During the time Penny spent with the Red Hair Pirates, she discovered a rather important piece of information regarding Captain Shanks. He was incapable of keeping out of trouble.
"Where are we going?" asked Penny, folding her hands neatly behind her back. Captain Shanks often mocked the way she walked, but today, he kept a hand on her shoulder and kept her near the helm as they approached Chance Harbor.
"Today or in general?"
"In general."
"East Blue. I figured we could check it out for a bit and have some fun."
"Don't you have any ambition?"
Shanks looked down at her in surprise, before throwing his head back with a laugh. "Penny, you've gotta learn to pull your punches."
"I didn't punch you." She smiled to herself as the captain groaned, pinching his nose tightly. "Anyway, I didn't mean to be rude. I just meant…well, everywhere we go, people talk about being King of the Pirates or finding the One Piece, but you don't."
"I'm not in a rush."
"I like that better. We can see more of the world before we go."
"Do you want to go?"
Penny gave a small shrug. The One Piece and Gol D. Roger's story had been heard all around the world. Even Penny knew of it. She had a middling interest in the whole scheme since she didn't care much about being in charge of people the way Kings were, but she couldn't deny that she had an eye for treasure.
"Someday—just to say I went, but most people are just wasting their time."
"You shouldn't look down on other people's dreams."
"I'm not, but it helps to be realistic. A dream won't carry you anywhere without the strength and guts to back it up."
"Those are big words from a kid. Bet your parents were the smart kind."
Penny remained silent, letting Shanks try to awkwardly backtrack from the heavy conversation. It was funnier to see him fumble then to explain the truth about her parents. She wondered what he might think if he knew. The wretched taste of her Devil Fruit suddenly filled her mouth.
"When will we dock?"
"A couple of hours. You can go sleep until then."
The tallest woman she'd ever seen stood near one of the stalls. Penny stretched onto her toes looking for Shanks or one of the crew but found no one by strangers. Her heart fluttered, but there was no logical reason for them to leave her behind. They were around somewhere, she reassured herself.
"Excuse me, miss!" Penny bowed shallowly and put her best smile on for the old woman. "Have you seen a man with red hair around?"
The woman turned, coat swaying behind her. Something in Penny's mind flashed with alarm bells, but she couldn't tell why. "No one's called me that in ages—these days it's usually old bat."
"Oh."
"Red hair, you said? It's not really a common color." The old woman leaned down, offering Penny a sweet smile. "This red-haired…gentleman wouldn't happen to have a scar on his face, would he?"
The sleeve of the woman's coat brushed against Penny's arm. She'd seen one like that before on a Navy Marine, but this looked a bit more important and regale even if the woman's clothing beneath the coat didn't match.
"No," denied Penny, staring at the woman firmly. "He doesn't have any scars."
"What's your name?"
Penny was loath to give her real name to a Navy official. "Sophie."
"That's a nice name. There's a rumor that a pirate ship docked in the harbor carrying a girl in a pretty yellow dress."
Penny smoothed the fabric of her dress, a smile lighting her face as she eagerly told the woman, "Yellow is the perfect color for a spring island! I saw the flowers from the ship and thought—" She slapped her hands against her mouth, realizing her mistake.
The old woman held a cunning gleam in her eyes. The hustle of the market faded away as Penny backed away slowly, knowing there was about to be trouble. She didn't have any weapons on hand.
"You seem like a smart girl. We've got a lot of those on my ship," said the woman gesturing toward the uniformed women behind her. "Vice-Admiral Tsuru—I'll let you know right now that I've got no mercy for troublemakers."
"I'm not a troublemaker," said Penny, hands brushing against the giant pomegranates in the stall next to her. "I'm a pirate."
"That's not something you should admit to."
Penny blinked; fear temporarily forgotten. "Why not?"
"Doing the wrong thing knowingly is a crime." Tsuru's deep wrinkles seemed to smooth out as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Since you're just a kid, you'll be sentenced to labor until you're older and then likely end up in jail for petty crimes after that. Pirates might seem fun now, but—"
"Time to go," said Shanks running onto the scene with a squad of Marines at his feet. He swooped down, picked Penny up, and heaved her onto his shoulder. "I made a wrong turn, so we've got a bit of trouble!"
Penny took off her slippers as Shanks carried her away and threw them at the Vice Admiral's face.
