Mikoto + Ridley + Sage + Zesiro + Hiro-Shu + Enma =

The Infinity Pirate Crew

The deck of the ship was nearly empty. The captain of the ship was in a foul mood, but he brought along some guests anyways. The crew had hidden themselves underneath the deck and were busily preparing food, beds, and other such commodities for the captain. The captain was Alan Fox. He stomped throughout the captain's quarters with his dreadlocks swaying side-to-side, he was muttering something to himself.

Pimp walked in. His head was hanging low. He did several business deals with this man and one thing he always remembered was 'don't get him angry'. He sat down in a fluffy chair and cleared his throat.

Alan Fox turned his head towards him. His usually normal colored eyes had turned red with his fury. He sat down in a seat across from Pimp and spoke gravely, "a most flamboyant welcome".

"Sure," said Pimp, "I appreciate you taking us away from the fight at that moment to do business."

"Of course, you would. You were losing," said Alan Fox, Pimp was going to protest, but Alan just raised his voice and quieted him, "You were losing. You were going to be killed and eaten by him. I saved you because of two reasons. One, you are most helpful business partner. You are cheap." He sat down and took another sip from his wine glass.

"What's the second?" asked Pimp. Pascia was in the next room over receiving medical attention on the ship. She made him a lot of money, but if he had to he'd leave her here and run.

"I want to know about this crew…the Infinity Pirates," said Alan, "they've been causing me a lot of trouble. My brother had apparently gotten an order to eliminate them. I want to see if they are worth his time."

"Yes," said Pimp he started to tell Alan all about what his crew had picked up from their fights.

(-With Mikoto-)

"There!" shouted Mikoto putting the finishing touches on their flag. He smiled with pride. The flag had been an all day process and he was happy it was done. Enma had been a great help with it. He certainly knew a lot about skulls. Their flag was an infinite sign. Within one of the loops was a normal human skull, classic for a Jolly Roger. The other loop had a dog's skull within it. Mikoto had figured that was the perfect symbol for their ship. Seeing as he was the captain.

He sighed. The crew may have been put back together with both Ridley and Sage coming back. Of course he managed to talk Enma into joining alongside them, but that was a completely different story. The main problem was the ship.

The ship was coming apart at the boards. Zesiro had done a patchwork job, despite his actual job being the crew's swordsman, not to mention navigating when Hiro-Shu needed help. But the ship was weakening all along. It was already a relic when they picked it up, this was after all a hand-me-down ship from the pirates who killed Sage's family…oh, yeah, Sage.

Sage may have come back, but she came back with a few strings attached. First off, she wanted another girl aboard the ship. Second off, for the next two days nobody was allowed to go into her room. Why, Mikoto had no idea. Maybe because it was summer and she didn't want anyone to barge into her room while she was trying on bikini's (its not like Ridley hadn't tried to, yet). And third, she wanted help in the kitchen. Cooking for six people was not a easy thing to do for one person. Finally, no alcohol was allowed on the ship. With that being said Ridley was downstairs fighting off withdrawal symptoms.

Mikoto questioned the reasons for all of these rules, but made it his mission not to question Sage. They have all had their rough spots along the journey, but the important thing was that they were together…for the most part. Ridley's withdrawal symptoms kept him in the cabin, Sage's problem kept her in her cabin, and Hiro-Shu was at the wheel 24/7. That leaves Enma and Zesiro.

Mikoto stood up and shook off and headed downstairs. Between the two he preferred Enma, Enma had that funny quality to him. He was kind, polite, and, yet, Mikoto liked him anyways.

Hiro-Shu watched Mikoto head down the steps to the cabins. "Zesiro!" shouted Hiro-Shu. The half-shark looked at him. He pointed to the flag that Mikoto neglected to take care of. It was made on a flimsy piece of fabric and would blow away if it wasn't tied down. Zesiro shrugged picked it up and headed off with it. He'd hoist it up later when the entire crew was around.

