Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece

Everyone always thinks that writing is exciting, but like how Ghostbusters is based on people starting a new business my best writing strategy is pretty tedious. I'm always happy to write a One Piece fanfiction but it hurts my mentality doing it. Thank you Hades001 and everyone :)

One year later, Spider Miles Hospital

X_X_X_X

Although Russian had quit working at the restaurant she still continued to gossip to Canada over how her life has been going being married. Most of it was good-being married to a nice man and raising a boy her husband insisted should be named Gimlet. And one day she heard news she was hit by a car and was now left in a vegetative state.

Canada was allowed to see her, but Cain was having...a little more difficulty.

"Are you her brother?" A hazel skin nurse with red nurse uniform asked him.

"No."

"Are you even eighteen or older?"

"No."

"Then I don't know what to say; you can't see her."

Cain knew this was something she had a hard time saying-already looked like a girl overworked-so Cain accepted this fact and prepared to leave.

On the way out he walked past a chubby tan man wearing a suit with disheveled black hair and carrying something known as a bonnet which the young chef never got to wear.

Outside he saw Canada walking to the hospital herself. She went in, passed Cain but noticed him and said "Fuh. Too young?", and four minutes later walked out without the tin she was carrying.

"Can't visit her while an actual partner is there. Want to get something to eat?"

That's when Cain got his onigiri and she had soba. First thing Cain knew about her was even while her face flittered from happy to angry to sad with or without sorrow in her eyes he knew what she was feeling right now: anxious. She really wanted to tell him something.

"Soba here is pretty good. Must be the broth." She took a bite and without knowing it her mouth opened and a little broth poured out. "I'm going to miss it?"

"Miss it?" Cain asked.

"Yeah. A week from now Mr I'll be going to an island...and I'll be married."

Hearing that caused Cain to freak. "Really?! But Russian-"

"Russian's life was fine; happy. She only just got so fervent over a guy she blinded herself to what went on in his life. I'm not like that, I plan to marry someone who I don't know but have been told he can treat me better than my father has. I mean...who has time to meet someone and get to know them day in and day out?"

Cain felt his heart fill with sorrow knowing his first crush was beyond just unrequitted...it was invisible to her. All he could do now was stare at his onigiri, trying to have one lasting memory with her, so he snapped it in half and offered the unbitten half to her.

"Want some?"

"You can't give that food away...you only have one onigiri. I have a whole bento of soba with lots of meat dipped in it."

"But do you have rice in your soba?" He asked.

Both he and Canada laughed at how ridiculous things like sharing has become...can't even let him have a spoon to taste the soba because her germs already spread through it. Little by little rice was sprinkled into her soba by him. Canada, having her last meal before she had to leave, ruined by the rice, exclaimed:

"How would you like it if I poured this hot soba over your onigiri?"

"I would like it very much...but that's only because my mind is mist; deceived. I know it would be good but I'm not thinking about how hot soba on my lap would burn me."

They laughed together. Then-she eventually got up, pecked the twelve year old on the cheek, and went on her moxie way back home.

The next day, Cain rushed to the restaurant with a big smile on his face thinking he would see Canada at work-his norm. When he opened the door...there was his boss and another girl waiting for him.

She was blond like Russian only her hair was more cropped near her cheeks like bat talons and the rest of her hair looked like a basket. She wore a turquoise uniform, had red eyes, and her shoes were ruby red.

"Cain, I'd like to introduce my daughter. She'll be working her in place of Canada for now on."

Cain at first stood in shock trying to look like he couldn't understand the situation, but he knew perfectly well that meant he wouldn't be able to see Canada anymore. His daughter outstretched her hand.

"My name is Reddy. I may be young and inexperienced but I make up for it with having a can-do attitude. It is a pleasure to be working in the same restaurant as the youngest chef in Spider Miles, Cain."

She sounded less enthusiastic about working than her long speech made Cain think-and she used that same speech every time she asked a customer what they would like to order.

Over the next five years Cain's life in Spider Miles became a lot more boring than it used to be. Even the fighters he won or lost against had better manners than Canada's father did.

Although five years was enough to afford a more comfortable home to live in Cain spent his years sleeping on the fridge, trying to disinfect the spit the last resident shot out to welcome him, and looking out the window covered in dirt to see which animal was making loud noises.

