As I promised; here's Chapter 6!
The description for the mayor's house might have been a bit hasty, I think...
I'm in the middle of writing chapter 8 at the moment, but the 7th still needs a bit of rectifying. I might not be able to upload until next Saturday due to tests and art projects, but it shouldn't be too long till my next upload -w-
Hope you enjoy!

edit: Sorry for the re-upload, I can't believe I left a space with a "_?" and forgot to fill it in!

The evening sun's golden reflection shone glimmering through cracks in the dark sky's clouds, revealing all manners of sea life living their everyday peaceful lives, resting on coral or in the warm beach's sand without a care in the world, while on shore, Fuchsia Village was in a state of panic. It was unusual for it to be so noisy and full of motion, and here and there, people rushed from group to group, gossiping, worrying, saying what they thought on the whole matter. And everywhere everyone tried to speak louder than the other, trying their best to be heard so that their friends and family would follow their choice of course of action.

From his cabin, Mayor Woop Slap appeared, clutching a walking stick with a stern look upon his face. As people noticed him walk through the crowds, the air turned silent as all faces fell on the respected man. He was walking at a steady pace towards the most crowdest of places, where all the commotion had first started, Partys Bar. There, Gyoru was speaking, telling everyone about the famous pirate ship he had seen a few days previous, pushing fear into the hearts of all who listened. He was speaking to the shrillest of people and the most gullible; the young girl who worked part time at the flower shop, the younger and more gossipy of mothers and their children, as well as the most elderly of the village, who knew the most about terrifying pirates.

To say that Mayor Woop Slap was not impressed would be an understatement. He disliked panic with a passion and would give his all to stop it. As he approached Gyoru, who was still unaware of the mayor's presence, his eyes narrowed slightly as he saw the fishmonger's arm stretch downwards as he tried to hold something in place.

'No! You have to stay here and tell everyone what you saw!' the usually humble fishmonger was shouting.

'No way! I'm going home!' came an angry voice, although the mayor could not see who it had come from.

Meanwhile, the rest of the huddling group had fallen silent, as they had suddenly become aware of the mayor's presence. And as he continued to move forward, a parting took place to let him through. No one said anything as they did this, but relieved looks were passed all around, and as they stepped out of the mayor's way, Gyoru was revealed struggling with a very bad-tempered Luffy.

'Stay here! Don't you want to help the village? You have to tell them!' Gyoru tried to persuade the boy, holding a firm grip on his arm.

'I don't need to; there's nothing to worry about!' the boy retaliated as he tried to pull away from the man.

This little spectacle continued as the mayor tried to catch the pair's attention my clearing his throat as the rest of the village watched and wondered when the two would notice the lack of commotion in the air, as suddenly, Luffy bit hard into the fishmonger's hand and finally was free of Gyoru's grasp. Without hesitating, he plunged into the crowd, dodging the odd person's grabby hands and swerving through the masses as he ran straight to the east coast.

'Luffy!' Gyoru called after boy, but he did not chase him as he knew he would never catch him. It was only then that he noticed the mayor, 'Oh… Mayor Woop Slap.' He started rather awkwardly, 'I'm sorry about that… Luffy…' he trailed off as he rubbed at the fresh wound on his sore hand, 'He just won't listen to reason.'

The mayor studied him for a moment before saying, 'I don't know what's going on around here but you seem to have caused quite the commotion,' he indicated the huddle around them and his eyes widened slightly as he noticed Makino near the front of the crowd, a serious expression clearly visible on her face. Makino was a smart woman, and if she thought that whatever Gyoru was telling the village folk was important, then it had to be, 'What on Earth is going on, Gyoru?' His tone had become sharp as his head snapped back to face the fishmonger, 'Come to my office. You can tell me everything there.'

And with that he turned away, parting the small crowd easily as he walked in the direction he had come from, not offering the slightest glance at any of the people who were looking at him. After a moment's hesitation, Gyoru obediently followed, although he wasn't sure why he couldn't just explain it to the mayor right then and there, but he didn't complain as he had seen his superior angry before and didn't fancy receiving a serving of his sharp tongue.

