Mini reply to Telepath98: Actually, Yalla is not the chef. I should have figured that people would think that, but she really is just a "pretty good cook for a kid." With all of the members (except Lin) knowing how to make at least a few dishes, I might not even add an official cook. I like the whole take-turns-cooking idea. Makes it feel more like a family or a normal close group of friends, 'ya know?

*—*—*—*—*

I glared at Sabo, who was tearing up with laughter. I picked up the piece of paper in front of me and wrote on it, holding it up so he could read that I wrote: It's not funny, asshole.

"B-b-but!" He cracked up into laughter again. "I know. I know. I should be worried as hell. In normal circumstances, I would be. But… you have a doll made to look like one of your crew members, and you're chewing it."

Yes. There was a doll designed to look like Lin, and my teeth were currently trying to poke holes in its torso. Why? Because my idiot self hadn't been applying the tips I had gotten from Zoro, and I woke up unable to move my mouth. So Raz built upon the stress ball grip-training that I still did every day, and made a version for my mouth. I had asked him to do that not long after we left Zoro and had wondered what was taking him so long… and received one shaped like Lin…

Come to think of it, Raz had probably been monitoring the deterioration of my jaw muscles that whole time and just wanted to see me have to use the doll in front of everyone. It did get the twitch and horrified expression from Lin that he had probably been going for. And just as strength had started returning to my jaw, Sabo had walked in.

Because, fucking of course he would.

I let out a whine, writing something else down on the paper and holding it up. I just wanna eaaaat! I can't chew fruit without my jawwwwwww!

"You don't need to actually write out the words that long," Sabo deadpanned as he read what I had written.

"Here you go, Maven-chan!" A little voice called out, holding up a smoothie to me. I could feel tears prick the corner of my eyes. I took the doll out of my mouth, sipping at the smoothie. When the sweet fruity deliciousness encountered my taste buds, I put the cup down and hugged Yalla tightly, picking her up and spinning with her in my arms. I was pretty sure tears of joy were flowing down my face in rivers.

"I have the best crew everrrrr!" I wailed, not needing to move my mouth much to be able to speak.

Katie, Lin, Raz, and Kilik watched from where they were eating their breakfast nearby. Raz chuckled and rolled his eyes at my display, holding up a syringe.

"Maven, I can give you an injection. This formula should help stimulate your muscles so they repair and grow faster, but the effects only last about a day."

I nodded over at my doctor, putting Yalla down and chugging my heavenly smoothie before moving over to Raz. My brother and crewmates watched as the stoic doctor poked the needle first right above my chin, on either corner of my mouth, then on either cheek, and right above my lips. I shivered a bit when I felt the cold sensation of the liquid entering my skin, but then moved to replace the Lin-jaw-stress-doll in my mouth again and gestured for Sabo to come with me outside as I started working on it again.

We both leaned against the rail of the Dying Dream, silent for a moment as we let the sea breezes ruffle our hair. Sabo's had grown pretty long, I realized, and grabbed a lock of it. He raised an eyebrow at me, but didn't say anything as I lightly tugged the strand and twisted it before losing interest and letting it go.

"It's 'ong," I mumbled around the stress dummy, causing Sabo to chuckle.

"I like it longer," he admitted. "Short hair was from when I was still living in that horrible mansion. Long hair lets me imagine that I was never that person. That I was never their son," he said softly. I hummed.

"Ashe doesh da shame 'ding. He shabes cause our fasher had a moustache," I mumbled as I worked out my jaw muscles, looking over my brother's face. His eyes darted over to me.

"Ace shaves because he doesn't wanna look like you guys' dad?" He translated, curious. I nodded. Sabo looked down, sighing. "I know you told me not to be ashamed, Maven. And I'm working on it still," he admitted. "I'm not ashamed of who I am anymore. But I still don't like remembering them."