It seemed his life would never change...

Until that day...

"Welcome. Table for two?"

Seventeen year old Cain, bigger and more muscular than the chef now, looked out to see two customers the exact same age as him walk into the restaurant.

"This restaurant looks...different from the restaurants from our village, Eric." The customer who was female stated out loud. "In a way it's cleaner...but I don't like all that smoke coming from the back."

'What is she talking about?' Cain thought ruefully. 'This kitchen is air freshened to keep sizzling meat away from the dining area.'

"But maybe their food will taste different. Maybe they'll do those things where they put it in some kind of crunchy shell and we eat what's inside the shell...like a pancake wrapped around a pancake."

Cain cooked their meal and moved on to the next customer but his attention was fixated on those two teenagers and their bizarre behavior. One was counting to three a dozen times while the other was using a quill to write stuff down on a napkin. By the time they finished their meal, he really wanted to see them leave.

"That will five hundred and fifty-two beli."

"Yeah, I have some issues with how you run your restaurant." The strange girl said, giving her napkin with lots of encrypted writing on it.

Reddy lost the color in her cheeks from reading these ridiculous suggestions writing over the napkin. After skimming through the suggestions-not even bothering to actually read it-the girl handed her two five hundred Beli coins.

" Keep the change."

She and her friend staring at the ceiling got up and left. After they were gone Reddy shook her head at their absurdity...and noticed something. The material of the coin didnˈt match what a five hundred beli coin is usually made of.

She took a closer look at the 0ˈs on the coin. To her surprise both zeros ink were just drawn on ink while the 5 was stamped on.

" They just bamboozled me!"

Cain didn't see the harm in that-they serve over a hundred customers a day at least one of them would do something like this-but his manager was furious about it. He made Cain look at him in the eyes and do something for him:

"If you ever see those two again...I want you to knock their brains out...and then get the Marine's to take them away."

X_X_X_X

Cain was given an important job, but it didn't change the fact he worked so long he barely had any social life other than going to the underground to box.

Only when he went to the boxing arena this time...he recognized his opponent as the same boy who showed up his bosses' restaurant with his partner in crime being his "coach" for the sparring.

"Eric, what were you thinking joining this underground fight?!" She yelled; the jeering of the crowd making her have to raise her voice. "Losing this fight means death."

"Maybe I don't care right now if I die...they certainly didn't." He said. That forlorn face he was making since he stepped into the ring replaced with a big grin. "Besides, I need to fight strong opponents if I want to live better."

They finally started their fight. Cain was on the defense for the start. He kept his arms shielding his face while Eric sidestepped with his knuckles raised. Then he pulled his arms back and thrust his fists towards Cain's elbows. However, Cain grabbed his arms before he could hit him.

Now in his grip, Cain headbutted Eric in the head. He felt the mind-throbbing pain of it in his head, but he had the conviction to do it again if it meant disorienting his opponent so he could hit him with a flurry of punches before he collapsed and was dragged to the Marine's.

Out of nowhere Cain had his face glanced by something long and sharp. It struck him at the ridge of his eyes, left a hole in it, and if it touched his eyes it would most likely have blinded him. This dazed him and caused him to lose his grip on his opponent who pushed him back with his knuckles.

Cain tried to deliver a right hook at him since grabbing him was out of the question now, but before he could even cocked his fingers a fist was already delivered to his left cheek. It felt like all his blood in his face was pushed to the right side of his brain.

The stranger understood how that blow disoriented him and did something no other boxer in this ring would do: give him time to recover as he stood like a statue with his arms at his side.

When Cain recovered he attacked violently and angrily with a flurry of hard punches to his opponent's face. His opponent evaded the punches dodging left and right like he was playing hopscotch, but Cain surprised him by swinging his left hook twice and delivering a hard blow to his face much like he delivered to him.

Most of his opponents would spit blood and grimace when Cain expertly outmaneuvered them yet this guy just smiled before surprising him with an uppercut! Cain was glanced in his chin by only three knuckles yet it felt like a cannonball hit him.