Hiro-Shu was keeping to the track Ridley gave him. Mikoto's directions for Hiro-Shu was 'Go anywhere' while Ridley was a bit more specific and said 'let's head to Arost Island'. Arost Island was away from the Grand Line, but it gave the crew a bit more time to practice for the upcoming fights so it seemed like a good idea. Besides Ridley had already left the crew once, what else could he do?

Mikoto had entered Enma's room with nary a knock. He just opened the door and walked in ignoring the fact that whatever Enma was doing could be dangerous and kill him. Enma didn't seem to care, however, he waved him and pointed out a chair.

"Hey, Enma, what's going on down here?" asked Mikoto taking a seat in the chair.

"Going over our crew's health files," said Enma, "also protecting my stock of alcohol."

"Alcohol?" shouted Mikoto standing up, "Sage is going to kill you if she finds out!"

"Not that kind of alcohol," said Enma quietly correcting him, "rubbing alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, medicinal alcohol. Its makes for great medicine, but it can kill a person if digested. I think Ridley wants to test that out."

"Thank you for keeping my musician alive," said Mikoto. He stopped for a second and leaned back, then an interesting question hit him, "what's in the health files?"

"The crew's history. Where they've been, what they have been doing over the years, when was the last time they were sick, a family medical history, and of course any diseases they have," said Enma.

"Someone has a disease!" shouted Mikoto, "are they going to live?"

"Actually someone does," said Enma, "but not to worry its not a fatal disease. Its just a disease that's going to…make life a little more interesting around here. Also can you go ask Ridley if he can get me his medical file for the past couple of weeks. Its completely blank."

"He left our crew," said Mikoto, "his dad tried to kill him."

"Family problems," said Enma. He paused for a second and then added, "do you think his family has psychopathic issues?"

"Ah…its possible. I mean Karasu didn't seem to be that mentally healthy. Not to mention Ridley's problems." Mikoto stood up, "I'm going to go ask Ridley what happened to him over the last week."

Mikoto exited the room and walked over to boys' room and knocked. A terrible retching could be heard from inside. Mikoto waited a few seconds and his knock was never answered, not to mention the sound of vomiting continued. "I'll come back later." He took a turn and headed towards the kitchen. It was close to dinner time and he figured it would probably be best if he got to work on helping Sage.

The kitchen was a little messy when Mikoto got there. He groaned and started to clean. He hated the kitchen duty, but everyone else was busy so he had to do it. Enma was working on keeping his crew healthy (important), Hiro-Shu was driving the ship (important), Zesiro was keeping the ship intact (important), Sage was working on something in her room (not important, but she scared him), and finally Ridley was throwing up (gross).

Mikoto quickly had the kitchen cleaned. He moved over to the refrigerator. Sage had everything marked. Namely what kinds and how much of each food was in the fridge. She did this to stop people from picking at the food they had. Mikoto missed those days. He flipped the note over. On the back was the recipe for dinner and what was needed. They were having steaks tonight in order to celebrate Enma's joining.

Mikoto got out six steaks and walked them over to the fire pit they used. This ship was a relic, they still had a fire pit. He put the steaks on and started the fire on a low heat. He figured it would be better if he kept the fire on low rather then turning it on high and burning the ship. He waited for Sage.

Sage came in a few minutes later. She was dressed in jeans and a shirt with flower imprints. She seemed surprise to she Mikoto in there. "Mikoto, what are you doing in here?" She prayed that he wasn't in here to steal more food.

"Helping," said Mikoto pointing over to the steaks. They were still red and rare with some meat juices dripping off of them and for some reason Mikoto couldn't take his eyes off of them. They looked delicious.

Sage's face went from her suspicious accusing face to a face of pure and utter glee. "Thank you, Miko-chan!" she said as she threw her arms around him hugging him. "You are so helpful!" Her arms tightened around his neck choking him. "Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU!"

"I would feel better if you didn't try to kill me!" shouted Mikoto. Sage let up her killer death grip and backed away. "AND DON'T YOU EVER CALL ME MIKO-CHAN!" Sage backed up a few more steps and her hand went up to her mouth. She looked like a frightened little girl.

