Luffy was a constant addition to the ship in the weeks they were docked in Foosha Village. He'd make his way onto the ship before dawn, disturbing Penny's light rest as he attempted to climb up to the crow's nest only to fall repeatedly. Captain Shanks tended to sleep deeply, or at least pretend to, leaving Penny to deal with the brat until the rest of the crew woke up.

"You've been to the Grand Line?" squawked Luffy.

"That's where we were before we came here."

Luffy weaved between the barrels, following her as she mopped the deck in the early morning. "Did you see giants?!"

"Nope. They're out there though, so it's only a matter of time."

"What about your island?"

Penny paused and leaned against the mop, considering the question. "My island?"

"Where are you from? Gramps makes me stay in this boring place even though I don't want to, but at least I've learned to get strong. Wherever you're from must've made you strong too! I want to go there!"

"I'm from the Grand Line."

Luffy's cheeks puffed out in his outrage. He threw his head back and screamed, "THAT'S NOT FAIR! I WANT TO BE FROM THE OCEAN TOO!"

Shanks swept in, swung Luffy upside down, and gave him a hard shake. "Want me to toss you in then?!" Luffy fought back against the hold, kicking his legs as hard as he could. "Leave Penny alone. Unlike you, she's actually pulling weight around here. Too much if you ask me."

"The beer would've made the deck smell if we didn't clean it up."

Shanks turned to the side, pressing his fist against his mouth. "Too cute. You worry too much, Penny-chan!"

"You're so annoying," muttered Penny, flicking the dirty water in his direction.

"Why does she get to be on the ship?!"

"Penny's my apprentice and she's older than you. Besides, she's actually proven herself useful unlike you." Shanks deposited Luffy on the ground and wiggled Luffy's arms. "Look at that, no muscle. How are you going to be a pirate if you can't even fight?"

"I can fight! I can! I'll show you right now!"

"Don't embarrass yourself," called out Penny. She wasn't sure if it was meant for Luffy's ears or the Captain's but either way, the two of them looked like idiots.

"Can you fight?" asked Luffy turning to Penny with wide, shining eyes. Penny hesitated and then dipped her head in a slight nod. "Will you show me?! Please! I won't bother you—"

"You don't bother me, Luffy."

"Really?" Shanks hid his smile as Luffy latched onto Penny dragging her toward him despite their height difference. "Let's go now!"


Penny didn't like fighting. It was messy and left her aching and hurt and sweaty. But she had learned before that those who didn't fight, died. Luffy fought with a wildness that spoke to a life of danger that confused Penny. He lived in a relatively safe village and he was only six. Even as he attempted to wrestle her to the ground, he did it with everything he had.

"Stop."

Her voice was sharper than she meant it to be.

"I was winning! You can't—"

"Luffy, it's not a real fight."

Luffy flipped to the side. He stayed like that for a second, wobbling before he toppled to the ground. "Yeah, I know!" He smiled widely as if she had said something funny. "My grandpa hits harder than you do."

Penny tucked the information away for later. Luffy didn't seem distressed, but she could feel a cold chill crawling down her spine. "Let's play a game instead. That'll be more fun for the two of us."

They chased each other all over town. Luffy's surprisingly fast for a six-year-old and Penny thought that it was a bit sad that there weren't any other children in the small village for him to play with. The old people were cranky, and Makino's kindness was a welcome relief as she handed them juice whenever they ran past her bar.

"You've never seen a windmill before?" asked Luffy as she slowed down to a stop in front of it.

Penny jumped up, catching one of the rotating planks. "What do you use this for?"

"Dunno."

"I've never seen one before! It has to do something fantastic—we should take a picture of it and show Shanks."

"You have a camera?!"

"There's one on the ship. We don't use it a lot though—I snatched it off a Marine when we were on the Grand Line."

"THAT'S SO COOL!"

"I have a lot of other things too! Den Den Mushi and maps and books and—oh! I have treasure! Do you want to see it?!"

