajar. She sped walked inside out of Bo's hold and looked around on the base floor. She saw nothing, not even their trunk. As her heart began to race, she quickly climbed the ladder to the second floor, all the while yelling his name out. Once she got to the top and found it empty, she froze. Quickly, she ran to the window and peered out over the center of town. Where was he? "Hibo!" Monoka climbed a short ladder that lead to the hatch to the roof and quickly opened it. Out on the roof, she peered full circle around town to see if she could find her brother's piercing blonde hair. Nothing. A knot formed in her throat as she thought of all the situations Hibo could be in alone. She continued to look more intently and slower as Bo made his way onto the roof.

"What's going on? Where is he?" Bo looked in the directions that Monoka was and saw the utter horror on her face. All the while, she continued to say under her breath 'my fault' over and over again. "Monoka?" He moved to try and touch her arm but she quickly jumped up on the siding of the building and looked out toward the harbor. Her eyes flickered from the water to the ground of the town and ran along the dirt to the entrance of the warehouse several times before she realized what probably happened.

"Oh my God," she whispered and, completely ignoring Bo, jumped from the top of the building and landed swiftly onto the ground. Bo looked over the side of the building for a couple seconds before deciding to descend to the ground the conventional way; with ladders. By the time he got to the ground outside the warehouse, Monoka was staring at the ground under her feet and walking out toward the marina.

"Monoka? What in the hell are you doing? Where's Hibo?! I thought you said he was there!" Bo followed her and could tell she wasn't listening to him. Monoka kept walking in a hunched over position, sweat dripping onto the dirt. People stared at her strangely and Bo gave them apologetic looks as if Monoka was disrupting their day by doing what she was. "Monoka! Tell me what you're doing now!" Finally, stopped several inches before the end of the dirt and the start of the boardwalk, Monoka stood up with her eyes bigger than they'd ever been.

"They took him…" Monoka's mouth was agape, she stared at the open space that had once been occupied by the ship Hibo had been so infatuated with. Since Monoka hadn't been responding to his questions, he had been staring at the ground along with her trying to see what she was looking at. All he saw was a wide line of disrupted dirt as if something had been dragged along the ground.

He looked up, and saw the pale face of his friend. "Monoka?" His voice had become a small whisper as well and looked at the pending terror in her eyes.

"Those bastards took him…"

"Monoka? What's going on?"

"Hibo is with them. He's with those damn pirates!" Monoka then ran off down the boardwalk at full sprint, Bo in tow. She skidded to a stop at the end where boat rental was located. Quickly, she jumped into the boat and threw some money at the man working the boats.

"Wait Monoka, what? With who? And WHAT are you doing?"

"I'm going after him. I'm getting him away from those God forsaking pirates!" Then, Monoka tried to shove off as hard as she could away from the dock but Bo had grabbed a hold of the side.

"Monoka hold up a second! Think about what you're doing! You don't know that he's out there! He could be getting an ice cream in the center of town for all you know!" At this, Monoka stood up in front of Bo right in the front of the wooden boat and stared at him sternly.

"Did you see what I saw in the dirt back there?" Monoka pointed back to the place that they had been before running down here. He looked back briefly still holding on tightly so she couldn't get away. "Those drag marks are from the trunk that we have everything in. They stopped right in front of the place that stupid pirate ship was! The one we ate at, remember?" Bo recalled the part of the conversation earlier where Monoka ranted about how horrible pirates were and how it was hard to get Hibo to stop talking about them when he got started. "He is with them! And I need to get him back! Now let go and let me get him!" Monoka grabbed Bo's hands that still gripped the side of the boat and looked into his eyes intently, trying to tell him to let her go. After a few seconds, Bo gave in, and slowly let go of the boat and gave it a little shove out to sea. As she floated away, she looked back and said, "Thank you." When she turned around to face the endless sea, she unknowingly let the last sight of her home fade in her mind.

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The Going Merry was sailing strong in the wind of the ocean and everyone sat around lazily waiting to get to the next port. The sun was shining and the gray clouds that once were had dispersed and only showed a shining sun reflecting off the water. Sanji was in the kitchen making their next meal. He put tomatoes into a big pot that was boiling and started to stir the concoction even more. Thinking about what else he needed to put inside, he was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard a sound from the pantry.