I shrugged, removing the jaw strengthener doll for a minute, looking up at him still. "At least you have memories as your reason. You legitimately know that they were bad people. Ace…" I ran my free hand through my hair. "Ace hates our dad because people always told him that he's the child of the devil," I whispered, turning my head to look out over the water. "And he believes them. I don't know what that says about me. If I hadn't had this disease, they would have said it about the both of us the whole time. But I wasn't there to suffer through it with him," I clenched my jaw as hard as I could in that moment. "I don't think he applies it to me," I admitted softly. "But I'm not sure. There was once, when we were kids, that he said that we were both devil spawn so we should stick together. I don't know if he still feels that way, but I can't hate someone I never met. Not like he can. And I refuse to hate myself like he does," I stuck the doll back in my mouth and resumed exercising my jaw.

After a moment, I felt Sabo out an arm around my shoulders, leaning his head on mine. "You'll help him," Sabo whispered. "We can all try, but even Luffy is at a disadvantage when it comes to helping Ace. We don't know who Luffy's parents are or were, and even if they were some big name criminal, there's no guarantee that Ace will accept it as the same situation, anyway. You're the only one who shares the same father he does, so you're the only one that he'll accept as being able to understand," Sabo's hand tightened around me. "We'll all help him, but you can probably do it best."

I chuckled around the doll, and jabbed a finger into the burn scar covering the left side of my brother's face. As he flinched away and sputtered in surprise, I mumbled; "tell."

The blonde laughed, and nodded. "Okay, Okay. I was sent on a recon mission at this marine base in the New World— that's the second half of the Grand Line, by the way. The first half is called Paradise, the second half is called the New World. Anyway, The job starts out fine. I'm weaving my way through the hallways, when I reach the records room…" I listened intently as Sabo told the whole story of his scar with a smile on his face, as if he didn't care about the pain he had went through because he had gotten something to mark his service in the Revolutionary Army. I was pretty sure he considered the scar a trophy.

I smiled as I watched him tell this story. It felt great to be able to smile at him again, to have my muscles respond.

Half an hour later, my jaw muscles felt strong enough again for me to remove the stress doll. I put it to the side, making a mental note to have it washed before I used it again. I'd also look into some of the other tips Zoro had given me; it was far past time for me to make use of them.

"So, what's the story with your two new members?" Sabo asked, looking over at me. I noticed he was a couple inches taller, but not enough for me to feel too short. I was still growing a bit, and so was he, so there was no telling what our final heights would be like. I hope we stayed relatively close though, I didn't want to have to hurt my neck looking my brother in the eye. I hummed as I thought about how to answer his question.

"I normally wouldn't let a kid join a pirate crew," I said slowly. "But Yalla's different. Raz says she has a really bad disease that slowly weakens her organs. He says it's a lot like Usurper's, but with the organs instead of muscles," I confessed. "There are things we can do to strengthen her lungs and heart, but most of them… we can only make sure she does nothing unhealthy that could speed the disease along. It's called Assassin Syndrome. Most people don't realize they have it until they just drop, as if assassinated," I let out a long breath. "She doesn't have the opportunities I do, to stall it. And she's strong," I grinned. "Her ribbon-ribbon fruit reminds me of Luffy sometimes, except her ribbons aren't stretchy and they don't recoil, so she never hits herself in the face with her own fist," we both laughed at the memories of our youngest brother doing exactly that. "She can't do close combat at all, since ribbons are pretty weak impact wise. Whenever she tries, it just feels like someone threw a shirt at you," I chuckled. "But she's like a snake! The girl is so flexible and her ribbons can wrap and bind you like a straitjacket. She said she used to be part of an acrobat family before she came down with the disease and was kidnapped by the scientists," I told him. Sabo whistled.

"A nimble little ribbon ninja, huh?" He said with a chuckle. "And there's obviously no use telling her not to join since her life isn't likely to be either longer or short with you guys," he mused. I nodded.

"The whole principle of the crew; forget about the time limits, the ages, the symptoms, and just focus on the last grand adventure," I agreed softly. "She's in good hands. None of us will let anything hurt her, and Raz has a lot of heart strengthening tips to share with her, at least. Plus his medicines," I squished my cheeks together. "Look! He helped me do a week's work in a little over an hour total, he's a goddamned genius!" I gushed. Sabo was smiling at me, and I just kept going.

