Ocean of Freedom
Chapter 4
Makino looked at the young black-haired girl that Luffy had found washed up on the beach, Violet. Since her outburst at Shanks, it was clear that Violet came from a bad home life. She wasn't speaking of where she came from, very likely because she didn't want to be sent back.
She wasn't about to force Violet to talk about it and was content with letting her stay with her. She was a pretty good influence on Luffy already. After the first day when they went out to play while she fixed them dinner, they came back surprisingly clean and thick as thieves.
Violet had managed in a few short days managed to get Luffy to slow down eating (though he still quite a bit) he was much cleaner while eating, had him reading better, and from their current conversation, her next plan was aiming to have him float so it was easier to find him if he fell off the ship.
It had taken a few days but Luffy had managed to get Violet going from declaring she would go out to sea to declaring that she would be Luffy's future right hand as Pirate King, and after reading a few books that they had and learning of Silvers Reigleigh and learning of his epithet she started to declare herself the next Dark King.
Though she seemed to favor just calling herself Luffy's future right hand.
Being asked about her sudden decision to be a pirate her only reply was "Freedom" while having a kind of sparkle in her eye like some would have about treasure. While some of the other villagers were hoping that they would grow out of the desire, something told her that they wouldn't.
Makino's musings were cut off when a loud bell sounded from the dock, the fishermen's way of giving her a heads up when Captain Shanks was coming to dock so she had some time to bring up extra beer and ale for when they would drink her bar dry.
"He's back!" Luffy shouted as he grabbed Violet's shirt on his way out, dragging her away with him despite her protest.
"Luffy! I'm not done Eating!" Violet complained and she attempted and failed to stay at the table to finish her breakfast, Luffy was much stronger than her so it was useless.
"Luffy don't drag Violet around like that," Makino called out to Luffy hoping that he would heed her warning.
Violet had already shown to be rather durable but even so, being dragged around by someone so much had to be uncomfortable.
Looking into the distance she saw that Luffy was urging her to hurry up having let go of her. She smiled as she walked back into her bar to prepare for the pirates to come in.
Violet frowned as Luffy pulled her along, she was enjoying the food that Makino had made and she wanted to eat it while it was still hot.
"Luffy, why did you drag me away? I was still eating," Violet complained. "I know you're excited to see Shanks but we could have waited with Makino, they would have gone to her bar anyway."
"Too excited to wait, I want to see them right as they get off the boat," Luffy said as they finally got to the dock.
"Ship it's too big to be called a boat." Violet corrected. "I think size determines what it's gonna be called. Maybe we can ask Shanks if Red Force is a boat or ship Easy way to settle it."
"Red Force?" Luffy asked, confused.
"That's the name of their ship?"
"How did you know? You've barely talked to shanks."
"I overheard Makino talking to wood slap and they were talking about the Red Force and asked her what it was." Violet replied as she pointed to the bay as the said ship was coming.
Luffy only laughed.
"Your so smart Violet."
"It's not a big deal, it was just by chance I overheard them anyway.," Violet said as Luffy started up again.
The Compliments felt nice.
She watched as Luffy ran ahead of her and walked on the deck thus disappearing, she wasn't sure why but she had the feeling that something was going to happen.
Just as she was at the board that would let her get to the deck she heard yelling and before she knew it Shanks was rushing off with Luffy underarm. She just looked in the direction that Shanks and Luffy ran off in.
What happened?
Hearing footsteps she looked to see the others of the crew walking off the ship. When she saw Benn she approached him hoping for some answers.
"Hey, Benn, what happened?" Violet asked the man, noticing he looked really tired already and it was only morning.
"Luffy had the idea to prove how tough he is and give himself a wound to prove it. Wasn't anything bad but Shanks panicked and forgot that we had a doctor on board. Come along I need to make sure Shanks didn't do anything to make it worse." Benn told her as he held his hand out for her to take.
Violet was hesitant for a moment before she accepted it and jogged beside Benn to keep up with his much larger steps. Just as they were about to step off the dock Violet found herself suddenly pulled up by her arm by Benn as she was then placed on his shoulders.
A bright grin spread across her face as Benn continued to Makino's bar. She had seen her uncle do it with Dudley a few times( though with Petunia holding him up while she walked behind them) now she could see why Dudley demanded it so much, being on someone's shoulders was fun, seeing things so much higher up.
With a new mode of transportation, walking to Makino's bar went a lot faster.
Entering they saw Shanks and Luffy sitting at the bar. Luffy had a bandage under his right eye. Violet hummed in approval while Shanks acted funny at least he got Luffy looked after.
