Hello Friends! I just wanted to let you all know that I have decided to start putting in warnings for my story. I won't be tagging them or putting warning at the beginnings of chapters because I feel like that just ruins the story so I will be posting them in the end notes. There aren't any warning for this chapter, and probably won't be for a while. But if you have any concerns then just go ahead and check the end notes before reading. Also just so you guys know I am DEEP in the One Piece fandom, meaning I live for theories especially when they involve my favorite characters. But that also means that if you aren't caught up with the story then you might be a tiny bit confused by some of the things that are included. It shouldn't be a problem for you're enjoyment of the story but just thought I'd let you all know. Thank you again for reading! Hope you all enjoy this chapter!

A certain island in the East Blue...

Well it turns out that both Ace and I were more tired than we had thought because our "midday nap" quickly turned into a "whole night sleep". When I finally woke up I noticed that it was morning, and that I was very hungry. I hadn't eaten since we landed on this island, I still didn't know the name of it by the way, so the last thing that I had eaten had been a few pears back on Sixis.

Huh. I should probably eat something.

So I got myself together a bit more and then headed into town in order to hunt down some food. I ended up finding a small bakery near by so I grabbed a few croissants and muffins to take back to Ace. I knew that it probably wouldn't be enough to satisfy him if yesterday had been an accurate representation of how much he eats regularly. But oh well, he can just be happy that I got him anything at all. Before heading back to our room however I decided to go walk down near the docks in order to see if there was a ship that might suit our needs. I spotted a few marine ships that looked like they could work but with just the two of us it would be difficult to manage anything too big. But then again given Ace's personality I didn't really expect it to take long before we had a full crew. After all he got me to follow him which is impressive on it's own. But hopefully he isn't going to be one of those idiots that let's anyone under the sun join him. Eh, if he is then I can always just leave. But hold on, is that a 5th rate I see over there? That might actually work. It's big but not too big, got a fair number of guns. Yea that one looks good. But let me see if I can't find out a bit more about that ship...

"Excuse me sir! I couldn't help but notice that wonderful Marine ship over there It sure is lovely." I said to a man standing on the docks. Judging by the ledger in his hands I guessed that he was the harbormaster.

"Ah! You've got a good eye miss. That right there's the Interceptor, and there isn't a ship in the sea that can match her for speed."

"Oh wow really? That's incredible! Has it been docked here long?" I said while keeping up my 'dumb civilian' act, seems like it's working.

"She got here about a week ago and she's set to leave tomorrow."

"Oh? Where is she going?"

"That little lady is going straight to Logue Town." He said.

Huh Logue Town, that is a couple weeks trip from here and if it's leaving tomorrow then it must be fully stocked by now. That paired with the fact that it's Thursday is making that ship look quite nice. "Wow that sure is impressive! Well have a nice day sir!" I said with a smile and a wave before walking away. Well the name will need a little work but it certainly looks like our best option here. Hopefully Ace listens to me.

After window shopping down by the dock I headed back to our room. When I got there I saw that Ace was already up. He was sitting cross legged on his bed while writing something on a pad of paper that must have come with the room.

"Oh good you're already up." I said as I shut the door behind me. "I got some croissants and muffins in town if you're hungry." I set the bag down near him on the bed before moving to sit on my own.

"Oh yea sure that would be great thanks." He said while stretching out his back. After that he opened the bag and his face fell. "This is all you got?"

"You ate an obscene amount of food last night. How much more could you possibly eat?" What is with this guy? He literally ate over 100 entrees last night and he is STILL hungry?

"But that was last night! I need real food now!" He whined while eating a muffin.

"Ok fine. You can go get real food later but right now we need to talk about our ship situation."

"Oh right. But first what do you think of this as our flag?" he said while holding up a rough sketch of what could have been a jolly roger when looked at from certain angles.

"Is that supposed to be a skull? Why is it wearing a party hat?" I asked why tilting my head side to side in an attempt to make sense of his scribbles.