Penny's bedroom was a wonder. Being the only girl on the ship afforded her a separate bedroom, though Penny often ended up sleeping in a spare hammock after one of their parties. Shelves covered an entire wall, stuffed to the brim with books of all sorts—many of them were concerned with stories of adventure and legendary treasure. Jewels and lights hung all over her ceiling from swathes of fabric that crossed overhead. Model ships, bottles of perfume, paintings, scrolls, and vases filled with dried flowers littered every surface.

Luffy took in everything with wide eyes, hands reaching out to touch whatever was in reach. A roll of fabric smoother than silk and lighter than air, a lattice of string from a half-finished tapestry, and dried persimmons just within reach of Penny's bed. He stuffed a couple of them in his mouth.

"Do you want anything? I have lots of stuff, but the room's too small for me to organize it all, so I keep only the important stuff here."

"Nah-uh! I'm not taking your treasure!"

"I've giving it to you. Treasure is worth more if there's a story behind it."

"I want that!" Luffy pointed to a red vest that Penny made after finding an old photo of Captain Shanks on Gol D. Roger's ship. It was too big for Luffy, but Penny assumed he'd grow into it one day. She pulled it off the coat hanger and handed it to him.

"You can have it." It needed new buttons, ones that looked more pirate-like. "Everyone says the One Piece is the world's greatest treasure, but it'd suck if there was one treasure better than all the rest. What would you do once you find it?"

Luffy chomped on a persimmon while she rattled the jars on her desk looking for new buttons. "Everything," said Luffy. "I'll do whatever I want."

Penny smiled. "That's a good answer."

The Den Den Mushi on her desk slithered forward, opening its mouth for a piece of fruit. Luffy fed it happily.

Penny picked the snail up, taking the bundled book underneath into her arms. "This is my book—I've been writing down everyone we've met and everything we've seen. I don't want to forget anything ever again."

"Lemme see."

"You have to promise to be careful."

The book itself was bound in embossed leather, riddled with jewels and the inside was the same. Gold, brilliant crimsons, the bluest of blues, yellow like canary feathers, every color under the sun illustrated the pages. Penny's handwriting was its own work of art. Fabric was pinned to some pages bringing the outfits the characters wore to life.

Luffy looked at Penny in awe. "You made this?!"

"It's good, right?" She knocked a box over. It fell with a great clatter as she reached around it and pulled a small doll dressed in a military outfit. "This is the Tsuru-san. She's in the book too, but I liked her wrinkles so much, I made a model of her."

It looked human. The folds of the doll's face were lightly veined and so realistic that they half expected the doll to breathe and talk.

Luffy made a face and bluntly said, "It's creepy."

Penny deflated.

"But, really cool! Make one of me!"

Offended, she shoved his face away from her.


"You can eat them. There's a prince in Bourgeois who eats them straight off the bushes!"

The Red Hair Pirates' eyes drifted toward her, watching her and Luffy interact closely. Though they were vaguely aware that Penny had a life before their ship, it was the first time they'd ever heard of it.

Bourgeois. Shanks savored the name in his mouth, imagining a land of vast wealth and castles as far as the eye could see. He could see her growing up there, a place that smelled of flowers all year round and was warmed by a Spring sun all year round. But, the shadowed look in Penny's eyes told him that her past held something much darker than rose-eating princes.

Luffy stomped his feet, "No, you can't!"

"What would you know?" asked Penny, rolling her eyes.

"PROVE IT!"

"Why would I?"

"I bet you're too scared to do it!"

Penny stuffed the rose into her mouth, nearly choking on the petals. Her cheeks puffed out, arms crossed over her chest as Shanks rolled around laughing. "See," she choked out. "I'm not a liar!"

Luffy poked her face, causing one petal to fall out of her mouth and twirl to the ground. "Did you eat some dirt too?" His fingers pinched her cheek, pulling as hard as he could.

Penny chewed quicker and then swallowed the lump down with a gag. "There," she said crossing her arms over her chest. "I told you I could do it."

