Chapter 10.

As I recount to Zoro the story of my life, the words start to trickle slowly then flow like a river after rainfall.

"The day that my life had changed forever had begun quite normally. Or so I had thought, I was painfully naïve at the time.

My hometown was on an island called Eternia. Land of the stars. It was quite well known for its riches; silver, gold, diamonds. Many valuable and precious stones and metals could be found there, so it was always busy. We even had a few marine stations there, to stop all the pirates that would come looking for treasure.

So growing up, my town, even though it was small and quite far away from the main city, had always been quite safe. However, something had gone wrong. Looking back now, it had been going wrong for a long time before I realised it.

You see, a few days earlier a man had come into the town. Although it wasn't such a strange event; travellers came and went at their leisure quite regularly, there was this sense of…foreboding when this man arrived.

I remember hearing the neighbours whispering amongst themselves, saying things like that 'dreadful man thinks he can just waltz in here and do what he likes,' and 'why don't the marines just send them packing.'

At the time I didn't understand what they meant, because I remember my parents saying that the man was a businessman not a pirate, but I knew his presence wasn't very well received. I had only seen him once, coming out of my father, the major, office's before I was smacked and quickly ushered away by my mother.

I think it was at that moment when I really started to notice that something wasn't right.

My mother and my father were members of the local council at the time. I had been to many meetings with them, waiting outside the room to greet guests, and they had never reacted in such a way. I had always been allowed to be in the presence of visiting guests.

But not this one.

Even now I remember the odd way he had stared at me, with cold appraising eyes as if I were an object rather than a child.

I stayed home with the neighbours the next day. They said my parents were busy with the meeting, so they wouldn't have time to take care of me for time being. Usually I wouldn't have minded, I knew that they had a lot of work to do and I didn't want to burden them. But this time, strangely, I felt compelled to find them, regardless of the punishment I would receive… The punishment I did receive was…far worse than I could ever have imagined."

I stop, taking a minute to compose myself. Zoro watches impassively, waiting for me to get to the point.

"…I arrived at the office around midnight, after the neighbours had gone to bed. The door wasn't locked so it wasn't hard for me to get in. But when I went inside, it wasn't my mother or my father who I found sitting at the desk.

It was that man and another, who for the next five years I would come to know as Alastair. They watched me with some sort of twisted amusement, which erupted into a callous laughter when I asked them of my parents' whereabouts. They said I wouldn't need to worry about that anymore.

They would be my new family now.

I couldn't even fight back when they took me, I couldn't even move. I only found out I had been kidnapped when I woke up chained to the mast of a moving ship.

Eventually, I discovered from the hushed whispers from the other crewmates that I was a criminal from Eternia, banished after being caught stealing the town's precious gold. Alastair had aided them in my capture and had been handsomely rewarded and I, the criminal named Crystal, had only been spared at his mercy and was to follow his every order if I wanted to survive."

Zoro nods slowly, as if he has come to some understanding about me. My throat begins to dry up, that's as much as I can talk about with him, but I utter, "Even now, I don't know what happened to my parents that night, nor the reason I was taken away for so long. But I know that without strength I won't be able to change anything."

"So you're trying to go back home?"

"No…I…I don't know. The thing is—"

The door opens suddenly and Sanji comes tipping through, along with Usopp, Nami and Luffy. They tumble on the floor in a noisy heap of limbs while I try to process my thoughts through the shock.

"Opps, sorry Sanji!" Luffy says cheerfully as he ducks Sanji's kick.

"You idiots!" Nami shouts as Usopp tries in vain to crawl away. They continue to argue amongst themselves, as if they had forgotten the reason they were hiding in the first place. For some unknown reason, I can feel my heart beat frantically and my blood boil dangerously hot. It had taken a lot for me to open up, even a little, even to only one person.

"What are you doing?" I say, barely suppressing the anger in my voice. They all stop suddenly.

"Ah, we were just passing by and we heard you talking…we didn't mean to eavesdrop on you Hanna-chan. We've just been worried about you." Sanji said.

"Yeah, you've been really quiet lately. We just wanted to be able to help you." Nami added.

Although they try again and again to explain themselves, I can't bring myself to accept their reasons or excuses. Because now I remember; I remember why I could not approach or trust anyone. Why, even in my loneliness and solitude, I had built this unseen wall that separated the delicate, fragile Hanna and the numb, cold-hearted Crystal.

I wasn't entirely truthful to Zoro.

I hadn't taken away from my home. No, I had been sold; given away by the ones I trusted the most. Given away by my own parents.

Note: This chapter was a little different (being mostly a long conversation) delving into some of Hanna's past. I would really appreciate any comments or thoughts towards this chapter in particular, as it will help me decide the direction this story will take :)