"Aw, Benny got jealous of me and Luffy here so you had to take Violet," Shanks called out laughing at his first mate as he let her down.
"I got tiny legs" was Violet's only response as she headed to her previously abandoned plate of her breakfast and continued eating, food had gone cold in her absence but it still tasted good.
She listened as Luffy started trying to convince Shanks to let the two of them join them on the next voyage.
"I and Violet want to be pirates too."
Shanks just laughed at them, but it wasn't criticizing, it seemed more joking than anything else.
"You two can't handle being pirates." Shanks laughed. "Not being able to swim is a great fault."
"I can swim, '' Violet piped up from beside Luffy. "I'll just do the swimming for the both of us"
"Violet can be my backup plan. I can at least float now. It's a closer step to learning how to swim. Besides, my fighting is pretty good, and so is Violet." Luffy said to shanks as he held out his arm in a punching-like motion. "My punches are like pistols"
"Is that so?" Shanks questioned in a bored tone.
"Are you listening!" Luffy shouted angry about being easily disregarded like that.
"Luffy, don't listen to him. He's trying to make you angry" Violet consoled her friend with a pat on his back while they sat on the stools.
The next few hours the two kids spent dodging around the various occupants of the bar, listening to any tales they could, while also a few times being led away with their ears covered by Ben and Yassop.
Eventually it was noon time and Makino had brought them out some plates of food for their lunch. With some teasing from Shanks about their choice of drink.
"At least me and Luf won't have to worry about getting scurvy" Violet shot back as she was taking a bit of meat.
The bar was quiet for a solid second before they began laughing, which came to an end when a group of bandits sent part of the tavern's door flying halfway into the place.
"So this is what passes for pirates in these parts you seem like a sorry lot" the tall mountain bandit walked in followed by his strangely identically dressed goons.
Violet frowned while she was sure that Shanks and his crew could handle him, she just didn't like this guy.
"We're mountain bandits, but don't worry. We're not here to bust place up. Just sell us about 10 barrels of sake and we'll be out of your hair." the leader of the group said.
"Terrible sorry gentleman, I just served the last of it." Makino replied, she had a worried look in eyes.
The bandit leader wasn't very happy about it, and apparently couldn't listen verywell when questioning what the crew was drinking despite the fact Makino said that just said she just ran out.
"Sorry, it looks like my crew and I drank the place dry. It's not much but you can have this bottle. Haven't even opened it." Shanks offered while holding the bottle to the man.
That was apparently the wrong thing to do. In quick succession the man broke the bottle over shanks' head before he bragged about his bounty. (something told her that it was nothing compared to Shanks). Shanks didn't react at all to his taunts and was calm through the insults. Even after he then used his sword and cleared off the countered onto shanks who had by them was picking up the pieces of the broken bottle to be helpful for Makino.
The bandit doing that caused Shanks to fall and Violet also rushed out of her chair to avoid the flying plates. She ducked to avoid the bottle of juice that Makino had out for her and Luffy to share. Thankfully that was the end of it as the bandits cleared out soon after. The pirates just as quickly began to laugh at Shanks for what the bandit leader did. Though everything seemed pretty lighthearted so it was maybe a normal occurrence for something like this to happen. Shanks didn't seem the least bit annoyed with the bandit.
Luffy however didn't see it that way as he stomped over to where Shanks was sitting on the ground still laughing while being tended to by Makino.
"WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING? WHY DIDN'T YOU FIGHT BACK!?" Luffy shouted. "NO MATTER HOW MANY THERE ARE OR HOW STRONG THEY LOOK! YOUR NOT MEN- OR PIRATES IF YOU LAUGH SOMETHING LIKE THAT OFF!"
"I can understand how you feel, but all he did was spill some booze on me. It's not worth getting all bent out of shape." Shanks laughed as Luffy huffed and sat back on his stool.
Violet just watched Shanks thinking about what he said. What the bandit did seem like something to start a fight over, but with how Shanks was acting maybe there was more to it.
"You shouldn't eat out of frustration" Shanks said, bringing Violet's attention back to luffy.
"Shut up!" Luffy replied while he was eating something.
What could he possibly be eating? The bandit knocked their lunch to the ground.
"Wait what are you eating!" Shanks questioned, suddenly sounding panicked. "That box did you eat what was in that box"
The two children just stared at Shanks, both of them shocked by how harsh Shanks sounded which was out of character for them.
"Yeah" Luffy replied hesitantly.