"Wow." Luffy picked his nose. "You're really dumb, you know that, Penny?" His shoulders began to shake before he let out a loud laugh, slapping Shanks' arm as he rolled in the dirt next to him. "Shanks, did ya see her? She actually ate it!"

"Penny doesn't know when to back down. She wants the whole world to at her whim." Shanks offered her a sly smile, winking as if there was a joke hidden in his words that only they could enjoy.

Twirling the flower stem in her hands, she picked at the thorns pulling them off one by one.


"Stay still," ordered Yasopp. Penny rolled her eyes and folded her hands in front of her as she balanced an apple on top of her head. "Now, Luffy," The small boy looked up with stars in his eyes, "Watch closely. A real sharpshooter can do this without touching a hair on her head."

"If you do, I'll shoot you."

Yasopp laughed loudly, spinning the gun in his hand. A crack broke through the air. Penny flinched as the apple burst and hit the tree behind her. Juice rained down on her cheeks. She looked behind her, staring at the hole in the tree.

Luffy's mouth dropped open. "DO IT AGAIN!"

Penny pulled at her stained shirt in horror. She had known this would happen, but Luffy's smile had temporarily vacated her reasoning. A wicked gleam entered her eye, "It's my turn now!"

Yasopp shook his head, fear lining his face as she advanced. "Penny-chan, let's be reasonable. You want the Captain to be short a sharpshooter?!"

Luffy and her shared a matching grin and used their combined force to tie Yasopp to a nearby tree using the sash from her pants. He made a large show of struggling, but she could see the trust in his gaze as she readied her razor-thin rapier. Luffy climbed onto Yasopp's side, placing the apple on his head, and came giggling back to her.

Penny struck quickly, seeming to only take a step and a single stroke before the apple was sliced into dozens of paper-thin slices. She sheathed the needle-like sword and bowed dramatically as Luffy cheered her on.

Yasopp opened his eyes, catching one of the slices with his hand. He held it up to the sun, the light filtering through the fruit's flesh. "That's some skill you've got."

"I learned from the best."

Yasopp escaped from his bonds and charged toward them, sending them scattering with high-pitched laughter.

"Penny, follow me!" said Luffy, raising his fists to the sky as he ran away.

Breathless, she did just that.


Limejuice's skill with an axe turned out to be incredibly useful for the bonfire they were building on the beach. Penny, having been kicked out of the kitchen for sneaking food to Luffy, decided it would be safer to distance herself from the ship least she get wrapped up in Luffy's troublemaking once more.

"That's a pretty handy Devil Fruit," said Limejuice as the piece of wood he chopped seemed to copy itself over and over next to him.

"It's magic," insisted Penny. She opened her hands revealing the handful of shells and pretty rocks she collected. "Do you think I can take these?"

Limejuice laughed and nodded, holding his hand out for them. He slipped the objects into his pockets, holding them safe for her. "There's no such thing as a polite pirate. You'll ruin our image if you keep at it."

"There's nothing in the rules that says you need to be rude and unkempt either." Penny glared fiercely at the hat on his head which she was sure he'd never taken off a day in his life to wash. "You'd think with all that water around, people would take the liberty to bathe more often, but all the other pirates we've met either smelled or looked like sewer rats."

"Wait until we get back to the Grand Line—that's where the real characters come out to play. You'll like Whitebeard."

"Is he old?"

"He was Roger's rival back in the day."

Penny groaned loudly. "That means he's really old! Why are all the pirates we see old people?"

Limejuice snickered, finding her displeasure more amusing than she did. "It's hard for a kid to survive on the seas."

"PENNNNNNY!" Her head shot up, a wide smile on her face as she waved to Luffy. "Look!" He stuck his tongue between his teeth and pushed hard, forcing the tooth to move against his gum.

Penny reeled back, half disgusted, half tempted to pull it out. "Cool."

"You gotta knock it out for me!"

"What?!" Her hands flew behind her back, hiding them from Luffy's sight. "I can't do that!"