"I'm sorry!" she said as her face brightened up once again. "I know how much you hate it! It just sort of slipped out! Tell you what in order to make it up to you, I'll make you a big ol' helping of fish with dinner."

"Oh, crap," said Mikoto, "you are planning on killing me, aren't you?"

"No, silly!" said Sage, "I'm just trying to…" her face went back to being normal, "nice. Now if you will excuse me. GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN!" She kicked Mikoto's stool out from under him and pointed towards the door. Mikoto walked right of the room with his tail between his legs and closed the door behind him.

"Phew…" said Sage when she was confident he was out of earshot, "I hope they don't get use to me like that. I don't think I can handle it if they thought I acted like that all of the time." Her face changed again to the previous cheerful expression. "Now back to cooking "

Mikoto sulked up onto the deck and continued on his way to the dining room. Well, the room they used as the dining room. It was probably once a gym, but Sage insisted on turning it into a dining room. He sat down in one of the chairs and slumped onto the table.

"How's it going," said Enma. He was moving the tables around for dinner.

"Why are you up here?" asked Mikoto ignoring Enma's question.

"Sage asked me to get Zesiro and have him set up the tables, but I figured I had some free time so I'd do it," said Enma as he pulled a chair up and sat down. "Why the long face?" He pulled out a pack of playing cards and started to shuffle them.

"I'm going to die before the end of tonight," said Mikoto sighing, "Sage is going to kill me. First she was all nice and hugged me, choking me, then she offered me fish with my steak, and finally she kicked me out of the kitchen."

"Aye," said Enma, "you found out about her disease. Seasonal Affective Disorder. See, ordinarily she'd be all peppy and extra happy during the spring time. But due to the weather problems that occur out at sea it occurs during the summer instead." Enma dealt five cards to Mikoto and five cards to himself.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," said Mikoto.

"Seasonal Affective Disorder," repeated Enma, "During the Spring time a person with this disease is overly energetic, cheerful, generous, and nice. This is the Sage you just met. Then during the Summer and Fall periods the person returns to their regular moods, Normal Sage. Finally there is Winter. In Winter Sage will become gloomy, depressed, and all around a real downer. Get it?"

"Yeah, I guess so," said Mikoto eyeing his five cards, "and the weather effects when we are out at sea?" He had a three of hearts, a four of diamonds, a five of spades, a King of Spades, and a two of clubs.

"The sea breeze lowers the temperature of the ship," said Enma, "so, while Summer time will be normally extremely hot, it cools and generates a Spring-like feel. So when it is Spring it feels colder and doesn't trigger this effect."

"Too much science," said Mikoto falling to the table, "give me another card."

The Man, The Music, the Mystery!

Ridley at Sea

Just a normal day at sea for the Infinity Pirate crew. And yes, that is the crew's flag that Mikoto was working on. They finally got one. Go Infinity Pirates! I'm at Chapter 50 and they just now get their pirate flag…how sad is that?

Sage will be in overly happy and overly energetic mode for the rest of the arc! Enjoy!

Enma likes playing card games and steaks and in case you were wondering he proceeds to beat Mikoto thirteen out of fourteen hands. Also the poll was way in favor of Enma six out of thirteen people voted him. (Three voted for Kira, and then both David and Corra got two votes.

The next chapter will be focusing on Ridley's life on the sea away from the Infinity Pirates crew! Also, another plot twist, possibly two!

Also, a few things relating to how the story is going to progress.

How did you guys like the poll to pick the Infinity Pirate doctor? Should I do it again or should I just stop with the poll idea?

The next crew member will be female. I have already narrowed it down to three contestants. (Two shipwrights and one intelligent tactician)

Due to the fact that I got thirteen votes (and yet I only have five reviewers, odd), I figured a lot of people had to be anonymous readers, so I enabled anonymous reviews on my page.

I am still looking for OCs for those of you who are wondering. I got four Shichibukai's, one admiral, and two Yonkous.