"Kilik developed his disease while he was a hostage, apparently. It's a rare disease, and it only manifested because of the combination of chemicals those bastards put in him," I was suddenly pissed, gripping the railing as I recalled what Raz had reported to me. "The chemicals are out of his body now, but they forced his body to start an abnormal function. His blood is literally creating a poison to kill itself. The most Raz can do is periodically suction the poison from his blood, but he can't get enough out and it wouldn't matter anyway because the body is producing it on its own," I ran a hand through my hair. "It would only take a little slip up, a slight over saturation of the venom in his bloodstream, and he'll die."

Sabo sucked a breath through his teeth. "That's a damn hard pill to swallow," he agreed. I nodded.

"On the bright side, the guy's a pretty good weaponsmith," I said, forcing a smile on my face that slowly got more genuine as I went on. "So we have someone who can maintain our weapons and make new ones for us that complement all of our unique abilities. He's even really optimistic and has given permission for Raz to use the venom from his blood in some of the gas bombs Raz makes. Apparently the venom, when in gaseous form, changes from a blood-cell killer and into a relatively harmless and highly flammable anesthetic. It has the side effect of making the victims exposed to it develop bright blue stripes over their skin that glow in the dark, apparently the stripes last a whole day."

"Let me guess, he tested it out on the green-eyed girl once he found out that it was harmless?"

"You catch on quick," I confirmed as I snickered. "Kilik is a decent swordsman, too. But he can't seem to find the right type of sword he wants to use, so he always makes new styles…" I sighed as I remembered the one he had recently made that had a blade that was curved all the way down in wave-like arcs. Apparently he had based it off of the shape of Bey's bangs. Sabo shook his head with a smile.

"Trust you to find such a unique group of people," he said, amusement dripping from his voice generously. "Only Luffy could outdo you in that respect," he laughed. I shoved him lightly, smiling along.

"Please, Luffy could outdo anyone in that particular field," I agreed. Then I froze, and hit my brother over the head "WAIT A SECOND, YOU SAID THAT BECAUSE I ALREADY AGREED TO BE HIS FIRST MATE, DIDN'T YOU?!" Sabo burst into laughter that just confirmed my suspicions. I tackled him. "YOU LITTLE—!"

My whole crew (minus Raz) swarmed out to see what the sudden noise was, only to see me apparently trying to murder my brother as he cackled and tried to fend me off.

"What does she mean, she agreed to be somebody's first mate?" Kilik asked, brows furrowed. Katie, the most senior member of the crew, shrugged as they all turned to her for an answer.

"If it's important, she'll tell us," Katie assured them. "But she probably didn't intend to run this crew for the rest of her life. She always says she is giving us a chance at our last adventure, she never mentions herself," the observant girl pointed out. "It's not like it's that big of a deal, really. She's giving us our only real chance at our dreams, so it's only fair for us to eventually let her leave to have her big adventure."

"That's true," Lin agreed. "She never told us what her dream is, so maybe she won't be able to reach it until she leaves."

"When you put it that way, it seems a little selfish of us to keep her here," Kilik mused with a little frown.

"But Maven is our captain!" Yalla said forcefully, fists in front of her to show her determination, "she'll always be our captain even if she leaves! So we'll just have to be the best crew ever for our whooooooole lives!"

"I HAVE THE BEST CREW EVERRRRR!" I wailed, making the whole crew flinch and swivel their heads. I was now pinning Sabo down, and they all blushed as they realized I had been listening to their conversation the whole time. Tears of joy were once again running down my face in rivers at the care my crew was showing. Sabo discreetly gave all of them a thumbs up from his spot pinned under me.

I jumped off of Sabo, and my crew quickly caught on to what was happening and fled… except for Yalla and Kilik, who weren't used to my goofiness. Very few things ever got me very affectionate, but my crew had a way of bringing the affection out of me. I tackled the two oblivious rookies to the ground in a tight hug, nearly suffocating the both of them.

