Disclaimer: One Piece does not belong to me.

To Luffy, the people at the Coliseum seemed nice enough - he didn't know what everyone had been so worried about. Well, he did know - the Coliseum was full of much deadlier, much more experienced fighters than he'd ever laid eyes on, and they would rip him to shreds without thought. He had yet to meet any of said deadly fighters, though.

But he'd heard all sorts of stories about the guards and other staff in the building. That they randomly attacked the people in the Coliseum to keep them on edge. That they fed the contenders dog droppings instead of real food. That they would go and capture children off the street if a parent left a kid unattended.

However, to Luffy, the guards didn't seem like kidnappers or monsters. They were just a little dim, he decided. They kept glancing at him, then at each other, and then back at him, as though they were perpetually confused. There were always long pauses before any of them answered his questions. They'd ask him things, too, like "You're just a kid, right?" "Aren't you scared?" "Why are you laughing?"

Of course he was a kid. No, why would he be scared? He laughed because it was exciting! This was what he had been waiting for all of his life! Weren't those answers obvious?

Thus, the guards were clearly a little slow in the head. Luffy didn't mind, though. He didn't judge people.

The only part that annoyed him about the guards was that he wanted to eat before he saw his room, while they insisted that his roommate would show him to the cafeteria later on. Clearly they didn't realize that he hadn't had breakfast yet. His stomach felt near implosion. But they were firm, and so he suffered starvation in silence.

His room was one of many in a long hall of doors. The two guards that were accompanying him halted in front of one, labeled 703. One of them knocked briskly on the door, then opened it without waiting for a response.

The door swung open on a fairly small room, with blank walls and a floor covered in rough carpeting. There were two rickety wooden beds, covered in off-white linens, and at the end of each bed was a large chest. Other than the single, flickering light on the ceiling, there was no other furniture.

A boy sat crosslegged on one of the beds, his hands hanging in his lap where his fingers were clutching at some small object. His back was ramrod straight and his eyes were blown wide with surprise, and he stared fearfully at the guards.

The guards awkwardly propelled Luffy inside, muttering something about getting acquainted, and shut the door as they left.

Silence ensued. The boy on the bed continued to openly gape at Luffy, while Luffy met his gaze with a calmer, confused stare. Then, once Luffy had gotten bored of the staring contest, he let his eyes slip down to rest on the chests at the foot of the beds. "Were we supposed to bring stuff? 'Cause I don't have anything to put in there."

"Huh?" The boy on the bed started a little, as if he was surprised that Luffy was capable of speech. "U-uh, I don't think so... I only brought a few things. But they give you armor and weapons and clothes and stuff, so it's not like you need any of that…"

"Armor?" Luffy's eyes brightened. "Do they have, like, a cape? Or a helmet? With big horns! And spikes?"

The boy looked a bit dumbfounded, but managed a nervous grin at Luffy's enthusiasm. "Well, yeah, they have all sorts of stuff. There was this big sword, and no one could lift it - until I came, anyways."

"You mean, you could lift it when no one else could?" Luffy's tone was stunned, with a note of hesitant reverence.

"Yeah!" The boy drew himself up, proudly puffing out his chest. "When I came in, they were all taking turns trying to pick it up, but no one could." He pushed himself off the bed, dramatically stooping and motioning as though he were grabbing onto an imaginary object on the ground. "But I just walked by and scooped it right up, no problem!" He hefted the imaginary sword onto his shoulder. "And everyone was so amazed that they started calling me 'Usopp the Great'!"

"Wow, that is so cool!" Eyes sparkling, Luffy clapped his hands together in childish glee. He glances at the chests. "Do you keep the sword in there?"

The boy deflated a little, although he somewhat shakily maintained his smile. "Ah... Well..." He straightened, his expression gaining confidence. "I do not need such a special sword to beat the weaklings we fight here! Instead, I prefer simple weapons. But don't let it fool you." He wagged his finger. "I'm the best fighter here. I could take you out before you could even blink!"

This announcement incited a completely different reaction from Luffy's previous awe. Although the excitement still remained, something in his expression solidified, and his mouth formed a smile - not one of his usual wide grin of boundless enthusiasm, but one of hard determination and challenge. "Really?"

The boy faltered a little. "Y-yeah, of course!"

