Chapter 1

Luffy dodged to the side as Ace sent a giant ball of roaring fire rushing at him. He felt the intense heat radiating from the flames as the burning ball passed his face and knew immediately, that his hair had been singed.

How convenient. When he had just grown his hair locks to 17cm. He would now have to get a haircut. He hated haircuts.

Also, Dragon was watching the spar. He didn't know why, but the man always had high hopes for expectations for him, Ace and Sabo, especially him.

And although he usually took sadistic pleasure in disappointing those who had high hopes for him, Dragon was one of the very few people he couldn't find it in himself to disappoint- the man had won his respect.

He looked at Ace who was standing at the far end of the circle and frowned. He hadn't moved an inch from his spot since the match began 10 minutes ago.

Idly wondering- even as he dodged another ball of fire- why the hell they were sparring (considering the fact that they just came back from a job three days ago), he cursed Ace in his mind. The lucky bastard. Why did he have to have the ability to pressure his opponents with a force of nature at his disposal? And although he was aware of ordinary men that could destroy logias with one punch (i.e his grandfather), Luffy still found himself getting jealous of the ability.

Ace was smiling calmly, and his red scarf (Luffy wondered where his beads where) and the long sleeve of the right arm of his shirt were billowing slightly in the wind. Flames licked at the ends of his scarf, his hair, his boots and the vertically tattooed ASL on his left deltoid, making him look badass.

A roaring ocean of orange bore down on him like a colossal wave in the middle of a storm (grand line standards), forcing him to take up a Fishman Karate stance- he had forgotten the name of the form- and punch. The hot sea parted-just barely- around him and he took the moment to jump out of the surrounding blaze. He had never been good at Fishman Karate. Had it been Koala who performed that move, she would have quenched the sea of fire. But, he didn't need to master other fighting styles. His 'Luffy-style technique' had served him well till date. It would continue to do so in the future.

He dodged a lance of fire with a side step and moved a few inches forward.

He rolled under a crescent of flames (tch, more singed hair) and covered a few more meters towards Ace.

This was all Luffy-style was all about. Constant movement. Continuous advancement. Pressing advantages.

It wasn't a style designed with retreat in mind. He pushed on through long distance bombardment, weathered blows from opponents with longer reaches, all to get inside their guard and get really close and personal.

Another cone of fire barreled towards him and Luffy ducked around it to the side.

He took a few more steps, bringing him closer to Ace, the closest he had come in this match, and launched himself at him, already throwing a punch.

Ace retreated a few steps and Luffy's fist cracked the ground and perhaps a few phalanges.

Luffy hissed in pain, both from his aching hand and smarting cheekbone, as he flew a few meters away from Ace, effectively losing all the ground he had gained on him- Ace had kicked him while he was crouched. In mid-flight, parallel to the ground, he reached out with one arm and planted his hand in the ground, stalling his momentum long enough for him to do a quick backflip before settling into a crouch- all the while skidding back for a few more inches. He raised a hand to his cheek and winced when his fingers brushed against the already bruising area. That was going to hurt a hell of a lot later.

He frowned. That was the only problem he had with his fighting style. It left him looking really worse for wear when he was up against equal or stronger opponents. Not for the first time in his life, he wished he had a devil fruit ability- preferably a logia like Ace or a mythical zoan like that pineapple-head guy. What was his name again? Macaroon? Macaroni? Meh! It was a Ma- something though.

It would allow him to also look spotless (and more importantly- badass) when he was fighting. Just like Ace. But then again, that would mean he would lose his ability to swim. He didn't want that. Maybe? Sure, being a good swimmer had saved his life on more than twenty occasions. But, if he had a devil fruit, he wouldn't need to worry about being potentially drowned when fighting armadas. Right? Arrrgh! This was so confusing! Why couldn't he just be like Sabo? Sabo was also cool looking in a fight. He didn't get scrapes and burns and bruises while dueling with Ace. And he used a fucking plumber's pipe to fight all while hopping off people's heads!

In some virtual world, a certain plumber sneezed.

Speaking of which, where the hell was Sabo anyway?

As Chief of Staff of the army, and his sworn brother, he was supposed to be beside Dragon during such an event-even as unofficial as it was. Maybe he was doing what he called hard labor, otherwise known as paper work to normal people (Luffy personally thought it was an exercise the devil thought up in one of his numerous instances of pure evil genius). Or perhaps on a solo mission (he had gone on seven back-to-back missions once, Luffy wouldn't put it past him to do so just after they returned). But Luffy highly doubted that (Hack had beaten the importance of self-preservation into him, with the silent approval of Dragon backing him up). That, and the fact that the blonde idiot almost never went on more than one mission in a row without his brunette partner, and Luffy didn't think the leader of their organization was heartless to the point of sending the girl on another mission just after she just finished one- she had only come back yesterday.