"DHAHAHAHAHA, YOU SHOULD'VE SEEN IT!"
"Tsuru, Tsuru? Like Dai-Sanbō Tsuru?"
"RIGHT IN THE FACE! SHE COULDN'T EVEN MOVE!"
Penny pulled the straw hat even lower on her face, sinking below the table to hide from everyone's laughter. The table shook above her, and Shanks' feet stomped against the ground as he told the story to everyone who walked into the kitchens.
"OI, HONGO, HONGO, YOU GOTTA HEAR IT! PENNY THREW HER SLIPPERS AT THIS CROCKY OLD LADY'S FACE—TURNED OUT IT WAS TSURU!"
Another roll of thunder-like laughter. Penny smiled to herself slightly, pressing her cold hands against her red cheeks. Maybe it wasn't a fighting technique, but it had served its purpose of distracting the Marines to give them their escape.
"Penny, we're throwing you a party whether you like it or not."
She poked his leg with a fork she found causing him to jump and rattle the table.
Penny popped her head out from under the table, handing Captain Shanks his hat back. Her smile turned sickly sweet, "Can we have strawberry cake at the party?"
"LUCKY, YOU HEARD THE GIRL! MAKE US CAKE!"
Penny looked around the table and realized that Beckman's glass had gone empty again. She pulled the Captain's full mug toward her and copied it over, sending the new glass towards Beckman. Though he said nothing about the casual use of her Devil Fruit, he tilted his head in thanks.
Penny beamed widely.
The next island they land on is a disaster. Fire, smoke, Marines, and gunfire—it was nothing Shanks hadn't seen before, but his weaknesses came into play. They saved as many as they could and lost more than they should.
Penny didn't cry. Shanks held her close, pulling her away from the death and destruction as the rest of the crew took care of the remaining Marines. She shivered in his hold. He pulled at his cape, draping it around her shoulders.
Wide silver eyes, like moonlight, stared up at him. "They didn't do anything wrong."
"Piracy is illegal, so is consorting with pirates." Penny knew that well, but the sadness in Shanks voice tugged at her heart.
"Pirates are people too. Will they do that to us if we get caught?"
"Only when we're caught and not a moment before."
"I don't want to be caught."
"Then you'll have to be better than all the rest."
Penny's expression morphed from terror to determination. She pulled his cape around herself—one day, she would grow into it.
A spark lit.
Shanks watched as it grew into a wildfire. This was the moment it happened, where the beginnings of a dream were lit.
She tilted her chin up, looking at him, draped in shadows. "I'll be the best pirate in the world then and never get caught."
Penny had her mouth stuffed with the various fruits the locals insisted on feeding them while the rest of the crew shared bottles of alcohol with the group of boys they had rescued from a cave-tiger when they first landed. Penny had never seen a beast so big, nor a group of boys so cowardly.
A bouquet of white flowers landed on her lap; each tiny blossom shaped like a little bell.
"What's this?" asked Penny, holding the flowers up once she had swallowed down her food. They were stunningly beautiful, but they wouldn't last long at sea unless she pressed them. It'd be nice to have one embroidered on her dress to remember the trip.
"Please accept them," said the boy.
"Why?"
He opened his mouth, searched for an answer, and settled for shouting, "It's a gift!"
His mother came over and struck him on the head with the back of her hand. Penny winced, rubbing at her own skull as if she felt an echo of his pain. "Peeny—"
No matter how many times she corrected them, Peeny had stuck. Captain Shanks' cheeks puffed out, water spilling from the corner of his mouth as he held back his laugh.
"—don't listen to this fool. He's trying to trick you into something more serious than a thank you."
"Cool." Grateful for the information, she raised her glass. "It's Penny, by the way."
Bonk Punch leaned over whispering to her, "Flowers are part of marriage customs in a lot of the world. It looks like you've got an admirer."
"I'm eleven," she said, turning to the boy with a frown. "The only thing I like is clothes, being right, and sweets. You're not any of those things."
He held his head high, warm skin flushing under her cold gaze. "Return to our island when we're older, Miss Peeny, and I'll prove that I'm a worthy contender."
"Contender for what? I just said I don't like you."
"When I saw your face in that cave, I thought I had died and woke up amongst angels."
Penny reached for her rapier, hand wrapping around its golden hilt. "I'll send you to see some angles, right now," she said climbing to her feet.