"Then I just have to beat you to get to the top!" Luffy laughed, moving to the other bed and throwing himself onto it. "This's gonna be great."

"Great. Yeah. Exactly." The bravado had vanished from the boy's tone. He sat down on his own bed, suddenly looking far less sure of himself. "Um... Hey, what your name?"

"Luffy. Portgas Luffy."

"Luffy, huh? Well... I'm Usopp! The Great," he added hastily. "But since you're gonna be my roommate, I suppose the whole title's a bit of a mouthful, so you can just call me Usopp."

"Alright." There was silence for a moment, then Luffy glanced over a Usopp, who was fidgeting uncomfortably. "Hey, can you show me the cafeteria? I asked the guard to do it, but they said you would." He grasped at the cloth of his shirt over his stomach, adopting a pained look. "I'm starving."

"Uh... yeah! I'm pretty hungry myself," Usopp admitted, hopping back to his feet. "Let's go."

Unfortunately, the time that they arrived at the cafeteria seemed to be the time that everyone else decided they wanted breakfast as well. The lines extended to ridiculous length, extruding away from the counter separating the kitchen from the eating space. Guard stations at various points along the line kept the pushing and the cutting to a minimum.

Usopp sighed, turning towards the back of the line. "What rotten luck - this is going to take forever. I usually go later than this, when all the crazy lines are gone... Well, come on, we'd better get in there before it gets any longer."

There was no acknowledgement, and Usopp turned to see Luffy hurrying towards the front of the line. His smile was wide with anticipation, and his eyes, focused on where food was being passed from the kitchen to the cafeteria, completely disregarded the rest of the people patiently - or not so patiently - waiting their turns.

"Luffy!" Usopp darted after the other boy, grabbing his arm. "Are you an idiot? Do you want to get in trouble? Or worse, get beaten up by someone?"

Luffy stopped to look back at him, shaking his hand off. "I could take them."

"Are you kidding me? Some of those guys would beat us to a pulp!"

"But I thought you were the strongest person here?"

"Well-" Usopp seemed to choke on his words. "Well- I mean- of course! That's what I said, right? But... let's just keep the fighting for the arena, alright?"

"But the food..."

"Will still be here," he insisted. "Come on, let's go wait." He was thankful to hear Luffy's reluctant footsteps behind him as he started towards the end of the line.

Luffy almost didn't make it to a table before beginning to devour his meal. He stuffed food into his mouth without abandon, not caring about the crumbs that ended up smeared around his lips and up his cheeks. Usopp watched with a mixture of awe and disgust.

As Luffy's meal vanished at an astonishing rate, Usopp suddenly noticed that the pile of food on his own plate was starting to slowly shrink, although he had been entranced by Luffy's eating and had barely eaten a bite. He snatched the plate off the table as he caught one of Luffy's hands wandering towards it. "Hey! Don't steal from me!"

Luffy let out a muffled sound that may have been an apology, stuffing the last of his food into his mouth. He stood, picking up his plate.

"You put the plates over there to be washed," Usopp offered helpfully, pointing to a desk in the corner of the cafeteria where plates were already accumulating. But Luffy ignored the advice, heading in a different direction. "Hey, where are you-"

"Seconds," Luffy managed to slur past his still full mouth. He made his way to the back of the line again.

When he returned, Usopp had already finished most of his own meal. "You must be really hungry," he noted with a little chuckle as Luffy dug into his second helping with the same amount of zeal as his first.

But Usopp quickly began to doubt that what Luffy had was just a simple case of hunger. After finishing his second plate, he went back for a third, and then a fourth. He had no clue where in Luffy's body he could be storing all this food - the boy was skinny as a stick.

By the time his fourth serving was completed, the cafeteria had emptied out a bit, the line shrunken to just a few. A few groups lingered at their tables after their meals were finished, but most fighters at the Coliseum ate and cleared out as fast as they could, returning to their rooms or to the training grounds.

Usopp was boredly rolling a crumb around on the table when he heard Luffy ask, "Who's he?"

"Who?" Usopp looked up, following Luffy's gaze to a person who had just entered the room. It was a tall boy, with vibrantly green hair and tanned skin. His shirt stretched tight across his chest, showing off well toned muscles, and three swords were sheathed at his left hip. He walked with a certain swagger, but it seemed almost unintentional. It was clear that he was confident, focused, and probably very, very strong.