He froze. The boat wasn't rocking hard so nothing could have fallen off of the shelves. When he heard the noise again but louder, he grabbed for a knife that was at his side. There wasn't enough room in the kitchen to do any kicking moves, so he resorted to a knife. He slowly began to turn around to face the pantry. He heard some grunts and coughs while he walked toward the door. Reaching for the knob very slowly, he prepared his knife above his head in case whatever was inside was going to attack him. However, before his finger tips could reach the metallic knob, it twisted before him, and the door began to creak open. Suddenly, Sanji readied his hand with the knife high in the air ready to come down. And then he froze again. Staring down below him was Hibo. His mouth hung open surprised that he was there. Hibo's did the same since there was a knife aiming for his head. Then, simultaneously, they both screamed.

"AHHHH! What are you doing here?!" Sanji fell backwards onto the kitchen table with the knife clutched to his chest trying to get his beating heart to rest. Hibo had jumped back in fear and fell over his trunk, his short legs sticking up in the air. More loud noises came from the kitchen and alerted the others.

"Sanji? What the hell is going on here?" Nami walked into the kitchen and saw Sanji shivering on the table and staring into the pantry. He was pointing forward with a shaky finger and trying to form words in his mouth.

"It's the kid!" At the words, Nami went wide eyed and hurried to the front of the pantry door. If possible, her eyes got even wider as she saw the little blonde haired boy rubbing his head in the middle of their pantry.

"Hibo?" She covered her mouth in astonishment before her surprise subsided into anger. Bringing her newly formed fists to her side, her face took on a tint of red and a small stream of smoke came from the top of her head like a rumbling volcano. Sanji stared at her in horror knowing what was to come. Then, an eruption came from her mouth, saying one word. "ZORO!"

-

Monoka was slowly motoring out into the sea staring forward. She was unsure of where this ship was or at what time it had left, for all she knew she was going in the wrong direction. But she had to find Hibo no matter what. She could see several ships in the distance and banking on one of them being the one he was on. As she sat silently in the boat, she went over the conversation she had before she left to go talk with Bo.

"Hibo, I need to go talk to Bo for a bit. Can I trust you to stay here and not get into any trouble?"

"Monoka!"

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon…"

'God I'm an idiot! I always say I'll be back soon and then go off for hours thinking Hibo is fine in the warehouse. Man, this is all my fault.' Monoka was starting to imagine Hibo on the ship with all those filthy pirates. Even if they were nice to him and gave him food they're still pirates! She could see him, standing near the edge of the ship and falling in. Then, she could see him sinking, trying his hardest to make it to the surface but couldn't because he couldn't swim. Monoka started to shake just thinking about it. Gripping the side of the dinky boat she was in, she could feel the tension in her hand. Finally, looking forward, she could see one ship getting closer and she strained to see if it was the same one that she was on before. Squinting, she could just make out the picture of a skeleton head with a straw hat on.

-

"Zoro! Get your ass down here! You said that you saw Hibo leave the ship!" Nami was storming to the deck of the ship with Sanji and Hibo behind her. She was flaming red in the face and looked about ready to kill something, presumably Zoro.

"What?" Awaking from his nap, Zoro rubbed his eyes and looked straight into Nami's face which he could clearly see was not in the best of moods. As she was huffing, he was trying to think of anything he did to make her as mad as she appeared to be. However, before he could finish a thought, he got whacked in the side of the head. "OW!"

"God damnit Zoro! Why did you say you saw Hibo leave when he actually didn't?!"

"Hibo isn't gone?"

"No!"

"Where's Monoka?" Hibo appeared on the upper deck and was rubbing his eyes. He was still pretty tired and had yet to comprehend that he was out at sea.

"Your sister's back home, where you should be. And it's all the swordsman's fault!" Sanji was behind Hibo, looking at Zoro with an equally angry face as Nami's.

"What are you looking at me for?! I said I saw him leave!" Zoro stood up, trying to defend the stupidity that comes over him when he's tired.

"Obviously you didn't because he never even made it onto the upper deck! Oh man, what are we gonna do? We're so far away from the town. We have to turn back, we have to get him back home. Everybody! Listen up! We're turning this ship around and sailing back to port!" Nami was pacing around the deck, forming ideas and theorems in her head about the time they were losing and seeing if they could make it up.

"What? Why?" Luffy, who was manning the bird's nest while Usopp went to the bathroom, looked over the side, not really listening to anything that was happening below because he felt rather tired himself. Only when Nami addressed them all with a loud voice did he perk up. He peered over the side to see what was happening and a bright smile made its way onto his face. "Hibo! What are you doing here?" Luffy gave one of his signature laughs and jumped down from the bird's nest right next to a now awake Hibo.

