I ran towards the neon-green beacon in the crowd, but I was soon dragged away by Katrina. When we reached the alleyway, we were both panting. Me from the effort it took to run across the sea and then try to fight against someone whose legs aren't turning to jelly, and her more of actually trying to hold me back from running towards Bartolomeo.

When I caught my breath, I asked, because I just had to, "What the hell?". She looked at me and gave a thoroughly frightening glare. Or at least, it would've been frightening if I hadn't seen worse glares throughout my life.

"What the hell?", she repeated breathlessly, she sucked in a breath, "WHAT THE HELL?! You could've irreversibly changed the timeline!", she screamed. I staggered back. Because, that was true. I didn't really listen much to whatever else she said in her rant, because I was too focused on what she had said in the beginning. I could've irreversibly changed the timeline. I realized Nothing can change Bartolomeo from having some sort of hero worship of Luffy, but… If I change anything, make him go out to sea before 3D2Y… Dressrosa… I sucked in a breath.

"I'm sorry" "YOU IDIOT, YOU—what?" she looked at me like I grew another head. I swallowed my pride and repeated what I had to say, "I'm sorry." "What?" "I'm, sorry." "Eh?". She still looked completely out of the loop, so I just decided to ditch the apology. "Forget it." At least I can say that I've tried, I mentally tacked on.

She shrugged it off and then gave me a blank stare, which I was, admittedly, sweating under.

"What was I saying?", she trailed off.

Are you kidding me? I gave her a thoroughly unimpressed look.

I grabbed her by the front of her shirt and began dragging her out of the alley only to bump into something. Something very… broad. And big. And… fleshy? I slowly looked up and was met with a severely grumpy, chain-smoking marine officer. Who had just seen me drag a person who had done no harm, kicking and screaming out of an alleyway.

Only one thing out of my million thoughts made it out of my mouth right that second. "I'm screwed.".

Which brings us to right now. I think that if this sort of thing continues, I'm going to break a Guinness World Record with how fast I dig myself a hole and then get arrested. At least I have hope in reasoning with them.

"Nostalgic, isn't it?", I heard a whisper next to me.

I snarked back, "Right, like when you burned my house down?"

She glared at me, "You're still going on about that?".

I mustered up the blankest stare I could, and said blandly, "You burned my house down.".

She winced and turned away, "Touché", she muttered.

I was handcuffed and waiting for Smoker to interrogate me in that waiting room. Honestly, I couldn't say I wasn't a bit paranoid. I was looking around, searching for all exits, and the best places to hide, should I be deemed guilty. If I'm not deemed that already.

I know that searching for ways to run from an opponent is cowardly, and I detest that, but I know how to pick my fights, and fighting Smoker is not an option. The guy would curb-stomp me in seconds.

I forced myself away from my thought when I heard the door open. Smoker and Tashigi walked into the room. One with a glare, and the other with a lost look about her face.

Then it started, and it went something like…

SMOKER: "Who are you?"

ME: "Shivani Aika, sir!"

SMOKER: "Why were you in the alleyway?"

ME: "Me and that jerk needed to talk, sir!"

SMOKER: "What were you talking about?"

ME: "We were talking about how she burned my house down and how many fines she will pay for it."

SMOKER: "Why did you drag her out by the collar?"

ME: "She taunted me, sir. Insulted my family to the 9th generation, sir. I can't take that sitting down, sir."

SMOKER: "Stop saying sir."

ME: "Yes, sir."

SMOKER: "…"

Then, he began interrogating the arsonist next.

SMOKER: "What is your name?"

KATRINA: "I am Katrina Mota."

SMOKER: "Is it true you burned her house down?"

KATRINA: "W-who's house?"

SMOKER: "The lady who was in here before you?"

KATRINA: "HA! Lady?"

SMOKER: "…I have enough evidence."

He got up, grabbed a pair of handcuffs and cuffed the arsonist.

"Hey, wait, what?", she stuttered.

"You are under arrest, Katrina Mota, and to be executed shortly.", Smoker announced, and just like that, the temperature in the room dropped. I scrambled to find a lie, and an alibi to cover up, and all I could come up with was this, "Sir! Wait!", I shouted, as he was dragging Katrina away.

He stopped, "What?", I gave him nothing short of a positively demonic grin, or at least, I hope I did, and I said, "I can deal with her quite well, there is no need to execute her, I can have… more degrading uses for her,", my grin turning darker when I neared the end of the sentence. When I realized the implications of what I said, I lost my grin, and scrambled to cover up, "Of course, I didn't mean slavery, I meant other degrading things, such as…", I smirked at her, and she paled, "Counting toenail clippings. It's gross, and tedious. Or separating a basket of 600 different grains into 30 different piles, and etcetera.".

He looked at me with a contemplative look, and uncuffed the girl.

And then promptly cuffed me instead.

I looked at the cuffs and then turned my head up to give him a blank stare. "What.".

"Miss Shivani, you are under arrest for arson, slavery, and etcetera. You are to be executed tomorrow at 9:00.", he amended.