"It's not a party hat! It's my hat! But on fire! You said that flags resemble their captains right?" He said that with such passion that I almost believed him. Almost.

"Yes, but I just can't figure out what that is supposed to be. Let me try and redraw it." I said while grabbing the pad of paper that Ace had already drawn on. I flipped to the next page and drew the same thing that he did. Which obviously came out far better than his.

"It looks like you set a horse on fire." He said in a monotone voice.

"Excuse me? I drew the same thing you did only better!" Obviously!

"Mine at least looked like a human skull! That looks like a horse face!" He shouted at me. Oh my gosh why is he being so difficult!

"First of all, no it doesn't. Second of all, we have more important things to discuss."

"Ugghhhhhhhh. I don't want to steal a random ship, I want to buy a great one!" He groaned while flopping on his back.

"But we can't do that here. Come down to the docks with me and I'll point out a couple that I think will work just fine for now."

"Fine but we're getting food first."

"If we must."

Ace and I were walking down the street while looking for a place for him to eat when I noticed a person staring at me. Now, I'm no stranger to people staring at me but this guy was just weird. First off, I couldn't see his eyes behind the skull mask that he was wearing, and everything else he was wearing was covered in skull patterns. Well that's creepy. But so long as he doesn't do anything weird like try and talk to me then I guess it's fine. But stop staring at me dude!

"Hey that's a nice jacket you got there." I heard him call out to me.

Damn it.

"Yeah I know." I said while putting on my best resting bitch face.

"Do you know who's jolly roger that is though? Gotta say, you're real bold to wear that in public." He said while walking up to me. Noooooo don't come closer!

"Not that it's any of your business, but I do actually know who this jolly roger belonged to. Doubt you could say the same friend." When I finished saying that I flipped my hair over my shoulder and started walking away.

"You're kidding right? That used to be the symbol of the Kuja pirates back when they were part of the Rocks crew." When he said that I froze and turned to look at him over my shoulder.

How in the world would he know that? Most people don't even know who Rocks is, let alone that the Kuja's used to sail with him. Hell most Marines don't even know that. There is something going on with this guy. Is he a bounty hunter? No why would he bother bringing up Rocks if he was just after my bounty? Does he work for the government? Fuck, is he from one of the Cipher Pols?

"How do you know about Rocks?" I asked.

"Oh, I know about all the great pirates, I'm a pirate enthusiast. I just love pirates so much!" He said in a chipper voice.

What is that supposed to mean? Whatever we need to leave. This guy is bad news. I started to walk away but stopped when I noticed that Ace wasn't next to me. I turned around to see him talking to the guy. Ace no! This is the opposite of smart! We need to go now!

"What do you mean enthusiast? You aren't a pirate?" Ace asked the guy.

"No but I do everything I can to be close to them. I like to stow away on their ships but they never let me stay for some reason…" The guy responded.

"Hey if you love pirates so much you gotta know a lot about them right?"

"I guess but I'm more of a fan than a researcher or anything like that."

"Well it's been great to meet you but Ace dear we need to be going now." I interrupted through clenched teeth. Seriously does Ace not realize that this guy is bad news? No one just walks around bringing up Rocks.

"Right, hey me and Ari were just about to go get some food you wanna come?" Ace asked in a friendly voice.

Oh no.

"Ace is that really ness-"

"Sure I'd love to!"

Fuck.

As we continued walking Ace and the guy just kept talking. Ace was asking about crews in the area while the other dude was just GUSHING about pirates. Geez this guy has a serious hard on for pirates doesn't he? It's obvious that he knows a lot but I still don't trust him. He doesn't look that strong but I have seen more than enough to know that that means nothing. Does this guy know who we are? Is that why he's here? If he knows about Rocks then he must know about the rumours...

