"Ushio, Uuuuuuuuuushio!"
In the plain, almost Spartan bedroom, a young teen boy winced; his mother's sickeningly sweet voice echoed throughout the house.
"Have you taken the garbage out like I asked?" The source of the disembodied voice appeared suddenly; a golden blonde head poking in through the doorway. She had bright green eyes and pale, ivory skin. All in all, she didn't look a thing like the boy she was staring down at.
The ebony skinned boy sighed heavily; noisily slamming closed the book he had been enjoying as he pulled himself to his feet, pushing back the thick black curls bouncing around his face.
"Uh...I'll do that now mom!" His cheeks flushed a light pink before he hurried off to complete his assigned chore, ignoring the scolding of his mother for forgetting to do so earlier.
"Geeze. Everyday; do this, do that!" The boy grumbled to himself as he dragged the large bag of garbage to the front gate where it was to be collected later that evening. It was quite a hot day in the seaside town and Ushio stopped to wipe the sweat from his brow when he'd finished wrestling with the overstuffed bag. Stretching up once more, his brown eyes scanned the sea line contently, before coming to rest on a ship with the flag of a jolly roger wearing a straw hat, which was docked at the port. For some reason this stirred up odd feelings in the boy, like there was something important that he'd forgotten but try as he might he just could not reach beyond the curtain hiding his past from him.
"Guess that's what you get for falling out of a tree and hitting your head." He muttered to himself with a shrug, before subconsciously started towards the port. As he made his way there, he recalled the day he had woken up in the hospital. He had been informed that he had amnesia, he had also noticed a strange couple sitting by his bed, and was later informed they were actually his parents.
"Hmm, might as well pick up some more drawing pencils!" Ushio announced brightly once he finally realized where his feet were taking him. 'And maybe check out that ship. Strange, pirates would never come here... would they?'
---
A curtain twitched and two pairs of eyes fixed onto the young boy as he made his way towards the market place, located conveniently close to the port.
"He's starting to remember." A low pitched, harsh voice stated, a dramatic air around the person as a meaningful pause was added for effect.
"Oh Mitch, you say that everyday!" A more cheerful voice said dismissively. "Stop being so melodramatic and give the boy some space. You know he isn't going to remember anything from before, but if you keep this up you're going to make him suspicious!" A familiar blonde turned from the window, her sharp, cold emerald glare fixing on the man beside her.
---
Not for the first time that morning Nami let out a frustrated sigh, the thick cloud of smoke making it hard for her to see, let alone breath.
"Sanji, I know you need those things, but is it really essential to be puffing on them every second of every day?" She was trying her best to sound calm as she pointed an accusing finger at the ever present cigarette in Sanji's mouth.
Sanji scowled at her, before catching himself and forcing the scowl into a strained smile. "Sure Nami-san, whatever you say Nami-san!" Sanji muttered under his breath sarcastically before taking a deep, long drag of the precious cigarette.
"Give him a break Nami!" Zolo snapped, earning himself a sharp glare from Nami.
"Well you're no better, that's your fifth bottle today!" The accusing finger was now pointing at the whiskey bottle; timing seemed to work against the swordsman as he was caught gulping down yet another mouthful of the vital liquid.
"Look, let's just get this over with so I can get back to my training!" The green head rolled his eyes as they started off towards the town, his arms crossed and a defeated look on his face. Nami was the one person he didn't want to go up against, he still owed her twenty berries from the last time!
"Oh come on Zolo," Groaning as she tried to pull their attention back to why they'd docked here in the first place "You know we're here to take Sanji's mind off things!" She felt safe to state the secret behind the trip, as Sanji had wandered on ahead of them.
---
He'd been minding his own business, really he had! Ushio had nearly made it to the art store, when he accidentally stumbled across a group of strangers. Remembering the warnings he'd received from his over protective mother on the evilness of strangers, he had backed away quietly. He had hoped to slip away without them noticing him.
Unfortunately, luck seemed to be against him as he backed into a trash can, knocking it over. He flinched at the crash, his eyes scrunching shut as if under the impression that if he couldn't see the strangers, they weren't really there. As he had his eyes closed, he didn't notice what had spilled out from the can. It was mostly garbage of course, but by some random misfortune, there was also a perfectly good slab of meat, wrapped up in newspaper so as to avoid contact with the rest of the garbage.
---
During the argument between Nami and Zolo; Luffy had, of course, become bored. His stomach rumbled, bringing him back to the most important thing in his world; food. He started his impersonation of a starved dog; sniffing around eagerly before something wonderful caught his attention. With an enthusiastic cry he leapt up and punched his fist in the air.
"Meat! Meat-meat-meat!" The rest of the crew turned at this, but had very little time to process what had just happened before hearing a loud crash. They hurried towards the sound, peering down to find their captain lying on the ground half draped over a very familiar looking person.