Shanks cleared his throat, leaning back to watch the ensuing fight as if it was his only source of entertainment. "Angels, Peeny, not angles."
"Yasopp-san, are we going to the East Blue to visit Usopp-kun?"
"If I see him, it'll make things worse," cried Yasopp as he was oft to do when they brought the topic up. "I don't want to give him false hope that I plan on staying, but at the same time, if he's mad at me, I don't want to see it either."
"If he's not far from where we're going, we can send him a gift. I've been practicing! Look!" The real reason Penny had come here was for compliments. She pulled out a couple of handkerchiefs embroidered with their Jolly Roger. One of them had pistols instead of swords behind the skull.
"You made these yourself?"
"I copied some scraps when they made sail repairs." Penny whispered the word copy like it was a curse.
Yasopp burst into loud sobs. "T-that's so cute!"
"Do you think so?" asked Penny eagerly. "I made one for Lucky-san too! It's got a chicken leg on it!"
"And the Captain's has his sword!"
The afternoon passed with Yasopp heaping praise on her and Penny suspected that he welcomed the distraction because part of him missed Usopp to the point that all his pent-up affection was transferred to her. She hoped that one day, she'd meet Yasopp's legendary son and see if he lived up to the stories.
"SEA KING!" shouted Penny, climbing on to the bowsprit and looking down as the beast shot out of the water. A cool spray of seawater wafted over her skin. The Sea King flipped through the air and caught a fish bigger than Shanks and Beckman combined in its mouth. Penny clapped eagerly, congratulating the Sea King on a job well done.
Its massive eye seemed to twinkle as it shot beneath the waves.
"Penny, be careful," said Beckman, lighting a cigarette and holding it to his mouth. He inhaled deeply, letting out a ring of smoke.
"If we're lucky it'll snatch her up next," shouted Shanks, laughing at his own joke. "We need to be quiet going through the calm belt, or you'll attract everything out there."
"When will we get there?"
"A couple more days."
"Are there pirates in the East Blue? What's so great about it?"
"It's a sleepy sea and most of the pirates there aren't the same as the kind we saw on the Grand Line."
Penny balanced on the bowsprit, taking small careful steps until she was close enough to jump onto the deck. "You're making this up as we go, aren't you?"
Shanks winked at her, holding a finger to his mouth as if it was a big secret between only the two of them.
Secrets meant trust.
"Penny," Shanks waved her over, cape billowing as he leaned down to whisper to her. "Since you're a proper lady, go sweeten everyone up a bit before we disembark."
She lifted her hands to her ponytail, letting her hair fall loose around her shoulders. Whether it was meant to soften her face or make her look like a wild sprite didn't matter. "What do I get out of it?"
Shanks rubbed his chin, cunning eyes watching her carefully. There were two sides to the Captain—the warm loveable fool and the crafty swordsman. Both Penny respected. Both she hated. She stretched her arms over her head, reaching for his famous straw hat, only for Shanks to grab hold of her wrist before she could touch it.
He dropped her hand with a laugh. "I'll let you choose dinner for the next three days."
"Fair. Let's shake on it." She licked the palm of her hand and held it out. Shanks let out a yelp, jumping away from her with a disgusted look on his face. "That's what you get for calling me a lady."
"Don't forget your manners," Shanks called after her as she walked down the gangway. Penny lifted a hand in acknowledgment. Pants were practical when attempting to disguise that she was a girl, but dresses had always been her preference which had led to a large amount of teasing from the crew.
No matter the teasing, swaths of fabric filled the ship at every port.
Penny ventured into town, being careful not to get her slippers caught in the dusty roads. Foosha Village was small and isolated, but she didn't dispel the fact that it was full of its own charm. The houses were painted in light pastels, overlooking the harbor at the bottom of the hill. Restaurants, a bar, and several shops lined up a single street which seemed to make up its shopping district. There wasn't much else other than a giant windmill that made Penny itch for a pencil and paper.
It was quaint and there were cows.
Cute cows.
Penny climbed onto a fence and landed on the other side with a nimble jump. She'd never actually seen a cow before, and milk wasn't something that lasted long on voyages as it spoiled quickly.
She bent over, trying to peek at the cow's udders and figure out exactly how the milking process worked. The cow blinked at her sleepily, chewing grass with a slowness that reminded Penny of all the feasts they had onboard.
"You too, huh?" she asked.