What. You've got to be kidding me! Is what I thought while sitting in a cell, yet again, with Katrina, that piece of… ugh! Watching me on the other side. She was just as bewildered as me, if not more so, then, as she was about to speak up to break the uncomfortable silence that was building up between us, some other grunt was thrown into the cell.

"Ugh… Who're you?", the grunt asked while looking around the cell.

"That would be none of your concern,", I shrugged off.

The grunt looked at me with wonder and then said, "I won't be here long, want to join me?".

"What."

"I mean the mafia I'm a part of."

"Mafia?"

"Yeah, it's led by Boss Bartolomeo! Really cool guy! —", I tuned him out as he continued talking and took the time to reorganize my thoughts, and I came across a few very disturbing things.

Number One: Bartolomeo is here and he will be coming.

Number Two: If the bad luck following me is any indication, this is probably the same day that the Straw-Hat Pirates make it to Loguetown.

Number Three: I am literally stuck in a cell.

Which brings us to the last thing… HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO JOIN THE STRAW HATS IF I'M STUCK IN A CELL?!

I sucked in a breath and looked at Katrina who seemed to be blissfully oblivious of the implications going on.

"Hey, arsonist."

"What?"

"Keep on the lookout for them. I'll hitch a ride via Bartolomeo."

She gave me an odd look, but nodded nonetheless. She walked out of the marine base, and that's the last I saw of her. For a long while, really…

~\_o_/~

I was ready to doze off when the doors to the marine base were busted open. The base must've been empty at the time, because no Marines were rushing to apprehend the threat. When the offender walked into the base like he owned it, I immediately had an inkling of who it was, and… I was wrong. It wasn't Bartolomeo, it was just some other grunt. But Grunt #1 seemed to recognize the guy, so they might be connected?

"Hey! Paul!" Grunt #1 cheered.

All Grunt #2 did in response was… grunt. Oh well, not my problem. When Grunt #2 unlocked us out of our cage, my mind started making connections. The only time this base was probably empty was when… DEVUDA! * THE EXECUTION PLATFORM!

I completely ignored the bewildered grunts next to me, and ran to the entrance of the base and slammed open the door, and… I was just in time…

Oh god, he smiled. He really, really, smiled! For a second there, my heart stopped, and my breathing caught in my chest. My knowledge of this event went blank for a minute, as I scrambled around to find words to describe this… Was it really going to end like this? Before it even started?

Then, it happened. Lightning struck the execution platform in such a majestic way, that Enel could only dream of performing and… it fell… Marking the start of a new era.

An era that I wanted to be apart of.

It should be noted, that although the only reason I'm here is to get money and pay off my debt, which is in the millions, I wasn't even thinking about that right now. I just wanted to be a part of… all of that shebang, or die trying. I wanted to spit in the World Government's face and get away with it, I wanted to carve my name in History itself so the World won't forget it.

Oh. I think I just found my dream.

I began running towards the middle of the crowd, until someone grabbed my arm, turning around and hoping for the worst, I saw… the arsonist. Oh god, now that's a level of bad I would never be prepared for… Augh… She looked at me, and then shouted over the storm, "IF WE WANT TO GET ON THEIR SHIP, NOW'S THE BEST TIME! WE CAN PASS FOR STOWAWAYS!".

I shot an understanding look at her to show that I heard her, and then began running for the East Port. I would've made it there, if another person hadn't grabbed my arm. Thinking it was the arsonist, I shot a deadly glare at the offender. Only… it wasn't the arsonist.

I was grabbed by the Revolutionary Dragon himself. I heard a whimper and saw in the reflection of a window that the arsonist was too frozen to move.

"What a strange one…", he whispered, his voice somehow carrying over the howl of the wind and the scream of the storm.

"Both of you, actually…" he said, a classic D grin stretching across his face, his tribal tattoos glowing in the storm and darkness.

"You. Both of you. You will turn my son's Hurricane into something much, much greater, isn't that right?", he said to himself.

"Ride the winds, and ride the waves, my friends.", he whispered, and we were swept away by the Storm.

Friends. Really? I gave a wicked smirk, Well, he got one thing right… We're going to turn that Hurricane… Into a Raging Storm.

Everything went black as I landed with a thud on cold, hard wooden deck, the last thing I saw, being a blob of yellow and red in the suspicious shape of a Straw Hat…

Heh. So it begins.

AN: So... nothing happened with Bartolomeo, or did something happen? I have a lot of plans for this story, and I will have Bartolomeo play a bigger role in this story. Also, one more thing. THIS STORY IS NOT YURI, AND IT WILL NEVER BE YURI! It is sisterly love and bonding, a love-hate relationship, and before anyone asks, I am a Hindu. And so is Shivani, she will be switching back to her native tongue when things get too crazy for her to put in words. Dragon, also... he will be somewhat of an enigma in this story, I promise his intentions will be found out later, but not yet. It's too early.

I will try my best to make updates weekly, over the two days of the weekend, yesterday was an exception, in which I had to put out an extra chapter, because... I already had it ready, so why not. But please, don't expect updates daily. Thank you, that is all, bye!

1,806 words~~

~~OracleNorZi