They walked swiftly back to the mayor's place together. No one followed them, recognising the stern look on their leader's face, no one liked to see him angry.

Gyoru cleared his throat as he began speaking, 'Well, what happened was-'

'Don't tell me just yet,' his elder interrupted, 'Wait until we are in my office.'

The door to the mayor's office was opened by a tall, blonde woman inside wearing glasses named Clarissa. Gyoru offered her a small smile as he walked past her but it was not returned. Her piercing blue-grey eyes were kept steady as she looked him over carefully, as if judging his appearance; she had never been known for speaking much.

Although the building was known as "the office", everyone knew that it was really the mayor's house, and that his private bureau was actually just a study, but it was a large building, larger than anyone else's in the village in any case, and so it was seen as a privilege to be invited round. But Gyoru of course knew full well that this would not be a tea and cake visit, but a serious one.

As they entered the house, Gyoru had to admit that although the house was bigger than anyone else's, it wasn't really any better than his own. The wallpaper was peeling here and there, a few neglected dust balls could be seen in corners and along the sides of a small mantelpiece, and the entire place smelt of cheap air freshener, meant for covering up the musky smell the older houses of Dawn Island usually had the misfortune of having. And when the room to the bureau was opened, the door creaked just like most of his own.

The bureau was painted a light yellow colour and on the mayor's wooden desk stood a dark green desklamp. In front of the desk were two wooden chairs and behind was a comfy looking, although slightly worn, old leather wheelie chair. Up on the wall were a few framed photos, mostly landscapes that the mayor had taken pictures of on the Island during his youth. Gyoru eyed a photo of a golden sunset and decided he rather liked it, but was brought back to his thoughts of pirates as he recognised the place it had been taken; right near where he'd seen the ship.

The mayor walked past Gyoru to sit at his desk and indicated for his visitor to do the same, and although the fishmonger did not very much want to sit, he politely took the offer, deciding that it was probably better to do what was expected rather than what he himself wanted to do.

Looking solemn over his oval shaped glasses, the mayor started, 'So, Gyoru. What's so important that you have to say that's gotten the whole village into a fluster?'

And so Gyoru's explanation began. Being under pressure, he spoke quickly and often had to repeat things more clearly; the mayor never told him to calm down as he knew that by doing so makes the person even more nervous and never interrupted the shop worker's story, but instead took notes on a piece of paper. As he listened, his face had become grey and tired-looking, but also anxious and maybe just a little bit scared. By the time Gyoru had finished explaining, the now perturbed mayor was staring at his informer in shock.

'But what I don't get,' Gyoru said thoughtfully, taking his time in speaking for once, 'Is why Luffy doesn't want to tell anyone about the pirates he saw. It's almost as if he doesn't care about the saftey of the island!' He looked down at the hand that Luffy had scarred, seeing the teeth marks still plainly visible. He had been subconsciously glancing at them every now and then since the beginning of the interview.

'Of course he won't want to,' the mayor replied, causing Gyoru to look up at him curiously, 'You know how long the boy's admired pirates. He thinks you're wrong; he doesn't believe you. Or maybe he just doesn't want to… He told you they made fun of him, didn't he? He won't want to believe that the people he looks up to the most were nasty to him.'

Gyoru thought about it a while and finally nodded, 'I suppose that makes sense… but he has to come to his senses some day! If the pirates have brought one good thing, it's that Luffy won't want to be like them anymore!'

'Don't speak too soon, Gyoru,' the mayor replied, putting his hands together and sitting farther back in his chair, 'They haven't done anything yet. Maybe they just need some new supplies.' But he could not meet Gyoru's eyes.

"Mayor… don't try to fool me, please. We both know that pirates bring trouble wherever they go. If we don't do something soon, they're going to be looting and pillaging and shooting people and… and I don't know, pirate stuff!'

The mayor nodded, he had never been very good at lying and decided that it would be better if he stayed honest, 'But what can we do?'

Cold beads of sweat ran down Luffy's forehead as he ran farther and farther away from the crowded village centre. He didn't know where he was going. He had thought about going home first, but had decided against it in the end, knowing that his grandfather would be very angry with him for skipping his daily chores once again and would probably beat him; so he decided to let his legs take him wherever they saw fit.