Oh! That was it! The two of them were most likely making out in the blonde's office. It was not going to be the first, second, or third time either he, Ace or Hack had come across one of Sabo and Koala's intense sessions.

Lucky bastard. It must be nice having a cute babe all to yourself while being part of the most wanted organization to ever be wanted in history.

'Criminals' like them almost never had a chance at a romantic relationship in their lives. Running from the World Government was a time-consuming task on its own.

A knee in his gut brought him back to the moment. All the air in his lungs was blown out through his mouth by the impact, and darkness crept into the edges of his vision. He had let his mind wander and he paid the price for it. Some small- okay, a very large- part of him at the back of his mind laughed happily: he had managed to move Ace from his position, ha-

Another kick sent him flying backwards for a few meters before he could even finish his thoughts. He looked up at Ace who was still unruffled by the battle and sighed when his vision blurred. Fighting a fire man for ten consecutive minutes was an excellent method to get heat-stroke. Ace seemed to split himself into two different hazy forms for a few seconds before joining back together, and his head throbbed with a dull ache, and Luffy was certain that he was soon going to be out of commission.

He had to end this fight, soon- his body had already started to respond sluggishly.

The muscles in his calves tensed as he prepared to launch himself. Over ten kicks in an instant- that was the goal. He normally could only kick nine times and even that strained his legs, but, if he pushed himself, maybe, just maybe he could pull it off; a genuine Soru.

He took a runner's stance, and kicked. Onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightninete…, and his body shot forward. His vision tunneled and he drew his arm back for a punch, coating it with wisps of armament only visible to those using observation haki. He closed in on Ace in a fraction of a second and was about to throw his haki ingested punch at his face when an incredible pain shot up his legs. He stumbled, then fell to his knees.

Fuck! No! Not now. His body could not fail him now. But it did. He tried to move his legs, but they just stayed there, not responding. He turned his head backwards to look at his legs, the sight almost scared the shit out of him.

The muscles of his calves had been ripped from his heel to the back of his knee.

Ha, this was ridiculous. He lost the battle without even landing a hit on his opponent.

'Man, Dragon would be so pissed.'

Those were the thoughts that flashed through Luffy's head before he was embraced by darkness.

'At least, I'm getting closer to pulling it off' followed soon after.

Usopp had been sailing for some days now and his journey had been peaceful. Not a single adventure, but the calm environment was much appreciated by him. He didn't like the sound of having to fight both pirates and marines at the same time while running for his life at every point.

He hummed an old marine song that he once heard from a geezer fisherman as he finished tying the last edge of black cloth to the mast.

He slid down the massive wooden pole, grabbing onto the riggings when he came close enough and swung himself all the way back to deck. He looked up at his artwork and nodded in satisfaction.

He had finished drawing the flag yesterday night, but had waited till daybreak before putting it up. The skull was a scowling white parody of his head drawn from a bottom-up perspective. A bucket hat covered its head and it wore a head-phone, covering its 'ears', beneath its hat. A green sling-shot and a triple barrel gun formed the crossbones.

The jolly-roger was pretty impressive if he was to be honest. It already looked like it belonged to one of the most feared crews in the entirety of the world.

He shook his head and was about to head to the kitchen to fix himself something for breakfast when his eye spotted something on the sea to his left. He took out his telescope and looked through it. The object was a rowboat, and guessing from the way sea gulls circled it, there was something in it.

He turned Merry hard to port and headed for the boat. It took him about five minutes to reach the semi-wrecked vessel. He furled the sails and dropped the anchor, stopping Merry, then he looked down into the boat from the side of the ship and was surprised at what he saw.

In the boat, there was a human lying face down in the boat. He jumped off Merry into the boat. His landing shook the tiny vessel a little too much and the person groaned.

Usopp bent down and turned the person around. It was a girl. Her eyes were closed and her orange hair reminded him of some delicious fruit he ate once when he was a child- a tanja- something. She smelt like salt, dried blood and old sweat, and her shirt was torn from the neckline to the stomach, revealing more cleavage than was necessary. He noticed she wasn't wearing anything under the light blue t-shirt. Her already short yellow skirt was also torn from below the waistline to the end of the skirt on her right side, revealing a very bruised patch if skin.

Her entire body was covered in cuts and scratches, but there was no fresh blood coming from them. It was obvious she had received her injuries a while ago.