Usopp recognized him instantly. "Ah!" He lunged forward, pushing Luffy's head to face down at the table. "Stop staring! Don't get his attention!"

"Huh?" Luffy shook Usopp off, returning his eyes to Zoro. "Why not?"

"That's... that's..." Usopp lowered his voice. "Roronoa Zoro. If he thinks you're challenging him at all, he'll cut you to shreds!"

"Eh? Really? He doesn't look all that dangerous to me."

"You haven't seen him yet," Usopp hissed. "He's like a demon. No mercy whatsoever. And no one has ever stood a chance against him! Don't give him a reason to fight you."

There was a glint in Luffy's eyes that told Usopp that he was on the verge of standing up and challenging Zoro to a battle or something, and Usopp stiffened, ready to pull the boy back down if he needed to. But Luffy finally released his tension with a little sigh, moodily resting his cheek on his hand. "But he looks like he'd be fun to fight. Why does he have three swords?"

Usopp let out a sigh of relief, glad that he didn't have to hold back his new roommate from doing something stupid. "I heard a rumor that he uses Santoryuu - three sword style. But I don't know anyone who's actually seen him do it. He only uses one or two swords on his opponents, depending on how good they are." He snorted. "Anyways, how could someone actually use three swords at the same time? I don't believe it. I bet he just has an extra sword in case one of his others breaks."

"Eh...? I wanna see him use all three..."

"I just told you, no one's ever seen that! It's probably a myth."

"But it would be so cool..."

As he walked across the cafeteria, Zoro felt his nose itch, twitching as though he was about to sneeze. He batted a hand across his face, swiping away the annoying feeling.

Someone was probably talking about him somewhere...

Luffy was ready to jump right into beating up opponents. This was what he had been waiting for, training for, almost his entire life. He wanted to get straight to the fighting, so he could finally prove himself, and so that Rouge, Robin, and Brook could stop worrying about him.

But apparently, "that's not how things work," as Usopp informed him. The fights were organized by the Coliseum, planned out days in advance. A note would be delivered to a fighter, informing them when and who they were battling. Outside of these planned events, fighting was outlawed among participants besides carefully monitored sparring matches.

After Usopp explained all this, Luffy felt cold dread beginning to pool in his stomach. Suddenly, he realized why the Coliseum was so dangerous.

He was going to die.

Of boredom.

He stifled his trepidation, though, figuring there must be something to do. There were so many people at the Coliseum, they must have found some way to pass the time.

His first day at the Coliseum was spent touring, with Usopp as his guide. The first place they arrived at after leaving the cafeteria was the armory. The room was huge with a domed ceiling, walls decked with armor and weapons of every sort. Luffy released a sound of appreciative awe, his eyes sparkling as he ran to inspect the contents of the room up close.

Usopp also walked around a bit, grabbing his favorite objects and slipping the armored pieces on. "Look!" He turned back to Luffy, dropping a horned helmet onto his head and striking a pose. The helmet, a little too big, slipped down to obscure his vision. "I look like a giant, don't I? My mom told me that all giants wore helmets like this!"

There was no response besides a slight rattling. Usopp frowned, lifting the helmet away from his eyes to realize that Luffy had disappeared, in his place being a large pile of mismatched armor. "Luffy!?"

The pile shifted and clanked, an eye appearing in the crack of a helmet's visor. "I wanna wear this to my first battle!" Luffy called, his voice slightly muffled.

Usopp huffed in exasperation. "You can't do that, you can barely even move in all that stuff."

"I can move!" A piece of the pile shifted forward, presumably where Luffy's foot was. Then the whole heap pitched to the side, armor spilling out onto the floor. Luffy's yelp was covered by a painfully loud clattering that made Usopp instinctively stuff his hand up under his helmet, protecting his ears for the noise.

As the armor settled again and the noise died down, allowing Luffy's pained groans to be heard, Usopp brought his hands down the rest on his hips. "See? You can't walk without falling over."

"Shut up," Luffy whined, beginning to extract himself from the armor.

"Oi, kids!" Both boys jumped and turned to see a bulky man glaring at them from the other side of the room. "If you're just going to make noise, then get out!"

Luffy clamored to his feet, his eyes narrowing. "I'm not a kid, I'm thirteen!"

"You're a lousy little brat who's gonna die as soon as he sets foot in the area," the man said scathingly. "Or before, if you don't stop pissing off your elders."