As he passed the southern coast border, he found himself back next to the orange and white striped pole. Here he paused for breath; he had been running for a good 25 minutes or so and needed a break, so he lay on the grass and waited for his heart to revert back to its normal, steady pace.

Here he could finally think clearly about the men he'd met earlier on without Gyoru insisting they were pirates and without the villagers crowding round him, demanding answers to several questions at once. He closed his eyes and smiled at the cold refreshing wind lapping at his face.

He thought back to the men's appearances. One had a gun, and the other a sword, Luffy could not deny that those, although very short descriptions, did sound like pirates. He frowned. They couldn't be pirates! Even if they looked like them, pirates didn't tease people like that when they first met them… did they? His eyebrows twitched slightly as he thought of Mayor Woop Slap's description of pirates when he had first heard about them.

'What's a pirate?' he had asked. Although being only three, it was still rather unusual he hadn't heard of them. He had gone directly to the mayor's place, knowing already at his young age that he knew a lot more than most of the villagers.

'Pirates? Where did you hear about them?' the mayor had replied.

'Some of the people in Party's bar were talking about them,' Luffy replied tiredly. The only bad thing about asking the mayor for information was that he always wanted to know the back story, 'So what are they?'

'I'm surprised you don't about them, your grandfather being a Marine and all…'

'Grandpa Garp hunts pirate scum but he always ignores me and laughs when I ask what he means; but I wanna know about pirates!' the small boy cried, becoming impatient.

The mayor on the other hand, was quite taken aback, 'Scum? He… Who told you he hunts "scum"?' he demanded.

'Huh?' Luffy blinked, 'He did of course.'

The mayor sighed, not actually very surprised, 'And did he tell you anything about why he hates pirates or why they are scum?'

Luffy narrowed his eyebrows, why was the mayor talking about scum? He had asked about pirates! Still, he had to admit, he wasn't entirely sure what scum were either. But he thought he could make up for it, so hesitantly, he said, 'People the Marine's don't like.'

'Yes… And do you know why?' the man edged on.

Here Luffy thought for a moment before replying, 'Because they don't like the Marines either?' he tried.

The mayor scratched the back of his neck, 'Well, that's not entirely false… "Scum" isn't a very nice word, Luffy, so you shouldn't use it. And scum aren't very nice people either; it means they are despicable, worthless dregs. And that's what pirates are.'

A silence passed where Luffy stared up at the man, his mouth slightly open. 'Ohhh…' he noised. And mayor Woop Slap was impressed; it looked like Luffy had understood him. But then, the boy's head tilted to one side as a puzzled look took over his face, 'What?'

The mayor had then explained what it meant to be a pirate, to be a person outside the law, who does whatever they want whenever they want, how they fight, how there were many different kinds of pirates out there, how they took whatever they wanted, how they were fearless, and how they were all after the same goal: to find One Piece.

Luffy had been amazed by this new information his grandfather had never told him, and from the mayor's description, he had decided that pirates were fascinating, and that he wanted to be one too. If Luffy, who had always had to follow the strictest of rules at home, was a pirate, then he would be free from his grandfather and be able to do whatever he wanted! And with this idea in mind, he had rushed home sprinting, to slam the door wide open and declare to his grandfather that from that moment on, he was to be called a pirate.

To say that his grandfather was unimpressed would be an understatement. That day had not only been the day he had decided his future for himself, but also the day where he had received his biggest punishment.

Luffy blinked awake, and seeing the evening's solemn sky, he realised that he had fallen asleep. He shivered as he noticed how cold it was and scrunched his eyes as a heavy wind whipped his face. He stood up, knowing that it was late and that he should go home to receive Garp's punishment. What was it the old man had asked him to do today anyway? He was sure he had told been to collect something…

It didn't matter. What he needed right now was shelter, he realised, looking up at the grey clouds as it started to rain, and he stood up and ran into the woods with the canopy of trees covering his head and sprinted his way back in the direction of the village.

It may have ended a bit abruptly :s
Onwards now; to Chapter 7!