Silently asking her to pardon him for the intrusion, he pressed his ear unto her chest, hoping to hear a heartbeat. It was still there, though faint and slow. The girl groaned again and he quickly raised his head to look at her. She blinked open her eyes slowly and weakly. They were a beautiful shade of brown.

"W-water…", she whispered, her voice hoarse and cracked from lack of use.

Usopp placed her head in his lap and leaned down, positioning his ear above her lips, so he could hear her more clearly.

"P-please… give me… water." She spoke again. She slowly raised her hand and pointed at a box Usopp hadn't noticed since he came aboard. It looked like a treasure chest.

"I… I'll give you… all my… my treasure. *cough, cough*. P-please… water."

Usopp's eye went wide at the mention of a treasure. Was the girl stupid? Carrying a box worth some serious money around on a rowboat, in the middle of the sea? Well, it all depended on what her 'treasure' was. It could as well be the clothes of her dead mom or an old hairclip belonging to her granny. He looked back at the girl. She had closed her eyes again. He felt her wrist; there was still a faint pulse. Good. Now, he had to get her aboard his ship.

It wasn't easy at all but he managed to bring the girl and her box of treasure aboard his ship. He carried her into his room and put her on one of the beds. He got the first aid box and medicine kit and set to work right away. He was really thankful Kaya had thought of everything he might have needed.

He cleaned her bruise and dressed up her wounds before bandaging her thigh with a splint- her femur had been fractured (quite severely). He wasn't sure if he was taking care of her the right way, but he assumed it was better than doing nothing.

Walking over to the medicine kit, he wrinkled out some pain relief tablets and went to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water. Oh, right, the girl had even asked for water specifically. She must have been dying of thirst. Maybe he should just get a jug of water while he was at it.

After forcing the sub-conscious girl to swallow the tablets, Usopp felt much more relieved. He had cleaned her, dressed her wounds, clothed her and given her drugs. He had done the best he could. Now all he had left to do was wait.

He looked at the girl- who was now breathing deeply at a steady pace- and after making sure she wasn't in a potentially uncomfortable position, he left the room and went out to the deck.

The girl's treasure box was still there. He walked past it, heading to the kitchen. He had to make some heavy food to keep himself from starving. Oh! He should probably make some for the girl too.

Soup was probably the best option for the unconscious girl. It wouldn't do to have her choking on solid food.

He whistled to himself as he prepared the meal. He tasted it when he was done. It wasn't as delicious as what he was used to eating in his village, but it was enough. He filled up a wooden bowl with the soup and went over to his room. The girl was still sleeping but her breathing no longer sounded deep and painful- the pain relief must have been working. That was good to know. At least he was now sure that whatever he was doing wouldn't cause extra problems.

He raised the girl into a sitting position before placing the rim of the bowl between her lips. He tilted her head backwards as he slowly and gently poured the soup into her mouth. He had already blown on it so it was cool enough for her to drink and warm enough to be edible- cold soup sucked after all.

He watched her carefully, preparing to stop feeding the moment things went awry. She must have been hungry though, because she just kept on swallowing the liquid until there was nothing left in the bowl.

Usopp sighed and stood up to leave. He had never thought people could have an appetite even while they were knocked out. This girl was the first of such a specimen he had ever come across.

His hand was already on the door knob when he heard a low, deep grumble, like the sound of distant thunder rumbling. He paused and turned around. The sound came again. He walked towards the girl and placed his ear on her tummy. He heard a low whine before it was followed by the same grumbling sound again. His eyes went wide. It couldn't be. She was hungry? Still? The soup he had given her wasn't some watery, thin soup. It was the kind that was stuffed with all types of ingredients and nutrients. Taking a single bowl of that soup along with a chunk of bread was enough to fill some fully grown men back at home.

Also, the bowl he used to feed her wasn't a normal bowl. It was the super extra-large bowl (no kidding). He had guessed that she would be starving, but he hadn't expected her to even finish the bowl of soup he prepared for her so he had been pretty surprised that she was able to finish it.

But now, this was just ridiculous. She couldn't really be hungry, could she? Maybe it was just some kind of reaction taking place in his digestive tract.

He placed his ear on her stomach again. And then came the grumbling sound. Yep, it was hunger. She was still hungry.

Suddenly, Usopp found himself feverishly hoping the girl would not stay unconscious for long. He needed her off the ship (or at least conscious to be embarrassed enough by her ungodly appetite that she wouldn't eat all his food). His food supply wouldn't last a week if he was to keep feeding her.