"Come on! I bet you can't even hit that hard—you cried when I hit you."

"Because it hurt! That's what you do when something hurts!"

Luffy wrapped himself around her legs, holding her tightly. "Penny! Penny! Penny!"

"Go away!"

"PENNY!"

"FINE, BUT YOU ASKED FOR IT!"

She balled her fist tightly, winding her arm up to hit Luffy hard enough to knock out his loose tooth and a couple of others. Limejuice watched them with a curious expression, twisting his head to look for Shanks who had an easier time getting the two of them to listen to him.

Penny tapped Luffy's face gently, dropping her fist to her side. "You're my friend, so I'm not going to hit you."

Luffy's fist smashed against her elbow. "There! Now, you can hit me back!"

Penny ground her teeth together, taking a deep breath. "Luffy…if you want to live…you better run."


One day, weeks after they had landed on the island, Penny decided to venture into the forest behind the town. At night, all sorts of noises echoed through the darkness. There was a world of adventure hidden beneath the shady trees, and she wasn't looking to miss out. Her skirts and dress were swapped out for a pair of pants and a billowy shirt that made her look less like a girl and more like the cabin boy that the Marines labeled her as.

The roots of the trees tangled over one another, making it hard to see any kind of path. Penny worried for a moment about how she would find her way back but then forced the thought away.

"Luffy?" Shock colored her voice as she caught sight of the boy army crawling in the grass. "What are you doing here?"

"Huh?" His face and clothes were covered in a fine layer of dirt. "I saw a bear and wanted to catch it."

"A bear? What's that?"

"If I find it, I'll show you. Wanna come with me?"

Penny nodded. It wasn't even a question really—Luffy got into more trouble than she did, so the least she could do was go along for the ride.

As it turned out, a bear was a large animal capable of throwing a tree to the ground with its claws. As Luffy's description of it grew, so did her hesitance to catch one.

"Are you sure it's safe?"

"Sure is! You've got your sword, I've got my punches—" Luffy struck the air fiercely. "—we'll knock it right out."

"…this is usually the part of the story where one of us gets eaten for the emotional impact," muttered Penny.

"Shishishishi, you're so weird!"

As they crossed into the tree line, a massive cave broke through the skyline, dwarfing everything else in sight. Penny thought it was big enough to fit the ship inside and wider than the mouth of a river.

Penny cleared her throat, excitement filling her. "Let's go inside!" Luffy echoed the words at the same time, causing them to laugh.

"Woah!" His echo rung against the walls. "So cool! Penny, it's so freaking cool!"

Penny giggled when he shouted again, waiting for the sound to bounce back. Something flew by overhead fleeing from the noise. As they ventured deeper, the light of the sun seemed to blink out, leaving them in an eerie darkness. Penny's inched closer to Luffy, keeping a careful eye on him.

Bright crystals jutted out of the ceiling, water dripping down their sides making a pinging sound echo every time the droplets fell.

"Maybe we should…"

"Look!" Luffy ran ahead, climbing onto a piece of crystal jutting out from the ground. "I didn't think there was anything like this here!"

Penny climbed up after him, inhaling sharply as she caught sight of something long and twisting. Her eyes slid over the gigantic snakeskin of a deep, shimmering black.

Penny felt a cold chill climb up her spine. She pressed a hand on Luffy's shoulder, pulling him behind her despite his protests that he was stronger than a Sea King. Something monstrous lurked in the cave, its power sending all the spiders and bugs in the vicinity fleeing.

The ground beneath their feet rumbled. Penny turned, pulling Luffy along as she ran.

Great, gleaming teeth sank into the crystal. Penny moved with a shout, shoving Luffy out of the way as she caught oil-black scales shifting along the cave wall. Stone exploded overhead as she pulled her arm back and covered her head. The stone overhead broke apart as the snake's tail lashed out against the stone.