"Gah! Maven… losing.. oxygen…" Kilik breathed out, while Yalla giggled. Her ribbon body could have escaped anytime she wanted, but she remained in her normal shape rather than deciding to slide away. I quickly loosened my grip on the boy, making him gasp and flee while he had the chance.

"MARINE SHIP SPOTTED!" Someone on Sabo's ship yelled, making all of us tense and hop away from each other. I immediately went to grab Stormfall from where I had leaned it against a crate, and my other crew mates who used weapons similarly went to grab theirs. Sabo grabbed his pipe that he had leaned next to Stormfall, making me sigh.

"I seriously can't believe you're still using that," I commented with a small smirk. "None of the rest of us do."

Sabo shrugged, grinning back at me even though his body was already tensed in attack mode. "Someone has to hang on to the past. Besides, you never used a pipe. You had Stormfall for most of our childhood," I just shrugged st him in reply, the marine ship finally in easy sight and snapping us out of casual conversation.

Katie had her bow out. It was a white recurve bow that could extend or retract in the middle grip area, allowing her to adjust the size, power, and range of her weapon. I had pitched the idea to Kilik after I had found out that he was a weaponsmith, taking the idea from the retractable staff that the old Geezer had given me all those years before. I turned my head to see the revolutionaries on Sabo's ship start to get ready for battle, and smirked.

"OI!" I yelled back to them, making them snap their heads to me. I could see Sabo giving me a confused look at my side. I grinned widely. "Just sit and stay alert in case we need you. Chances are my crew, Sabo and I will be more than enough, though!" I said easily as I cracked my knuckles. I glanced over at Sabo, who now had his eyebrows raised. I chuckled.

"Trust me," I said, giving him a pat. "I won't turn down help from your men if we need it, but we probably won't. My crew and I raid marine ships all the time, and this will be a good way to test how Yalla and Kilik do in combat. Now look alive, or else Katie might just finish the ship on her own," I nodded to my First Mate, who already had her bow strung, size adjusted, loaded, and aimed. The arrow loaded on the bow didn't so much as tremble even the slightest as she waited for the marine ship to come in range.

"Don't shoot until we know what rank officer that's in charge," I said as I walked up to her, Stormfall in the holster on my back. I wouldn't take it out until I was right about to fight. Katie nodded in understanding as I turned to face the rest of my crew. "Once we know who's leading the ship, I'll tell you guys where I want you," Lin and Raz nodded, already used to the routine. Yalla and Kilik nodded, getting into fighting positions so they could take off at a moment's notice. I smirked. The rest of my crew was relaxed, even if they were alert. The two newcomers would adjust in time.

Sabo had left me to drop his hat down on a crate. I raised an eyebrow, pushing my fedora lower on my head. "That's right. You left before Luffy gave me and Ace our signature hats," I chuckled. "Now all four of us have a special hat."

"I know, and you guys' bounty posters," Sabo replied.

"Yeah, well. I think you're the only one who doesn't fight with your hat on," I teased before my attention was drawn to a woman standing at the bow of the marine ship, arms crossed. "...aww fuck," I cursed, recognizing the woman at the head of the ship. "We might need your men after all," I admitted, frown deepening. Sabo nodded grimly, and I drew Stormfall as my brother readied his pipe.

"The Devil's luck," Sabo griped. "How the hell do you just run into a well known marine Captain like Black Cage Hina?" His tone was accusatory, and I twitched.

"It's not my fault! I've never had great luck to begin with. The moment something good happens, something bad comes right after to knock me back on my ass," I hissed back as the ship finally came within boarding (and therefore speaking) distance. She clearly hadn't been expecting to run into us, since she was lacking the fleet I heard she usually traveled with.

"Captain of the Hopeless Pirates, Usurper Maven," she said out loud, cigarette burning between her lips coated in red lipstick. "Hina visited Marine HQ a few times around ten years ago. Hina remembers seeing you running around as a little brat, how did someone who had so much attention from the Vice Admirals turn into a pirate?" Hina asked me, making my eyes twitch at how she spoke in third person. "And your grandfather really has a horrible sense of humor. I hear he was the one who gave you the nickname 'Usurper,'" she informed me, which made me sigh.