With a heavy heart, he turned around and walked back to the kitchen to refill the girl's bowl. He filled another bowl just in case, before fetching his own food. He grabbed a loaf of bread and put everything on a tray before marching over to his room, all the while sulking on the sudden unwanted impact on his stock.

When he got to his room, he fed the girl another bowl and half of the second bowl before the grumbling her stomach made died down. He tried feeding her what was left but her throat just refused to swallow the soup. He had to let her pour out what was in her mouth into an empty bowl.

After making her take a glass of water and some pills, he sat down beside her and started to eat. He turned his own soup into her leftovers before downing everything along with his loaf of bread.

He cleaned everything and put the leftover of the soup in the refrigerator. It was enough for dinner (although, a day ago, it would have been sufficient for him for 3-4 days). He looked at the clock; it was 2:33 pm. A wonderful time to fish (maybe?) He hummed to himself as he picked his fishing rod and a bucket of bait. He hoped be able to catch something suitable enough to feed his guest once she woke up.

Two and a half hours later, as he sat cross-legged atop the railings, with his chin propped up by his left hand, he idly prayed for the girl's quick recovery; feeding her was really a chore- he hadn't caught anything that might have had the flesh necessary to fill his unconscious guest.

And as he prayed for some more good fortune with his fishing, he heard the distinct silent creak that signified the door to his bedroom being opened.

He slowly turned his head around as he heard the soft footsteps on the wooden floor of his Merry. His eyes widened slightly in surprise before a relieved and gentle smile broke across his face. It seemed like some god up there really did not want him to run out of foodstuff so early in his journey.

Sanji paused his footsteps to take in and exhale a deep breath of mint-scented smoke before he continued walking down the dimly lit hallway.

The heel of his shoe hit the cold tile floor with loud clacking sounds causing each step of his to echo continuously throughout the near empty hallway. The feeling he felt as the hollow clack clacks reverberated off the walls almost caused his skin to crawl, and goose bumps to blossom all over his body. He really should've listened to the- now admittedly sound- advice of placing carpets down.

He stopped in his tracks again and took another puff at his cigarette; it had almost reached the butt. He took it out of his mouth and put it in a transparent ash bag before lighting another one- this one being vanilla flavored. He took a deep breath before exhaling an obscene amount of white, vanilla-scented smoke. He then dragged on the cigarette again before billowing out a thin thread of white that expanded into some sort of cloud.

After calming down his racing nerves with a few more puffs, he sucked in a great gulp of air, expanding his chest before slowly releasing it from his nostrils. It took him almost a minute to totally release all the air he had swallowed. Once he was through, he had totally calmed himself down.

Adjusting the sleeve of his shirt and taking a moment to carefully arrange the cufflinks, he continued to stride forward until he reached the black mahogany doors that led to the dining/meeting hall. He placed his hand on the pure gold knob that had been intricately and artistically carved into the figure of a fierce lion head, before removing it and turning to look at himself in a full-length mirror carried by a maid. After straightening out his bolo tie and making sure nothing else was out of place, he took one last breath, snuffed out his cigarette- placing it on a silver tray another maid held, and opened the doors, stepping into the brightly lit room.

"Sorry for the wait." He announced the moment his entire body had stepped into the room. He walked forward and sat down at the head of the table before throwing a glance at everybody seated across the table. His eyes showed a hint of disappointment when he didn't see even one of the three men he had (childishly) hoped would come. However that crestfallen look did not stay on his face for even a fraction of a second before he threw a bright smile at every one in attendance. He could (had) always use(d) what he was given to the utmost of its capacities (and perhaps a little more).

"Thanks once again for coming." He greeted everyone.

"Hmmn. Don't thank vme Eyebrow boy. I only came because Dragon specifically asked vme to." Said Pervina- the acting ruler of the Okama Queendom- who was seating at the closest seat to his seat on the right. Usually, that would have been where Reiju sat, but she had left earlier in the day, thus letting the Okama Queen to help themselves to the seat.

Sanji was already missing her.

"Then I would have to thank Dragon-san for persuading you to come then." Sanji replied with a smile.

He took a quick moment to survey the expressions of the table's occupants and after ascertaining that there were no problems yet, he was about to continue talking when Betty, who was sitting directly opposite to Pervina, spoke up.

"Listen, you damn squirt. Others may like to waste their fucking time but I've got my own hands full and I ain't gonna waste away my shitty valuable hours of work dilly-dallying. So whatever you want to say, open yer trap 'n spit it out quickly"

Sanji sweat dropped at the cold, slightly angry manner which she reproached him with. It appeared that the tales of her peculiar fashion wasn't exaggerated at all.

