Golden Legacy
Shiloh is not a pirate. She gave that up long ago and lives the quiet life of a blacksmith. Until she meets her brother's gambit and the little princes he pals around with. Now, her quiet life is over.
Shiloh is not a pirate.
Not anymore, at least. She was once, what felt like a lifetime ago. When her brother was a cabin boy and she was still learning the basics of her craft. Back before that rainy day in Loguetown, before the Batarilla Purges that they had all be powerless to stop for fear of harolding in a buster call the second they stepped foot on land.
Shiloh is not a pirate, anymore.
Her brother is. A damn good one too, if she did say so herself. He was a good brother too, however absent he might be most of the time. He still called, sent her birthday presents and dropped by the few times he was outside the New World.
It was actually because of his latest visits that she found herself on this backwater island in the East Blue.
She had to meet the little boy that her brother had given up an arm to protect.
It was small, this place. Dawn Island wasn't so much as a quarter the size of Fiore, and what little of the island there was was almost entirely made up of massive forests. Shiloh tied her sash tighter around the delicate looking web of metal that outlined her body in just the way she liked.
She doubted she would need much protection, but it was best to be safe.
Shiloh looked around at the bright sun and the looming trees before she closed her eyes and let her senses spread out. From what Shanks had told her, she was looking for a little kid. So, she dismissed the village west of her, oddly devoid of little ones, and locked onto a trio of small humans in the woods. Woods that were filled with a strange amount of giant animals.
"And here I thought those only existed in the Grand Line," she mused. It was a little too hot for it, but Shiloh still kept her black leather jacket on. Even if she wasn't a pirate, she still looked like one. With a starting point somewhere in the woods Shiloh followed the senses that Rayleigh had drilled into her head for years, walking into the woods without an ounce of fear.
There was nothing on this island that she couldn't take on.
The forest was nice. The smell of flowers and foliage filled her as Shiloh walked on, humming an old shanty she remembered fondly.
Cross the gold and silver seas! The salty spray puts us at ease! Day and night to our delight, the voyage never ends!
She was halfway through the corus when she broke through the trees and came to a rather curious sight. Three little boys, two older than the one, duking it out in front of a tree with lines carved in it. Shiloh's eyes grew wider when she saw a familiar straw hat on the head of the youngest child there.
Keeping herself quiet the young woman sat down in the grass, content to watch the trio go blow to blow in a free for all. Every few minutes it would circular who was fighting two on one.
She winced when a particularly hard hit landed on the littlest boy. He hit the ground, skidding a good couple of feet before he sat up, a petulant pout on his lips.
It was the cutest goddamn thing she had ever seen in her life.
So cute, in fact, she found herself giggling like she was teenager again, instead of the twenty five year old she actually was.
And that, gets their attention quite well.
Shiloh finds herself with two lead pipes pointing straight at her, their shiny tips threatening. Sort of. The scrunched up, serious faces of the children behind them are just too cute. Shiloh's face split with a grin.
"Dehehe," she laughed, pushing one of the pipes out of her face. "You kids are pretty cute."
"Who are you?" the one with the freckles demanded, stepping closer. Shiloh didn't so much as blink. She looked past his shoulder, to a little boy who was watching her with wide eyes under a too big hat.
"Hey, are you Shank's Anchor?" she asked, propping her chin on her fist. The boys whole face lit up.
"You know Shanks?" he lunged at her. The blond boy caught him around the middle and dragged him back.
"Luffy! You can't just run towards strangers," he scolded. Luffy. Huh. What a funny name.
"Deh, I'm not gonna hurt him," she promised. "I just came here to see Shanks' gambit. After all, I'd like to know the kid that my brother gave him precious hat too."
If possible, the littlest boys eyes got even wider. "Shanks is your brother?! That means your a Shanks too!"
That was… not at all true. Even if she did have the same bright red hair falling over his shoulders and the same dark black eyes she was certainly not Shanks.
"I'm a Shiloh," she corrected. "And you're Luffy, yeah?"
"Yeah," he nodded so fast she was surprised his head stayed on, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!" he screamed at the sky.
Shiloh choked on her own spit. Shanks hadn't mentioned that.
"So that why he gave you that," she reached forwards and knocked the tip of the straw hat down over the little boys eyes. There must really be something special about this boy.
"Huh? His hat! Yeah! He made me promise to give it back when I met him again as the Pirate King."
"Yeah? Makes sense, I guess. That hat saw Captain Roger through being the King."
The boy with the freckles stiffened. The blond looked at her curiously.
"Captain Roger? Like, Gold Roger?"
"Gol D. Roger," Shiloh corrected.