"He isn't famous for his humor," I replied dryly, spinning Stormfall in an easy circle with one hand as Sabo did the same with his pipe next to me. Gina's eyes slid over to my blonde brother.

"A new member?" Her eyes drifted over Yalla and Kilik. "Or members."

"Nah," I shrugged, "only those two are part of my crew," I nodded to the two former captives. Before gesturing to Sabo with one hand. "This is just a friend that we ran into," I lied smoothly. Sabo grinned and gave a mock bow to the marine.

"A loyal man wouldn't just run and leave his friend to face her enemies alone. I hope you understand," he drawled without letting his smug smile slip off his face.

"What are the chances of you letting us pass without a fight?" I asked. The pink haired woman took her cigarette, putting it out before answering blandly:

"Zero."

"I suspected you'd say that," I groaned, turning my head to my crew. "Sabo and I will handle Hina. Lin, you take care of the lieutenant behind Hina. Katie, Kilik, you handle the grunts. Yalla, make sure nothing they throw or shoot at us hits us. Raz, do whatever the hell you want like usual. And nobody get in the way of me and Sabo."

"Got it, Maven!" My three original members chorused, the two newer ones agreeing a beat behind them.

"You're a good leader," Sabo whispered with a smirk from his spot beside me as we made the first move, leaping towards the captain with our weapons raised.

"Shut up and fight," I replied with a smirk of my own.

—*—*—*—*—*

Yalla liked Maven. The older girl was caring and didn't underestimate Yalla like most people did. Just because she had dark pink hair that she wore up in pigtails with large pretty bows didn't mean that she couldn't defend herself. Though, perhaps it was her age that helped people underestimate her too, Yalla thought. The only reason she hadn't escaped on her own was that the handcuffs the scary scientists used on her had made her feel weak and sleepy.

But Maven knew she was strong. So when the marines started throwing harpoons at the Dying Dream, Yalla leapt high into the air and twisted, throwing out her arms. Ribbons extended from her fingers, wrapping around each of the projectiles. As the girl let gravity carry her back towards the desk, she threw her hands up and sent the harpoons flying away from her new home and into the water around the marine ship. The impacts made the bigger vessel rock, but Yalla knew her crewmates would be fine. Sure enough, she looked up and saw that the sudden shift of the boat they were on had barely even distracted them, and the fight was still going strong.

Maven and her cute blonde brother were fighting really well against the marine lady! She saw her super strong Captain swing her large axe down, making the marine lady dodge and try to catch the freckled teen in her cage powers.

Yalla glanced at the fight whenever she could. She knew the marine lady was an enemy, but she liked her. The way the lady talked was cute, and her devil fruit abilities were similar to Yalla's. Hina's arms could be cages, but they could also shoot cages, just like how Yalla's body could be ribbons and shoot ribbons. And Yalla's ribbons could act like cages too, which Yalla found very funny to realize.

If she had been able to grow up to be an adult, would Yalla have been as strong and pretty as Hina-lady? She hoped so, even if the thought that she wouldn't get to find out made her a little sad. But she'd always be a cute little girl, at least! Yalla could be okay with that. Being a cute little girl was fun.

Another harpoon was fired at her while she was busy catching another one in midair, which made the little girl tear her eyes away from her captain and captain's brother's fight to bend backwards as she fell, letting the harpoon fly harmless under her. Before it could land in the far side of the Dying Dream, however, Yalla wrapped one ribbon-arm around it and tossed both weapons back at the marine ship.

This time, the harpoons landed in the bottom of the ship and made huge holes. Yalla didn't know if that was a good thing or not, but she felt proud of herself. The marines couldn't win without a boat!