The cow belted back, opening its wide mouth in a yawn.
"HEY, YOU!" Penny froze, eyes darting over her shoulder where a small boy dressed in a t-shirt and shorts waved. His hair was mussed up and his cheeks puffed with youth. "WHO ARE YOU?"
"Are you from the town?"
"ANSWER MY QUESTION FIRST!"
"No, thank you." She hiked her skirt up, climbed back over the fence, and made to leave. A hand grabbed at her skirt, refusing to let go as she stalked down the street. The boy was smaller and far younger than her making him easy to drag around as she looked for someone who might have been important.
"Are you just gonna ignore me?!"
"Do you have a mayor in this place? I want to talk to him."
"For what? Who are you?" The hand fell away from her, and the boy raced in front of her, throwing his arms out wide. "If you've come to invade, I'll fight you off."
"Invade? We just want to dock our ship and resupply."
"Ship? You mean the ship in the harbor?! With the pirates?!"
"Yes."
"You're lying! Pirates don't look like you!"
"How would you know? Have you ever even met a pirate?"
"No, but I know! They're supposed to have hats and treasure and—"
"And they can do whatever they like and be whoever they like."
The boy's face lit up with a wide smile that looked like it hurt his cheeks. "YOU'RE A REAL PIRATE!"
"That's right." Penny rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, threading her hands together behind her back. The little boy's joy was infectious making her want to get far away before she caught it. "Are you still going to fight me?"
He jumped toward her, arms wrapping around her leg, and pulled her along toward the town. "I'll take you to the old man, but you gotta let me on your ship and meet your captain. And I want to see your Jolly Roger. Oh man, Gramps is gonna be so mad!"
"How do you know I won't kill you?"
The boy stopped and looked at her with a hard expression. "You won't."
Penny nodded, patting the boy on the head. "You're very brave."
His teeth gleamed as he rubbed the back of his head, bashfully kicking his feet into the dirt. "Aww, man, don't go and compliment me."
Penny's mouth tilted toward a smile. "Let's just go."
Mayor Woop Slap, a name Penny had trouble saying without laughing, kicked up a fuss as she informed him of their intent to restock in the town, but his grumbling turned less bitter when talk of money came up. He smacked the boy on the head for bringing him a pirate and then told her that they could do what they wanted as long as they brought no trouble with them.
Penny's hand reached out to rub the slight bump that had formed on the little boy's head, frowning. The boy didn't seem to be bothered by it, given the unwavering glee emitting from him.
"Mah, I nearly forget." Penny held her hand out toward the little boy. "Don't go around looking for pirates. They're not always going to be like me. Everyone calls me Penny."
"Monkey D. Luffy!" Loud, undaunted, he met her gaze with a fire in his eye. "Take me to your ship!"
Ignoring the mayor's sputtering as they left, Penny nodded. "Since you kept your end of the deal, I suppose it's only fair."
Shanks' ship was the largest in the harbor, boasting numerous sails and a crew numbering over twenty. Most of the crew was still working on securing the sails against the mainmast. As they approached, Luffy's chattering came to a stop. His awe rippled through the air and Penny felt a reluctant comradery with him. The adventure they experienced was burnished into every crevice of the ship, coating it with an immeasurable sense of life.
Luffy held the world in his gaze. "That's it?"
"She's beautiful, isn't she?" asked Penny with a smile. "She's the fastest ship in the East Blue."
"Penny!" Shanks held onto a rope, balancing on the edge of the ship as his cape billowed out behind him. His straw hat cast a shadow on his face, but he tilted his chin up, the sun in his gaze. "Brought us back an anchor?"
Luffy inhaled sharply. The anchor on Luffy's shirt blazed against the white fabric.
Penny gave a careless shrug, walking onto the ship with light steps. "He latched on. You know I can't swim."
"Anchor." Luffy straightened up, eyes full of stars as he looked up at Shanks. "I don't let just anyone board my ship, so why should I let you?"
"I want to see if it's true!"
"What?"
"If pirates are free to do whatever they want!"
Shanks' hardness melted away, a deep laugh echoing in his chest as he waved Luffy up, "Aye, we are! The freest in all the world."
Luffy clenched his fists tight and walked up the gangway with his head held tall. Penny felt, as she once fell victim to, the heavy weight of destiny. A fire in Luffy lit and even the sea wouldn't be able to put it out.
END CHAPTER