Next thing Violet knew Shanks was holding Luffy upside down shaking him and trying to get him to spit something out.
"Shanks! What are you doing? Let Luffy go!" Violet shouted while the other pirates were also shocked at Shanks' sudden turn of behavior.
Violet got in front of Shanks and began to jump trying to get Shanks to let go of his ankles, but before long Luffy's leg stretched way beyond what should have been possible which was saying alot coming from her. Luffy's legs had stretched far enough to the ground for his face to hit the ground and flatten a bit before his limbs had retracted and he was back to being suspended by his ankles.
The bar was dead quite as all eyes were on Luffy, at what just happened.
"Luffy! What you just ate was the gumgum fruit. It is also known as a devil fruit, Eating it turns your body to rubber, and makes you lose the ability to swim for the rest of your life!" Shanks shouted at Luffy.
Needless to say both Luffy and Violet screamed in horror at that info, Luffy needed to know how to swim as a pirate.
"Eh! But Captain if that's the GumGum Fruit then what's causing that!" Lucky Roo piped up pointing farther down the bar.
What was there quickly caught everyone's attention, and Violet felt a knot form in her stomach. She had used magic, she had broken the most important rule that was drilled into her head since she could remember. Never use magic in front of anyone who wasn't blood-related or that you know for sure was magic.
Violet felt herself going pale.
"Violet you okay?" Benn questioned now beside and looking worried at her.
Violet honestly felt sick, she was told more times that she can remember to never show magic to non family but that's what she just did.
"It's just what she use to do"
"Does that mean the Witch is back!"
"You fool that can't be it, she would never hide from us."
"Who's doing it then? She was one of a kind, this can't be one of her tricks."
"Anchor ate the devil fruit and now someone's using magic what next the marines"
Violet didn't know who the rest of the crew was talking about but at that point she just couldn't take it. She didn't know what could happen when they found out it was her, but with Benn still looking at her she didn't know what to do.
~CRASH~
The bottle finally fell to the ground and ignoring everything else she bolted, she didn't know where but she needed to get out of the bar. Taking her chance she bolted ignoring everything that was being shouted behind her as she left. Tears began to sting her eyes as she ran.
"Violet!" Benn shouted as the young girl bolted when the floating bottle finally fell.
The rest of the crew were in a state of confusion with the display of what they were sure was magic, and Luffy was still freaking out about his new devil fruit abilities. They didn't know who to pay attention to first.
"Benn!" Shanks yelled, silencing the crew momentarily long enough to give orders. "Take the others and find Violet. I'll explain things to Makino and Luffy here. GO!"
With those words everyone was rushing out calling for the child in question.
Seems like they would be getting their answers faster than they thought.
~Red Force a week earlier.~
Benn looked at Shanks as they were setting up to leave for the map's location, nothing wrong with that but with how Shanks had more or less rushed them out. After checking with the navigator that they were on the right course he followed Shanks into the depths of the ship, ending up at the communications room to catch the tail end of a conversation on the transponder snail.
"I know what I saw, she has the missing piece. Get to the East blue as soon as you can. We may finally have a lead to know what happened. Though I'll have to convince her to hand it over for a bit."
With that, the call had ended.
"I think Violet may have her necklace but it's a long shot. That's why I had us leave early. I needed to distract myself till Mihawk gets here. I didn't want to snap and question her on things she may not even know or realize." Shanks said as he sunk down into a chair.
"Now the next question would be if she came from the same place as her how? From what she told us she was experimenting with something called time tuner dust. How would a child get a hold of something that dangerous." Benn said, joining the captain sitting in his own chair.
"How about a better one, what happened to her before she ended up here? Despite the face she had on, she was terrified, not to mention the state she was in. Dear god, I'm hoping there's a good reason behind it." Shanks said as he ran his hand through his hair. "With those eyes, I'm positive that Violet might actually be her daughter."
"Well it's possible, she's been gone almost 7 years now, plenty of time to have a kid Violet's age." Benn chimed in. "Mihawk will be disappointed."
"Do you think the same thing might happen to Violet as it did to her?"
"Hope not, there are not many children in Windmill Village, so I'm betting Luffy is gonna be attached to her." Shanks said as he pulled a small book out of his pocket.
The Captain and First Mate looked at the writing of the book, Travel Log of Evans Lily of the Red Haired Pirates.
Author Note- Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Next chapter hopefully hopefully will come out faster.
Question time.
What year do you guys want Violet to dragged back to HP world?
WhO would you like to see Violet End up with?
What do you guys think about a side story about Violet and ASL's childhood?