We eventually found a restaurant in town and they barely even paused in their conversation while they were eating. I had honestly stopped paying attention to what they were saying as soon as we sat down. Sure the dude knows some stuff about the major crews in the world so what? I know more than he does so what is even the point in this. UGH, can we just go already? I seriously just want to get away from this guy, Ace let's go!

"You gotta join my crew man! I mean it's just me and Ari right now but we'll be at the top soon enough! You have to come with us!"

I'm sorry what the actual fuck did he just say? He wants this skulled up weirdo to join us? OH HELL NOOO-

"You really want me to join? Sure I'd love to, I mean yes of course let's go!"

Nononononononononononononononononononononono

"Ace are you sure that this is a good idea? We don't really know anything about this guy." DUMBASS he could be a government operative who was sent here to kill us!

"Yea but I didn't know anything about you when you joined either. Besides he's super smart! He knows everything about pirating! Ooohhh Skull you can be our intelligence officer!" He said while ignoring my internal screaming.

"I'll be the best intelligence officer ever Captain!" The guy said while puffing up his chest.

Oh great he's committed now. Ugh, alright fine I guess I'll just have to keep a close eye on him. I can probably take him if he tries anything. But wait why did Ace call him Skull? That can't be his name.

"What is your name?" I asked harshly.

"Ari weren't you paying attention? He already introduced himself. It's bad manners to make him do it again." Ace said.

Boy you wanna talk to me about manners? Please.

"Apologies, my mind was elsewhere. But for formality's sake I am Donquixote Ariadne. Pleasure to meet you." I said in a sickly sweet voice while forcing myself to offer him a handshake.

"Same, I'm Skull."

"That can't be your real name."

"No, it is. I was just a real ugly baby and my parents hated me."

I'm sorry what? He did not just say that. But Ace is dying so I guess he did just say that. Ok so he's funny but that still doesn't mean anything…

After the boys had finished eating and I had made sure that they paid for their meals we went to find a ship. We had found a rooftop that overlooked the harbor that mostly hid us from the people down below. We were all sitting there discussing what ship would be best for our budding crew.

"That ship looks nice."

"Ace, that's a caravel. It wouldn't last a day in the Grand Line. We need a marine ship. Like that one." I said while pointing to a smaller Marine ship That I had looked into earlier in the day. It was much smaller than the standard Marine warship but that also meant that it would be much faster.

"Yea that caravel wouldn't last but do we really need a Marine ship? I don't really want to start my first pirating adventure on a Marine ship." Skull chimed in.

"Marine ships are always well built and well stocked. Also once we change the flag it wouldn't BE a Marine ship anymore." I pointed out.

"I guess, but it'll still FEEL like a Marine ship." Ace said.

"Yea it kind of would." Skull agreed as he and Ace nodded to each other in agreement.

"Oh my gosh do you guys want to make it in the Grand Line? Or would you two rather we just splash around in this little pond forever. Because unless we take the Marine ship then that is all we will be capable of." Seriously what do they have against Marine ships? They are some of the best built ships in the world! Besides the flag is literally the only thing that makes it a Marine ship so once we change that then it will be a pirate ship! That one doesn't even have the typical Marine paint job!

"Damn Air you don't have to be so harsh about it." Ace said.

What did he just call me? "Did you just call me Air?"

"Yea it's shorter than Ari."

"But Ari is already a nickname, and that is literally the same letters. You just switched two of them, how is that any shorter?" I asked.

"I don't know it just is." Ace said with a shrug as if what he had just said actually made sense.

"Um, guys is this really the time to be discussing this? We kind of need to move if we wanna get a ship today." Skull said, interrupting my one sided staring contest with Ace.

"Yes, Skull you are quite right. So we are taking the Marine ship, yes?" I said.

"Ugh, fine." Ace groaned from his seat next to me.

"Oh hush, you'll be thanking me when we have fully stocked kitchen and treasure hold."

"Wait treasure?"