Luffy's fists clenched. "I bet I could beat you without even trying, old man-"

Usopp grabbed him by the arm, quickly bowing in the seething man's direction. "We're sorry for bothering you! Bye!" And with that, he dragged Luffy out of the armory, the other boy struggling the whole way.

Luffy shook him off once they had left the room, a pout shaping his face. "Why did you do that?"

"You were going to start a fight with the guy! He was at least ten times larger than you."

"He wasn't that big. I bet I could have beaten him."

Usopp was starting to see a theme. "Am I going to have to drag you away from fights all the time? Look, we're not allowed to fight outside of battles!"

"So?"

"So- so..." Usopp paused, trying to think of something to say that might make Luffy see sense, but nothing came to mind. "Whatever! Just try to calm down a bit, alright? I'm not going to stop you next time!"

"Good." Luffy grinned. "Where are we going next?"

Usopp sighed. It was certainly going to be difficult - and potentially life threatening - to be around this guy.

There were only three other places of interest that Usopp could lead him to. The first was the library, fairly near the armory. It was small, quiet, and mostly empty, a couple fighters reading or browsing the shelves under the watchful eyes of the librarians. Luffy seemed underwhelmed by the room, and Usopp quickly tried to catch his interest with some of the books.

"This one's really awesome!" He flipped through a large volume, grinning at Luffy. "It talk all about aircrafts and stuff. Like cars - but they fly! They have them on some other islands."

Luffy leaned forward to stare at a word filled page. "Where's the pictures?"

"W-well..." Usopp started turning pages. "I think there are a couple diagrams around here..."

"What's the point of books without pictures? Reading is boring," Luffy told him. Usopp didn't really agree, but he didn't try interesting Luffy with any more books.

The next location was a large balcony overlooking the Coliseum's arena. Luffy laughed excited, running to the railing and leaning over in a way that made Usopp afraid he might fall. "Wow! Is this where we fight?"

The arena was shaped in a large circle, surrounded by a ring of water. Surrounding the arena on all sides were rows of seats, ascending like stairs away from the Coliseum's center. The space was empty besides a few maintenance workers cleaning the seats.

"Yeah!" Usopp followed Luffy to the edge, pointing to the ring of water. "And if you fall in there, you get disqualified. And worse..." he shuddered. "I heard there's monster fish in there. Never seen one, but..."

Luffy pursed his lips. "Maybe I should have learned how to swim." Then he laughed. "But it's not like I'd get knocked off the edge, anyways!"

Their tour ended in the training room. The space was huge, packed with people hefting weights and swinging swords. The scent of sweat was rich in the air, and tired grunts and growls chorused from every corner of the room.

"Watch this." Usopp pulled Luffy to a red and white target set on the wall, pulling a small wooden slingshot from his pocket. He put a fair amount of distance between himself in the target, placing a small rock in the sling of his weapon, and aiming carefully.

The string made a satisfying snapping sound by his ear as his let his projectile fly. Luffy immediately went to inspect the target, laughing and clapping when he noticed a large dent on the bullseye.

Usopp smirked proudly. "That's right! Usopp the Great has to best aim in the world!"

The rest of the time before lunch was spent playing with discarded swords, punching dummies, and Usopp showing off.

"Hey, Usopp, why's your nose so long?"

Three days had passed since the first. Luffy had spent it training, mostly, and eating, and sleeping. He and Usopp had gone to watch a few battles when they occurred. But the monotony was already beginning to wear on him.

Usopp looked up from his sketchpad. He had been absently drawing, seated on the floor by the wall of the training room, as Luffy showed off his flexibility in an array of stretches. Now Luffy was crouched in front of him, staring at his friend's nose.

There were many types of people in the world, of all different shapes and sizes. Sometimes their hair was naturally a strange color, or they were abnormally tall, or their arms had two elbows instead of one. But even in such a diverse world, Usopp's nose was rather unique.

Usopp's appearance, in general, could be called average. He was skinny, his skin naturally tan, with wildly curly black hair kept under a green bandana. But the tip of his nose extended at least five inches from his face, straight and rounded.

He blushed a little, rubbing at his nose self consciously. "I got it from my mom. She had a long nose too."

"Really? Alright then." Luffy flopped backward, letting out a long sigh. "Ehhh, I'm so bored..."