When the dust cleared, she was standing alone, gazing at a pile of rock. "Luffy?" she called, heart beating fast. She had pushed him out of the way, but he was small and dumb enough to come after her. "Luffy?! Are you alright?!"

His unique laughter filtered through the stone. "Why'd you go and do that?! I wanted to fight that thing!"

Penny pressed her shaking hands against her eyes, laughing slightly. "I didn't want you to get hurt."

Luffy went quiet.

Penny listened to his steady breathing.

"Oh."

Sometimes words weren't needed to tell a story. Maybe, like her, Luffy had been alone once, but Penny vowed that as long as the Red Hair Pirates were in Foosha Village, he'd have someone watching him, the way Shanks watched over her.

"I know you're strong." Dreams like Luffy's, like hers, were small fires that needed to be fed constantly. "And that you'll be King of the Pirates, but you're just a kid, right now. So, you need to learn what you can and can't do before you grow up."

She didn't know where the shadowy snake had gone, but she could feel it nearby, watching her. Her skin crawled, sweat blooming as she realized that she was likely going to die. Penny's fingers fell to the hilt of her sword.

"Luffy, c-can you go get the Captain for me?"

"Why do you sound like that?!"

Something was stirring inside the darkness of the cave. Something was slithering along the walls, causing the ground to vibrate beneath her feet. "Luffy! Go get Shanks!"

"No, I won't." Shuffling and then she could feel Luffy's presence at her back like a warm hand, lending her some of his strength. "I'm not leaving you all alone! I won't do it!"

Eyes brighter than emeralds and bigger than her head locked onto her. Penny exhaled, watching the snake carefully. She was glad that Luffy was stubborn. She didn't want to face her death all on her own, but more than that, Luffy being there gave her a reason not to give up.

"Okay," said Penny, smiling to herself. "I'll have to win then."

The snake lunged, but Penny was already moving. She pressed her foot to the side of the cave and pushed off, using the momentum to jump onto the body of the snake. It was slippery and smooth at the same time, feeling, unlike anything Penny had ever felt before.

She readied her sword, raising it high above her head and then striking.

The sword snapped against the diamond-hard scales. Penny stared at it in disbelief and then kicked against the snake's side. "THAT'S NOT FAIR! WHAT KIND OF LAME-ASS SWORD DID THAT MORON GET ME?!" In a slightly calmer voice, she said, "Luffy, don't repeat what I just said."

"The old man says way worse when he comes to visit."

The snake moved toward her like a withering shadow. Its body scrapped against the stone; the sound echoed in her mind. Penny wanted more space and as if her fear willed it into being, the distance between her and the snake doubled, but it keep advancing. Penny's feet tangled as she struggled to decide between running and fighting. She fell against the stone, the hilt of her broken sword cutting into her palm.

Hissing, it watched her as her fear strangled any sense she had. Penny took a step forward and then another. Fight. Her body willed it. Fight and live.

"You're not even that big," said Penny, convincing herself despite her shaking voice. "I can take you."

The snake's tongue tasted the air, almost teasing her.

"Ugly," hissed Penny back.

Tail lashing out, it swiped Penny off its back and threw her against the wall. Luffy's worried shout mixed with words of encouragement. "You're a pirate!" shouted Luffy, voice rattling through her pain. "Only you get to decide how you die! SO DON'T DIE, DAMNIT!"

Its long, poisonous fangs sunk into her upper arm, dragging down to her elbow as the snake wretched away. Penny held in her scream, aware that it would cause Luffy to panic. White-hot pain spread all across her arm like fire, rendering it useless. She clutched her broken sword in her hand and lunged toward the snake's giant eye.

She pushed and pushed, driving it down to its hilt as the beast lashed against the walls to free itself from the stinging pain. Penny willed the power she normally reserved for silly things like copying food and pretty things she found on their travels to work now too. To copy her pain and the snake's over and over again until it was too much for the beast to bear. It tried shaking her off as it thrashed, but she had to win.

The snake slowed, and then stilled and fell to the floor.