—*—*—*—*—*

"Che," I made a sound of annoyance, my left arm trapped to my side in an iron bar. I had managed to lift my right arm in time to avoid Hina's limb from trapping both of my arms to my torso, but it had been a close call. The extra weight didn't slow me down much, however. It was like having a weighted vest on; training. And it wasn't heavy enough to match the weights I used on a daily basis, so I dealt with it relatively easily.

"HURRICANE SLASH!" I called out the name of my relatively new move, spinning my axe in quick circles towards her while jabbing forward, mastering my timing so that every jab forward would send the spear tip of Stormfall's blade towards Hina in a combination of a slash and stab move. She also had to deal with the double blades of the axe swinging towards her and the heavy pole that threatened to knock into her head hard if she didn't dodge.

The attack forced the woman to jump back and bend around my weapon as best as she could. Meanwhile, Sabo aimed at the woman's side with a Haki-coated pipe, which slammed into her and forced the woman to grunt, turning to attack my brother.

I took the opening, aiming a kick at her back, spreading Haki over my limb at the last second when I saw her bend back to try and capture it in a cage of iron. My leg slammed into her, sending her skidding instead of letting my limb pass through her like she had planned.

I didn't plan on using Haki very much before even entering the Grand Line, that would attract too much attention for our crew. Attention that we weren't strong enough to handle yet. Let Hina think it was a fluke, that would work in my favor.

When the ship careened to one side, the lower-ranking soldiers that my crew were steadily taking down yelling "hole in the ship!", I grinned in relief. Our fight with Hina was slow going. We might have been able to wear her down eventually, but it would take a while and tire Sabo and I out.

The three of us paused our battle, looking over to see two of Hina's own harpoons sticking out of the hill at odd angles, letting in water in a flood. I laughed.

"WOO HOO! GO YALLA!" I cheered, cupping my hands around my mouth to shout to my crew: "ABANDON SHIP! SET SAIL AT FULL SPEED ONCE EVERYONE IS ABOARD!"

"Shit," Hina cursed, turning to order the few men on her ship that weren't knocked out yet to load everyone onto their emergency rowboats. Knowing she wouldn't attack us while her crew was in danger, Sabo and I leapt back onto the Dying Dream. My crew had mostly beat us there, Katie and Raz leaping on only a minute after us.

With the ease of practiced teamwork, my crew and I followed Lin and Katie's instructions on preparing the sails, our Navigator calling out directions and our helmsman following them with ease. The revolutionary boat untied themselves from us, and I looked at Sabo.

"Time to go now that we ran into trouble, huh?" I asked sadly, seeing my brother give a regretful nod.

"Sorry, we're needed back at base pretty soon anyway. But it was good to fight next to you again," he said as he smiled widely at me. I just wrapped him in a hug, shoving his top hat back on his head for him as I did.

"Be careful," I whispered to him, tightening my hold. "Be careful, and be smart. You're already changing the world."

Sabo chuckled on my ear as he returned the embrace. "You are too," he replied. "This crew's mere existence will change the world. So you be careful and smart too. You're not allowed to die yet."

"No," I agreed. "And neither are you."

Our hug lasted another few seconds before he left on his ship towards the Grand Line, the Dying Dream speeding away from the wreckage of Hina's ship in a different direction as my brother's.

"Alright guys," I said out loud, turning to face my crew. "We are officially a complete crew. From now on, no matter who joins later, we are the original Six. It's our job to spread the legacy of the Hopeless Pirates. The only thing worse than living alone is dying alone, so…"

"So nobody in our crew will be allowed to do either," my Nakama chorused, smiles on their faces. I returned the smile, nodding in satisfaction.

"Yosh! We have two and a half months before meeting up with my twin brother at Loguetown! So let's head in that direction after the next island. We'll pick up new members if we run into any, but let's take our time and enjoy the peace. Once we go into the Grand Line, there won't be any."

The crew nodded, and Yalla smiled blindingly. "The Grand Line will be fun!"

—*—*—*—*—*

"Captain Hina, they're headed in the direction of Dancetown," one of the soldiers sharing her rowboat reported, lowering his spyglass. "Do we follow?"