He took in a quick breath before exhaling and hurriedly speaking up, "A-ah… Yes. U-uhm… About the reason I called you all here, I wanted to…"

Before he could complete his sentence, a maid hurriedly opened the door before walking up to him and whispering into his ear.

The moment the words left her mouth and floated into his brain, his entire body went rigid and cold sweat formed droplets on his forehead.

"They are here." These were the three words the maid had said to him that caused his current flustered state.

Those bastards had picked the wrong time to visit, and although he admitted that he had told them to come at any time during the week, he hadn't expected his luck to be so poor. Well, they were here now. He couldn't possibly send them away; that would cause him to lose a great deal of face. (And also, it was bad for business). He calmed himself before looking at the maid had brought the news to him.

He motioned for her to bend over before whispering into her ear, "Take them to the Black Room. Tell them I'll be with them in a moment." The woman nodded in understanding before straightening herself and preparing to leave. She had just taken a step when he caught her by the cuffs she wore on her wrists. He pulled her back and whispered into her ear again, "Make sure they don't know that they", he motioned to the table with his eyes, "are here."

The maid's eyes shone with curiosity before she nodded in understanding once again.

Sanji smiled at her; a brilliant show of perfectly arranged white teeth, before letting go of her hands. The maid blushed slightly at her handsome master before hurrying away to perform her duties.

Once she closed the door behind her, Sanji turned back to look at his guests from the Revolutionary Army. What he was about to embark on was beyond risky, but the profit to be made was also insanely high.

He smiled again. "Well, extinguished ladies, gentlemen and okama, I have a proposal…"

It had begun, now he couldn't pull out even if he wanted to.

As he walked down the corridor, Sanji's heart which had been beating erratically since his newest guests arrived finally calmed down. A lazy smile was plastered on his face and he would occasionally throw a flirtatious wink at one of the numerous maids that passed him- which in turn caused them to blush furiously. Reiju would have scolded him for taking advantage of the innocent girls, but currently, he was too happy to even care.

The negotiations between him and the Revolutionary Army had been successful, at least to an acceptable extent. And they had left without coming into contact with his other set of guests. For that, Sanji was beyond grateful to the Buddha. If the two parties had met, it was highly likely that all the negotiations he had planned would have fallen through.

He stopped in front of the black painted door made out of sea prism stone that separated him from those within the room behind it, sighed, picked up his mask from the stand beside the door and put it on. He looked at himself in the hand held mirror that had been placed beside the mask and nodded internally. He had changed from his previous white dress shirt and deep blue waist coat to a black shirt, off-white waist coat and a white tie knotted in the scale style. His mask, a red equipment that covered from his forehead to his nose, sat perfectly on his face, obscuring his visage. And in the positions where eye holes or lenses where supposed to be, two question marks took their place. He had slicked his hair backwards.

He really looked the part.

Now, all he had left to do was to deal with those extremely troublesome fellows at the other side of the door, and all would be said to have started off on the right foot. He took in another deep breath before quickly pushing open the door and walking in. The occupants of the room all turned to look at him at the same time, and Sanji felt goose bumps break out all over his skin. Those stares- even though their owners tried their best to hide it (which in this case, they really weren't)- contained the viciousness and brutality that came with living the kind of life that they did.

He gathered himself and took in another deep breath- secretly- before exhaling and speaking out.

"A good day to all ye unlawful brokers!" He greeted boisterously, easily swapping his speech pattern with that of the persona he was acting. " Verily, I say unto thee, today will be an interesting day for a good number of you."

Sanji smirked slightly in satisfaction as he saw interest shine in the eyes of numerous people among the group that sat in the hall.

If things went according to plan, today would really be a good day.

Both for them, and for him.

A/N:

Here's a new chapter!

So, before I really get into the story, I would like to apologize in advance for any fact, backstory, or generally agreed date that is inconsistent with the original work (I refer to the anime). That is both intentional and not. Intentional because I will be approaching a good amount of my story using 'what if' scenarios. Unintentional because I have forgotten A LOT of the things that happened, and I'm too lazy and ill-determined to go through the entire anime again, combing for details. So, if you see a detail that is different from the anime, please chalk it up to 'what ifs'.

Also, shout outs to user 159753c for being the first person to review. I wasn't sure if my work would even get a single hit before being five chapters in. That pleasant surprise made my day.

And as before stated, I would really appreciate any sort of constructive criticism offered.

Anyhow, with all that out of the way, please favorite, follow and review. Thanks!

Vine.

PS: I plan on releasing a new chapter every Friday, so lookout for it I guess?

Bye.