Penny held on for another minute, hanging off the side of its head while blood pooled from their shared wounds, down her side, and then she fell too. She moaned, clutching her burning arm, and cried to herself, back hitting the ground roughly.

"Penny?" called Luffy over her sniffling. "Did you get it?!"

She cried louder, "Go get Shanks, you idiot!"

Luffy's laughter and retreating steps echoed against the cave walls.


"SHANKS! SHANKS! YOU HAVE TO—"

"Where's the fire?" asked Shanks, laughing over his beer as he leaned away from Makino. Luffy threw the glass to the floor, grabbing Shanks' hand as he tried to pull him off his seat. Shanks frowned. "Hey, what's going on?"

Giant tears flooded Luffy's eyes, streaming down his face in wide rivets, "Penny needs you! She fought a giant snake and she's stuck in the cave, but now she's hurt so you have to go help her!"

It took him a second to comprehend Luffy's blubbering. Shanks picked up his hat, nodding to Beckman, Yasopp, and Hongo to follow him. As they ventured deep into the forest behind Foosha Village, Shanks felt the disturbance in the air. Haki—though he'd had used it around Penny before, he didn't think she fully understood what it was. But it was moments like these, of distress and pain, that unlocked the strength of your soul.

The part of the cave where the wall had collapsed blocked off the steady signal that Penny was unconsciously sending his way.

Shanks looked at the wall of rocks carefully as the others argued over how to best clear it. Luffy tugged on his pant leg as he pressed his fingers between the crevices and pulled out one of the rocks. A flood of them followed. Shanks yelped, picking Luffy up by the collar of his shirt and yanking him out of the way.

"…Captain, you just guessed, didn't you?"

"What? No way, that was planned!"

A brief pause. Laughter bounced off the cave walls causing Luffy and Shanks to smile. "Let's go find Penny."

They caught sight of the snake first. A massive, hulking beast over forty-feet long and thicker than the mast of their ship, dead or well on its way there. Shanks ventured forth, ignoring the snake in his hunt for his apprentice.

Penny had propped herself up against the cave wall, clutching her bleeding arm tightly to her chest. Her brows were bunched together, an angry pout on her dirt-streaked face as they filled in one-by-one. Red and swollen and slight glassy eyes made his worry increase. Shanks let out an impressed whistle, looking at where her sword hilt stuck out of the snake's eyeball.

"It broke."

"The sword?"

"Yes. I want a new one—the best one in the world."

"We'll have to hunt it down."

"I want it to be mine only. I don't want a cursed sword from some nobody no one remembers."

Shanks kneeled, holding his hand out to Penny, palm facing her. She gingerly shifted, face awash with pain as she moved her arm toward him. The dark blood crusted around the wound and white leaking out was already a bad sign. Poison and a wound deep enough to scar—his eyes flickered to Luffy who stared at the wound with wide eyes.

"You know what this means," said Shanks, a slight smile playing at his lips. A sigh escaped Penny's mouth. "We've got to throw you a party!"

Yasopp crowded around her as Hongo got to work analyzing her wound, exclaiming that they wanted a reenactment of her fight and a play-by-play retelling. His chatter brought a shy smile to Penny's face, but her eyes were stuck on Luffy.

Clearing her throat, she said. "I was going to run away, but Luffy convinced me not to. Thanks!"

Luffy hiccupped and then wailed loudly, throwing himself forward and hugged Penny's legs tightly. Penny stuck her tongue between her teeth. "Why are you crying? I'm the one that got hurt. You'll have to be my servant until I'm better, so quit drooling and go find me a new—"

"HUH?!" Luffy's face cleared of any tears. "FOR HOW LONG?!"

"Until I say so."

"THAT'S NOT FAIR! IT'S ONLY A SCRATCH!"

"Emotional damage."

"What's that?!"

Penny didn't have the energy to answer, so she patted the top of Luffy's head softly.


"Awake?" asked Shanks, sitting in a chair by her bedside. His straw hat was resting on one of the posts of her bed.