"Yea, Marine ships always carry money so they can pay the sailors on Friday. So seeing as it is Thursday they haven't paid anyone this week so there is going to be a fair bit of Beris on that ship." I said.

"How do you know that? I thought you were a pirate?"

"Used to go to school in a Marine base. Long story." I said while waving off his question.

"Well now I wanna take that ship let's go!" Ace said while jumping off the roof, Skull quickly followed.

"Wait guys we don't have a strategy!" I yelled down to them but they were already halfway to the ship.

Well that went better than I had expected it to. As it would turn out, Skull is more than just a creepy aura and a rather useful brain. The dude can fight. Not to say that he was the best that I have ever seen but there is certainly potential in him. Not enough to make him a genuine threat to me but, he might actually turn into a formidable foe in the future. The far future but still. Ace on the other hand truly shocked me. I knew from his presence as well as his lineage that he would be a strong fighter, but damn. For just having left his home island he is impressive. He didn't have much control over his fruit at all but honestly I don't think he needed it. He did just fine with just his hands. And I sure do love a man who is good with his hands. Wait what?

Between the two of them there wasn't much for me to do when we were securing the ship. There weren't many men on board to begin with and they quickly dealt with the poor souls that had stayed on board. It also turned out that I was right about the ship being well stocked because once we got out of the docks and out onto the open seas we got a chance to actually take a look at our new ship. Ace and I had decided to sit out on the dock of our new ship.

"Ok you were right this ship is pretty nice." Ace finally admitted to me while looking up at the riggings of the ship.

"Well would you look at that. The woman who has been around ships for her entire life actually picked out a good ship. Fancy that." I said sarcastically.

"Ok ok I'm sorry! I'll try not to argue with you next time." He said while putting his hands up in surrender.

"Gee, thanks Captain." I replied sarcastically.

"But now that we have our ship and a crew member we really need to figure out our jolly roger." Ace said while looking at me.

"I thought that we already did? I drew it back on that island." Obviously.

"No you scribbled a dying horse. Not a jolly roger."

Excuse me what?

"What! Oh my gosh how rude! I am a wonderful artist!" I said loudly.

"Ehhhh I'm pretty sure my little brother could have drawn it better and that's saying something." He said while pulling out the pad of paper from his pocket. I was so blown away by what he said about my wonderful drawing that I didn't notice Skull coming up on deck.

"You are so rude! And wrong!"

"Fine we'll just ask Skull who drew it best." Ace said while holding out the papers to Skull who was just standing nearby awkwardly.

"Fine."

Skull took the pages and looked at both of them a couple times. Then he looked at them side by side. Then one at a time again. Before finally saying, "These are both terrible."

"What!" Ace and I both yelled in unison.

"I mean I can see what you guys were going for but they both suck equally in their own special ways." Skull said while he started drawing on another piece of paper. "Is this what you wanted Captain?" He said while holding up his drawing. And damn it if it didn't look good.

"Yea that's what I wanted! That's it exactly! Go draw it on the flag! And the mainsail!" Ace shouted at him while pointing excitedly at the little drawing. Well I guess we have a flag now.

A little while later Ace and I were still sitting together on deck while watching Skull paint the Spade Pirate's jolly roger on the mainsail.

"I actually have a crew." I heard Ace say quietly while we watched Skull paint.

I turned to look at him before saying, "Yes you do."

"You'll make sure I don't fuck it all up right Ariadne?" He looked worried when he said that.

"Course Captain. You'll be great." He's really worried about that? From what I have seen so far the guy might just be able to make it to the top. And maybe just maybe I could stay by his side while he does, just for a little while...

No warnings apply.

So what do you think of Skull? I love him and am super excited to write him! Also shout out to MasterQwertster here on .net for translating the Ace light novel. I will be using that as a very rough guide for the rest of this story and I greatly appreciate them translating it! But as always let me know what you think! I would love to heard from some of you guys!