"We don't even have a proper ship," the woman pointed out. "There's a marine base near Dancetown, but… no. This will be the only time we don't follow, she's already beat us," Hina leaned back. "That is the only courtesy Hina will grant that girl, as reward for her living this long. She'll be a terrifying enemy until the day her disease finally kills her."

—*—*—*—*—*

"Ribbon Ribbon: Pretty Swing!" Yalla's voice rang out, her arms stretching into ribbons and wrapping tightly around the top of the wooden arch that went over the ship's wheel and served as a sort of crow's nest, considering Junk ships didn't have one like other model boats did. At least, that was what we used the arch for. If we really needed a vantage point, we could just climb to sit on the top of one of the sails. The rods that held the fabric taut were sturdy and easy places to sit.

But Yalla used her powers, more often than not, to use the arch as a swing. Just as her move's name implied, she swung happily back and forth with her ribbon-arms substituting in for the chains on a normal swing, and no seat necessary for the hyper girl.

I smiled as I watched her, sitting down as I did jaw and grip exercises at the same time, closing my eyes to see if I could further multitask and test out my Observation Haki.

Slowly, feelings filtered into my perception. I knew that most people had Observation Haki manifest as sound or sight, either visions or sounds of the people in their range, but for me it was a lot more similar to a sixth sense. I felt. I could feel Yalla, a little burst of energy and optimism and hidden strength. I could feel Raz, a bubble of restraint and control and dependability with just a dash of playfulness. Katie was a mass of elegance and determination and confidence. Kilik was a wall of creativity, humor, and trustworthiness. Lin… Lin was a little ball of defiance, carefully contained ferocity, and burning passion. It almost hurt to feel her. While all my crew mates were extremely defined and had strong presences in my Observation, Lin was the one whose aura felt the most intense.

I took comfort in the feel of all of them. The core of their beings. It was relaxing to know that all of my Nakama were such amazing people.

"Maven! Maven!" Kilik came stumbling up from below deck, where he had set up his forge in one of the deviously unused storerooms. I let my observation fade away, opening my eyes to look up at him.

"Yeah?"

"I made a new sword! Maybe my sword style should be… DISGUISE STYLE!" He pulled out the weapon he had been holding behind his back, making me deadpan at his newest odd weapon. Two months had passed since the incident with Sabo and Hina, and I had had a lot of experience already with Kilik's odd attempts at creating his own unique sword to fit him. There had been the wavy sword, followed closely by the sword whose blade zigzagged at forty-five degree angles. Then there was the Banana sword, inspired by the fruit I was eating one day apparently. The pillow sword, which was really just a large rectangle of metal sharpened on three sides with a hilt attached, inspired by the pillow fight that Yalla had started one day and had somehow even spread to the boy's cabin. But this… this was the dumbest by far.

I was staring at a sword with the blade shaped like a moustache. A classic handlebar moustache that likely looked a lot like the one my father had had, only several feet long, several inches wide, and made of metal.

The black metal had even been sharpened on the edges that would be the "bottom" of the moustache, giving it a shading that made it seem realistic. I just stared at it for a long moment before looking up at Kilik.

"... Disguise style…"

"Yep! Get it, because guys wear fake moustaches when they—"

"I get it! BUT HAVING A MOUSTACHE SWORD WOULD BE THE OPPOSITE OF A DISGUISE! THAT'S COMPLETELY RECOGNIZABLE! AND STUPID!"

"Yalla, Maven hurts my feelings!" Kilik had his arms wrapped around his knees as he pouted in a corner of the ship, a dark cloud hanging over his head. Yalla detached her ribbon arms from her swing position, running over to console him.

"It's okay Kilik! You're silly sword isn't that stupid!"

"KATIE! YALLA AND MAVEN HURT MY FEELINGS!" Kilik fled into the kitchen, where the First Mate was cooking lunch.

"Something else will be hurt— like your pride and masculinity— if you don't shut up," the dangerously dark voice of Raz whipped across the deck towards the weaponsmith, the doctor having poked his head out from below deck go deliver the threat. "I am working on a new combat formula. So unless you rather take Linral's place as my lab rat…"

Kilik was silent.