"Hi Luffy! I fell asleep in the kitchen." Hibo, who was now thinking about being on a strange ship with people whom he still didn't really know, was truly missing his sister and the safety that she brought to him.

"Oh really? I thought you had left off for home." Hibo shook his head slowly and gave Luffy a frown, showing him how scared he was to be away from Monoka. A strange silence washed over the crew as clouds began to form slowly above their heads. Nami's nose twitched a little and she widened her stare a little and looked up.

"Shit," Nami whispered under her breath. A storm was coming soon. This was the most erratic weather she had seen in a while and it was coming at the worst time. She looked back down at Hibo who had now put his thumb in his mouth and it made him look even more helpless now than before. If they turned back now they would have to stay at least another night back at the previous port that they had just been. This whole thing was making them lose so much time, and time was essential when in the Grand Line. Nami tried to review in her head how far they had sailed and how close their next port was. Remembering, she could imagine seeing the map and seeing that they had sailed over two thirds of the way there. If they continued to sail they could beat out the worst of the storm. However, if they sailed back to return Hibo, they would have to face nearly the whole storm before getting back. Her anger was surfacing again and she put her face in her hands and made a large, audible groan and walked back down so she could get to her Navigator's Room. "Hibo, come with me, I don't want you out on deck. A storm is coming." Hibo nodded and scuttled across the deck toward her, his thumb still in his mouth. When they had left below deck, they other boys were left there to think about what was happening.

"Nice going Zoro, you separated a young boy and his sister just like the idiot you are." Sanji was finishing up one of his cigarettes and threw it on the deck and stepped on it. Zoro looked at him angry. He knew he made a mistake in saying that Hibo had left when he really knew he hadn't but he wasn't about to admit that now.

"I told you I saw him leave! I guess I saw someone else or something."

"How many bleach blonde six year olds do you see jumping off our ship, huh swordsman?" Sanji wasn't finished with Zoro yet. He was really fumed that Hibo had been torn away from home and his only family just because moss head sleeps too much. He wanted to rub it in a little more but he was interrupted by Nami.

"Hey! You guys! Get down here! The storm is coming really soon!" Nothing else was said after that, they only stared at each other with daggers as Luffy skipped in front of them down below deck.

-

"That's it…" Monoka was getting closer now and she could tell for sure that this was the ship that Hibo should be on. The waves had started to get worse as she was motoring and she noticed that clouds were starting to form again. She ignored all of this as she stopped the motor once she had gotten next to the large hull. Trying to hold her balance, she gripped as well as she could onto its side and tried to look for the easiest way to get up. She could see very small crooks going up the side and decided that was the best she would probably find on a nice ship like this so she went ahead and tried for it.

Gripping as tight as she could, she let her right foot find a small divot to sneak into and stood off of the motor boat. She held her cold body as close as she possibly could so her control was better and slowly worked her way up the side of the ship, slipping occasionally, but still keeping some sort of a grip as to not let herself drop into the sea. The boat she had traveled on was now floating behind, the sailing ship leaving it faster than she wished and left nothing below to catch her except the icy blue water.

"Shit…"

Finally, she had strained her muscles enough to barely reach the top and when the top came near she grabbed for the railing with a hawk like clutch and quickly pulled herself up and onto the deck. Breathing heavily from the hard workout she just had, she glanced around and saw that no one was on deck. Standing up quickly, her heart was racing and she lightly ran up the steps to the upper deck to see if Hibo was there. He was not. She paused in her heavy breathing to try and take a listen and try to hear anything below deck. She laid flat down on her stomach and pressed her ear to the floor. Listening closely, she could hear muffled voices below. She couldn't quite hear what they were saying so she still didn't know if Hibo was with them. There was only one way to find out.

Monoka got back to her feet swiftly. She tiptoed back down the stairs, being sure not to catch anyone's attention before she wanted to. As she descended the last step, she could feel the first few drops of rain start to fall from the sky and it felt like the storm would come quickly. A crack from the sky lit up her pathway and she quickly skidded across the window that showed from down below. She had caught a glimpse of a small figure with blonde hair. A wave of relief washed over her body as she finally knew that she was on the correct ship. Breathing in deeply to regain control over her bubbling emotions, she opened the door quietly and swiftly went down the steps into the hallway. Then, gripping the door to the room she saw the others in, she opened it up.

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Shade- My chapters are so long. Weird. Please review!