"Wanna go to the library? We could find a book to read-"

"I told you, reading's even more boring than this!" A flash of green caught Luffy's eye, and he rolled over to stare of the color. "Hey, it's that guy!"

"What guy?" Usopp followed Luffy's gaze to a muscular, green haired boy. "Oh, Zoro."

The boy was sitting crosslegged against a wall, one hand in his lap while the other hefted a weight more than half his size. His eyes were closed, his brows knit together a bit as he concentrated.

Luffy sat up. "Let's go talk to him."

"Are you crazy? Do you remember what I told you about him?" Usopp reprimanded. "That guy's a demon! Stay away from him if you value your life."

"But Usopp, there's nothing better to do..." Luffy whined.

"Well, then... give me fifty pushups!"

"Eh?"

"If you've got nothing better to do, do fifty pushups."

"But I've already done like a hundred."

"Too bad! Get to it."

Usopp felt a small twinge of pride when Luffy reluctantly began his pushups. Perhaps, one day when Luffy was a little smarter, he'd thank Usopp for saving his life so many times.

That night, Luffy got his note.

Luffy was ecstatic. This was what he had been waiting for - a real fight, a chance to finally use the skills he'd worked so hard on. The fight was set for the day after the next, and he couldn't wait.

Usopp was not half as excited. In fact, the emotion he was feeling was something akin to dread. It had only been four days, but he'd already grown rather attached to his new roommate - although he didn't recognize the name and he doubted they would set Luffy up against anyone too difficult on his first fight, they would continue to get harder. Until eventually...

...he was beaten. Possibly killed in battle, possibly purged. Usopp was a pessimist - he knew how things like this played out.

Luffy would be gone in a year at the most.

"Hey, Usopp." Usopp shook his head clear of his dark thoughts, looking up to meet Luffy's eye. "When's your next fight?"

"Oh." Usopp thought. "About a week from now, I think."

"Really? Who are you fighting?"

"Eh? A lot of people, it's a group battle." He blinked. "Just so you know, I'm not like you."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not a Noid."

Luffy's eyebrows furrowed at the unfamiliar term. "What's a Noid? Can you eat it? Sounds tasty."

Usopp snorted. "A Noid. That's what you are, right? It means 'no I.D.' Because you were found without any identification or anything to say you were supposed to be in this country, right?"

Luffy thought for a second. "Yeah, I guess that's what I am."

"Well, I'm not a Noid."

"Then why are you here?" Luffy sprawled on his bed, propping his face in his hands to stare curiously at Usopp.

"'Cause of my father." Usopp's lips formed a wistful smile. "He's here too, although I don't see him much. He was a pirate, but he got arrested. But he managed to talk them into letting him work here as a resident fighter. Since I don't have anywhere else to go, I'm here too. I do some of the group battles and stuff."

"A pirate, huh?" Luffy grinned. "Pirates are really cool."

"They are, aren't they?"

It was the day before Luffy's fight when disaster struck.

Usopp had once again been sketching while Luffy practiced in the training room. There was nothing better to do, really. But his pencil's had dulled to a broad, rounded nub, and he had no sharpener or back up pencil with him.

"Oi, Luffy!" he called to his friend, who was busy bashing in a dummy's head. "I'm going back to our room to get a pencil sharpener for a minute." There was no acknowledgement, and he sighed. "Whatever. I'll be back before you know it."

It was during the time that Usopp was gone that Luffy broke the dummy's nose – along with the rest of its face. Sand poured out through the fabric that had held its head together, and Luffy jumped away.

"Woah - didn't expect that to happen." He brushed the sand off his hands, watching as some of the soldiers stationed around the room ran to begin cleaning up the mess. "Usopp, did you see that? Pretty cool, huh? Usopp?" He turned, finally realizing that his friend was no longer sitting against the wall. "Hey, where'd you go?"

A brief glance around the room was enough to confirm that Usopp had disappeared. Luffy frowned, feeling boredom begin to creep up on him again. He didn't really feel like going back to training, and with Usopp missing, there was no one else to entertain him.

Not for the first time, Luffy's eye caught on a tuft of grass green hair. He stared in Zoro's direction, silently debating. Usopp had been very insistent that he shouldn't approach Zoro for any reason, but Usopp wasn't there anymore, and Zoro looked like the most interesting thing in the room.