Then-the sparring continued with both boys pummeling each other squarely in their faces and torsos, each blow a crater in their bodies that would mortally wound most people yet was just a flesh wound to them. However, in the end one of them had to fall-Cain losing his balance and kneeling on his right knee.

His opponent watched him try to stand up unsuccessfully. And then-Cain raised his hands up.

"I give up; you win. I'll go now...once I get feeling back in my tendons."

The fans were not happy seeing their former champion lose against a newcomer. One of the fans with a hat and a goatee even pulled out his flintlock he gripped with triangle fingers. He raised his gun, aimed...his arm was perforated in the palm by a very long spiky scion-esque twig. His hand felt cold and he flinched seeing the blood dripping out.

Back in the arena, Eric was holding out his hand for Cain.

"That was pretty good, how would you like to join my crew?"

Cain blinked in confusion before grimacing at him.

"Are you insane! Your a thieving pirate and I'm a cook at a restaurant!"

Eric blinked his eyes out of confusion. "So you need three weeks to hand in your resignation?"

His response baffled him so much it made Cain want to hit him. With a scowl on his face he picked himself up and walked out of the arena.

X_X_X_X

The next day he returned to work with his apron and hairnet.

Like everyday he heard Reddy tell customers "I'm young but I am experienced; what would you like to order" and then slab a sheet of paper with their order on a turning lamp while he sizzled up meat and potatoes.

It seemed like today was going to be an ordinary day...until he saw him outside the window. That crazy pirate from the other day was out there staring at him before waving his hand at him. Seeing that smug look on his face enraged the young chef, and it turns out he wasn't alone as his manager marched up to him.

"Cain, I need you to do a special mission for me today." He murmured in his ear, darting his eyes back glowering at the excited boy. "I need you...to go outside and beat the living shit out of him."

Cain found that to be unexpected.

"I'm a chef here. Shouldn't I just stay here and ignore him?"

"No! That boy has caused enough trouble to my restaurant! Get out there, knocked him out so he can be taken to the right authorities!"

"But what about the cook-"

"Just get out there and beat him!"

Cain shook his head before walking away from his grumpy boss. He pulled up his sleeves, glared into the other boy's eyes and confronted him.

"Hi Cain. Are you out here to tell me you'll join my crew-"

Cain delivered a right hook to Eric. A glancing blow, but Eric quickly countered with a left hook to Cain's Adam's Apple! Cain was unprepared for that blow staggering back. Without even trying to fight like he did in the arena he walked back into the restaurant with his tail between his legs.

The next day, Cain was ordered once again to confront the still intruding boy. This time however instead of trying to hit him he would walk straight up to him and kick him right between his legs. Once he was close to him, he responded with the same question as before:

"Would you like to join our crew?"

Cain yelled outwardly in seething red blush and kicked Eric. Eric however jumped back before his legs could hit his pelvis. Cain, afraid of getting kicked between his own legs, covered his groin with both his arms. But instead of being kicked in his groin...he was kicked in his right shin.

Cain hobbled back to the restaurant to continue with his job of cooking while ignoring the piercing screams of his enraged employer.

Most nights Cain would do one hundred pushups, jumping jacks, squats, sit ups, and burpees but now he up his exercise times five just so he could get a little stronger against that annoying boy he had to see everyday.

Day after day he would walk out trying to beat him only to be swiftly defeated by his superior fighting style and reflexes. Until one day...

Eric waited three weeks for this guy to join his crew and Elsha was peeved doing all the work getting supplies for their dinghy and him drawing too much attention to himself when they had a price on their heads.

This morning she said:

"Eric, I know your full of lots of temerity, but we can't just keep wasting time so you can pick a crewmate you find interesting. In a pirate crew it's quantity that helps steer a ship not quality. Ergo, maybe we should just go back to the stadium and ask two fighters for their help."

"But I don't want two different fighters, Elsha. I want the fighter I've got my eye on."

While Eric was reminiscing about his early morning bickering, Cain approached Eric a little hunched and not on guard.

Before Eric could ask him the same question he's been asking for three weeks now, Cain spoke first.

"I would like to join your crew and sail away from here."

Eric blinked, didn't know if he was hearing him right. Before he could ask him he further explained his reasons.