Luffy bounced up to her, pushing the hat up. "Did you know him? Did Shanks?" he got right in her face.
"Well yeah," Shiloh scratched her cheek. "Didn't Shanks tell you? We served on the Oro Jackson when we were younger." She rolled her sleeve further up to show off the Jolly Roger on the back of her wrist better. She never hid it. Being part of the Roger Pirates was the proudest time in her life. She would die before she denied that that was what she had been.
"Shanks never told me that!" Luffy grabbed her hand and yanked it forwards, stars in his eyes. "So coooool!"
"Dehe, I can't say I'm surprised," her smiled turned bittersweet. "I'm pretty sure the worst day of our lives happened because of that."
The boy with the freckles scoffed. "If you were sailing with a devil when else do you expect."
The smile vanished entirely. Shiloh pressed her lips together and reminded herself that he was a child. He didn't know what he was saying.
"Captain Rogers was the closest thing I've ever had to a father," she told him. Gunmetal grey eyes locked onto her, startled. She didn't look away. "Same for Shanks, same for Buggy. We grew up on the Oro Jackson. We were in Loguetown when he died. That was the worst day of my life, kid. I'm sure you've heard all this crap government propaganda about him, but I'll tell you this. None of it is true. Gol D. Roger was one of the best men to ever live."
Her eyes stung but she held back. She had cried enough in the last decade.
"Tell me about your adventures!" Luffy demanded, bouncing up to her like a rubber ball. He broke between a narrow eyed blond and the other boy, who was staring at her like she had the mysteries of the world tucked into her pocket.
Shiloh nodded, smiling kindly. "Sure, Luffy. Why don't I tell you about the island in the sky…"
Shiloh knew the kid was following her even as she made her way into town and booked a room in the Double Dolphin Inn. It wasn't the nicest place in the world, but it would do for her trip here. She wanted to get to know Luffy, and his little friends too. Brothers, he'd said. Sabo and Ace.
It was Ace she left the door unlocked for. She went about removing her armor carefully, starting with the tassets that she lay on dresser. She unclipped the cuirass and laid it down next to the back piece. She had designed all of this with the thought in mind that she needed to be able to take it off and put it on on her own. She didn't have anyone around to help.
She waited until it was long after dark before she finally gave up on waiting for Ace to get up the courage to knock. Or to decide whether or not be wanted to try and beat her with a pipe. Shiloh wasn't sure which one it was.
Still, she went and pulled the door open.
The second the knob turned Ace was gone, bolting around a corner.
Shiloh watched his heels disappeared, privately impressed with his speed.
Three days into her stay on Dawn Island and someone finally got the idea to try and mug the pretty young girl in what looked like a silver embroidered shirt. This armor, her 'Blues' armor, was made to be delicate looking. It was, in all actuality, incredibly durable and entirely sensible.
Shiloh just liked to feel pretty.
Her own vanity, it attracted trouble. Honestly she had expected trouble to come sooner than three days in. She had been getting followed around by the Trouble Trio, as she liked to call the little Anchor and his cohorts. Every night Ace followed her back to her room, and ever night he ended up running away. She would admit she was curious, but she could wait.
She felt them tailing her when she walked out of Edge Town and into the Grey Terminal, a festering pile of rot and poverty. Walking there with something shiny on your chest was just asking to get mugged.
Which was exactly what happened.
The man that stepped in front of her was a massive beast, towering easily over the young woman. He wasn't alone either. There were two others flanking him, and she could feel five more lining up behind her. Her observation Haki wasn't the best, in all honesty if Rayleigh hadn't insisted that she, Shanks, and Buggy all got trained thoroughly she would have never bothered with it. It was still good enough to give her forewarning, and tell her what was around.
"Alright little girl, give us the silver."
It would have been easy to tell them that it was steel, not silver. It would have been easy to just run the other way.
"...nah."
"Maybe you don't understand the position your in," he pulled out a gun and pointed it at her chest. Her armored chest. The bullet would bounce right off.
"I said no. Put that away before someone gets hurt."
"Ghera! Have it your way," his grin was positively blood thirsty. Shiloh sighed, disappointed. She was always up for a good fight, but this… She put a hand on the hilt of her long knife and tilted her head.
She stepped past him and walked on. Behind her, the would be attacker collapsed on the ground, blood pooling under him. His associates fell, one at a time, each one cut up.
The knife clicked back into place and she wandered off, bound for the forest. Behind her, the three little boys came running after her. Luffy hit her leg with the force of a small canon ball. Shiloh picked him up by the back of his shirt, bringing him up to eye level.
"You know, you boys don't have to stay that far back. We can walk side by side."
She learned later she shouldn't have said that.