Penny tried to sit up, disorientated by the pain weaving through her. "It hurts," she whimpered.

Shanks ran a hand through her hair, the touch light and soft as if he was afraid, it would bring her more pain. "The venom's not taking to the antidote well—we're going to find something to make you feel better. Makino's going to keep an eye on you until we come back."

"Am I dying?"

"No." His voice was firm. "You've got too much of the world left to see."

Luffy was resting against her good side, wrapped around her torso like a sloth on a branch. His drool pooled on Penny's shirt. She pulled it away from her skin with a disgusted grimace and patted Luffy's head like she would a dog. "Was he worried?"

"We all were."

A toothy grin spread on Penny's face. Shanks felt the stone in his chest lift a bit, relieved that she could still make that kind of expression. "I thought there'd be something cool like catacombs or cave paintings or treasure, but there wasn't any of that. I haven't forgotten your promise about my sword though!"

"You killed a King Mamba—that's not something most people can boast." Neither of them mentioned the impossibility that hid within the statement. "Once you're better, you can get whatever you want. You've got the best crew in the world on your side, Penny-chan."

Penny shifted, face scrunching as her arm was moved and muttered something under her breath.

"…do you need a tissue?"

Penny's cheeks splotched, a feverish tint rising up her neck. "I'm saying thank you!"

Shanks couldn't help but laugh. He couldn't help but tease her a bit, knowing that it was likely a struggle to get the words out. "They'll kick you out of the Grand Line with those manners."

Penny managed a tired giggle before she succumbed to sleep once more. Shanks waited for her breathing to even out before reaching for his hat. He watched the two of them for a while longer, wondering what kind of life Penny might have had before joining his crew that made her so forceful.

Luffy sneezed his sleep, kicking his pillow off the bed and onto the floor.

It might not have been as turbulent as his and Buggy's relationship, but Shanks had a feeling that Luffy and Penny would be tied together by something thicker than blood. Shanks could see an inkling of the future in them. A bright, impossible dream finally fulfilled.

"Thanks for watching out for her," said Shanks to Makino as he headed out. Though he'd rather leave with every member of his crew, he knew better than to risk exposing Penny to danger in the state she was in. It was the same reason that Captain Roger had left Buggy behind. "I'll be back before you can even miss me."

He turned around, ready to leave but his mind couldn't quiet the growing list of worries. Penny hadn't been on the ship for long, but the months she'd already spent with them made him forget what it'd been like before.

"She's not the most even-tempered kid, so don't worry if she gets sulky randomly. And let her out for air when she asks because otherwise, she'll try to sneak out. She's always getting into trouble, so stick her with Luffy. The less mature someone else is, the more responsible she gets."

Makino smiled, reaching out to squeeze his arm lightly. "I'll take good care of her."

His heart jumped and did a series of cartwheels that let him know it was entirely too long since he'd seen a beautiful woman. "I know you will."


"Do you have a family?" whispered Luffy when she woke.

Penny was slightly disoriented, but she settled on an answer, "Not the kind people on islands have." Shanks and the Red Hair Pirates were the closest thing to family that Penny had since...since...she shook the memories away.

Luffy frowned to himself. "You get to pick them?"

"Everyone does."

"Then…I pick you!"

Penny inhaled sharply.

Luffy stood in front of her, hands on his hips, and jerked his chin up. "Shanks told me to take care of you, so I'll be your family until you get better! Okay, Penny?!" Luffy's lower lip wobbled, "I'll get strong, and you'll never have to fight by yourself again!"

Wide, glassy eyes follow Luffy as he launched into a story about how he'd be the greatest pirate to ever sail. Penny doesn't interject, doesn't do anything but listen. Sometimes when Luffy spoke, it was like listening to the universe all at once.

The magic that was everywhere multiplied in his presence. Penny didn't understand what it meant, but she wanted to be a part of it too.

Silently, and to herself, she spun the same promise. She'd get stronger too and one day, she and Luffy would find the One Piece together.


END CHAPTER