"We keep one Den Den Mushi in the restaurant for news read from a telegraph. One of those stories was a rich man looking for his runaway bride-my friend is that bride. Alone I probably can't find her, but on your crew...there's a whole new sense of hope open now."

Eric's head was stirring on how to react to this. On the one hand he did ask for him to join his crew and he was getting that, but the whole reason why he was a woman's wiles. After about a minute and a half of blank staring, he finally smiled.

"Okay. Welcome to the crew. Did you tell your boss your leaving?"

A less than benevolent smile spread on his face. "One moment."

And like that he turned around to walk inside the building. He expected him to just say something he couldn't hear to his boss, then he actually heard the whole interior of the restaurant rumble.

Seemed another male was lambasting at Cain for his behavior. Once the yelling was over and the exterior vibration of a flurry of moving stopped, Cain walked out of the building.

"Alright, no more regrets. Let's go find that girlfriend of yours and get out of here."

X_X_X_X

Elsha was on the run for her life from a few very angry shop owners. Over the course of three weeks she kept using fake money to buy things than put them in a sack she kept hidden in an alley. Eventually the shop owners found out and now wanted to have her executed.

Every few seconds she would spin around and nock a wooden arrow out of her palm aimed at their arms; never hit any of them but made a few of them flinch.

"Eric, please be at the dinghy!" She announced querulously annoyed.

With her ability to jump with one foot on a wall and use the other foot to cumber higher than the last foot she made it over the wall in an alley-happened to be a wall in front of a harbor she and Eric first arrived in. And now she was running through the pier towards their dinghy with two oars, small yellow sails the size of a bathtub, and supplies in boxes.

She wasn't going to leave this island without Eric-she didn't have to leave the island to sail out to sea away from an enraged mob. She hoped in, unloosened the knot holding it at the pier, and pulled out...a butcher axe struck the cleat at the bow.

One of the mob hurled that axe at her, and then they as well as the rest of the mob were running on the pier like a stampede; some falling into the water from the speed and narrow space they were running in.

'I really don't want to do this...but I have no other choice.'

Elsha felt excruciating pain as a large lump squirmed in her right shoulder. She flinched, she shut her eyes and accepted the pain, and then out of her shoulder a small beige hand came out.

No sooner and without time to relax from what was as bad as labor pain in her body, she used her two normal hands to row the oars off the pier while her tiny hand nocked dozens of small wooden arrows at the rampaging.

Some of the arrows 'thuck' and 'thunk' with noise hitting some of the mob in their limbs and even in their chests, but felt more like a bee sting than an actual arrow. And soon she was away from the pier and rowing into the ocean.

Her escape didn't stop there. Some of the mob owned the boats in the pier and were squabbling to sail after her.

If she had a faster boat instead of this tiny dinghy she would be far away from them, but they were catching up to her at breakneck speed. It had to be those engines in their ships that made them much faster than hers. She kept nocking from her third arm at the boat but it was too hard to make even a dent in the ship and the sailors were hidden in those interior cabins that still had helms.

Just when she thought they were going to ram right through her and knock her off the boat...the boat right in front of her shattered. To be more accurate, it's stem shattered into tiny splinters as it soon sank into the water.

"Abandon ship!" The captain of the boat being demolished exclaimed in fright.

Every person on the boat jumped out of the boat and fell into the water. Even if they were trying to shatter your dinghy so she'd fall into the ocean-Elsha couldn't help feel sorry for them. Things had gotten even more strange when the boats behind them also shattered by an unseen being deep in the water. At last it stopped when dozens of men were paddling or kicking their legs trying to get to the boats still standing, and they were graciously brought aboard by the captains before they sailed away-so sweet it would give her diabetes.

She was still the only person drifting through sea on the crew's dinghy, but it became abundantly clear she wasn't alone.

"You can come out now, Eric."

Eric poked his head out of the water by the side of the railing. He was joined by the chef he fought in the underground arena. Seeing them brought just one question to Elsha's mind:

"How did you two manage to stay submerged in water for so..." And then they came butt first on the dinghy where she was greeted with the barefaced sight of their butt cracks as well their butt cheeks. Her cheeks turned groggy green looking at their behinds. "Never mind."

She then turned around so not to see their butts anymore.