"That's what I thought," Raz said with a nod, making his way back to the infirmary. I smirked, standing up and putting down the stress balls from my grip exercises. My jaw exercises actually didn't need any equipment, though Raz had made some for me anyway. Namely, a Kilik-doll to go with the Lin-doll that I could chew on like stress balls, and little hinges that I could bite down on that I could adjust the resistance on. I had also taken another of Zoro's tips and started holding weights in my mouth as I did weight training while standing up.

We had reached an island that would be our last stop before Loguetown, but we had pulled into port after sunset and decided not to head into town until morning.

"Just two more weeks," I said to myself, lifting up Stormfall to practice new moves. I needed to up my game; being on the same level as Zoro before he met up with Luffy wouldn't cut it for the Grand Line. Even being on the same level as Zoro at the same time as when the moss-head entered the Grand Line in the manga wouldn't cut it. In the past five months since I had met the swordsman, I had gotten a lot stronger. Constant training and conflict helped me advance at a crazy rate, especially since I already knew about Haki and could incorporate it into my training.

It wasn't hard to figure out why I had been so weak when I first set out. I had adjusted to life at Dawn, become strong enough to get through it easily but not bothering to do anything anything past keeping up with Ace. That was a mistake. I was at a disadvantage since all my battle axe skills were self-taught or learned from stolen books. Once I came to terms with that and focused more on my combat training rather than almost completely my strength training, I started to get a lot stronger.

I was ready for the Grand Line. I'd continue to get stronger, I thought, as I swung Stormfall and managed to make a small cut through a wave outside the ship. But I was ready.

—*—*—*—*—*

Bonus:

Ages and position of all current members of the Hopeless Pirates.

Maven: Position, Captain. Age: 17

Katylan: Position, First Mate. Age: 15 (almost 16)

Linral: Position, Navigator. Age: 17

Razdall: Position, Doctor. Age: 21

Yalla: Position, DF User, Seamstress. Age: 12

Kilik: Position, Weaponsmith. Age: 19

*—*—*—*—*

You can tell by the length that I'm getting impatient. And yeah, I lied. Forget the OC-only chapter, let's just get straight to Ace. I'm impatient for the Grand Line.

BUT BEWARE!

Character death will begin once we hit the Grand Line. Not immediately, but soon enough. You have been warned.

Lobisomen616: well, this current arc won't reach the 300,000 mark for sure. But the story will go on for a while, 300,000 is just a very rough estimate and I don't want to make any promises on length that I can't keep. I don't plan on ending the story for a long time. The goal is to catch up to the current arc in Canon, but who knows if I'll ever be able to do that. I might update fast, but even that is a monumental task likely beyond my abilities for the time being. (But yeah. Closer to a million words total might be more realistic when you consider the length of the anime and each of my chapters, plus the Hopeless Pirates arc x.X)

Zafrinel: Thank you! This story is a blast! *U*

The Eighth Shichibukai: Thank you! You have no idea how happy it makes me that you like my OCs! ('▽')/

Telepath98: Thank you, as always! The Arlong thing was something that had to be addressed. Maven knew what was happening and isn't the sort to just ignore that kind of thing happening, but I wasn't comfortable altering that arc in such a big way as getting rid of Arlong early. One of my favorite One Piece fanfics, Tell it to the Marines, does that very thing very well, but I didn't think I would be able to adjust Nami's story in such a major way very effectively. Plus, I didn't want my take on it to be too similar to Tsume Yuki's story. I'm glad my version turned out well!

AND NOPE. No Alabasta route! I never planned to do that for Maven's own adventure, exploring another route entirely seems much more fun. So expect new islands, new and more complex adventures, and some VERY WEIRD friends Maven manages to make. I'm not only talking about future crew members either. I have a plan for at least one very unlikely Canon character to become her "friend." Whether this is voluntary on both sides… remains to be seen but is highly unlikely. Muahahahaha!

EDIT: HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ

Phew. I need a rest, see you all next chapter!~