Zoro raised his head, his gaze meeting Luffy's. The green haired boy scowled at his watcher, then focused back on the weight he was lifting.

The brief meeting of eyes was enough to make Luffy's decision. He marched over to Zoro, who didn't acknowledge his approach at all. He crouched besides the green haired boy, staring intently.

The weight rose and fell six more times before Luffy got bored of waiting for Zoro to say something to him. He poked at the other boy's cheek. "Neh, neh, Zoro, right?"

Zoro huffed a little, but didn't look at him.

"Hey, Zoro, can you hear me? Are you deaf? Hello, Zoro?"

The weight paused at the bottom of its revolution. "Piss off, kid."

"Hey, why is your hair green? Is it really green? Did you dye it?"

Zoro snorted. "Yes, it's really green. Now, piss off, I said."

"Why does Usopp call you a demon?"

"I don't know. Get lost."

"Do you really use three swords?"

Zoro finally turned to look at him, his glare harsh enough to scare even the bravest of men. "Do you know what piss off means?"

"Well, yeah, but I'm bored," Luffy complained, barely even registering Zoro's angry expression. "Usopp disappeared, and I don't feel like punching dummies anymore. Usopp says you're really scary and strong..." He cocked his head to the side. "I'd really like to fight you, but Usopp told me not to fight outside of the arena."

Zoro's scowl persisted for a couple seconds longer, then he sighed, resigning himself to Luffy's company. "Usopp's that long nosed kid, right?"

"Yep! His nose is really long, isn't it?"

"Why the hell do you listen to him for everything? He's a moron and a liar."

"He is pretty stupid, isn't he?" Luffy nodded speculatively. "But I didn't know he was a liar. What does he lie about?"

"You haven't noticed? Everything. You can barely believe a thing that come out of that brat's mouth," Zoro snorted contemptuously. "If he had his way, he'd have everyone believing he was the strongest person in the Coliseum."

Luffy gaped at him. "You mean he's not?"

"You didn't even realize?" Zoro smacked his forehead, letting out a sigh. "Nevermind, I get why you stick with him. You idiots are made for each other."

Luffy furrowed his eyebrows at the green haired boy, but decided not to protest. Instead, he suddenly flopped across Zoro's lap, inducing a startled yelp from the other boy. "Zoro... I wanna fight someone, but I can't until tomorrow... I'm so bored..."

"What the hell! Get off me!" Zoro shoved Luffy off his lap, an angry flush spreading across his face. "Why should I care if you're bored or not!"

"But Zoroooo, I don't know what to do..."

It was at this time that Usopp reentered the room, newly sharpened pencil in hand. Catching sight of the busted dummy, he glanced around the room for his friend, ice suddenly filling his stomach as he caught sight of the pair struggling on the floor. Luffy was whining and clinging to Zoro's clothes, while the other boy continued to try to push him away, spitting curses.

This is exactly what I was afraid of! Usopp thought, standing frozen in the middle of the training room. He's going to be killed! What should I do? What can I do? He briefly considered marching over and pulling Luffy away, but dismissed the idea with a terrified shake of his head. I'd be killed too! But what else can I do...

Zoro paused his wrestling, his eye catching on Usopp. Luffy also calmed, staring questioningly at him. "Oi, isn't that your friend?"

Luffy followed his gaze to Usopp. "Oh! Hey, Usopp!"

But Usopp had already turned tail and fled. I'm sorry, Luffy! I'm not brave enough to save you!

A half hour later, Luffy returned to his room, where he found Usopp. He couldn't quite figure out why Usopp looked at him as though he were a ghost, but Usopp was weird, so he didn't really give it much thought.

In case I haven't made it obvious, I really love the interactions between Luffy and Usopp. And Luffy and Zoro. In fact, I just love Luffy with all of the people on his crew. Such beautiful friendship...

Thank you to everyone who has read the past few chapters, and special thanks to all who followed, favorited, or reviewed! You guys are all wonderful.

The next few chapters should further clarify the world that Luffy is in, along with having some fun with character development and relationships. I know everyone's waiting with bated breath for ASL to come into play - seriously, how many of you are here just because I have Sabo, Ace, and Luffy in my character list? There are still a few chapters before Ace or Sabo can make their debute, but I hope you're all looking forward to it.

If you saw something, anything, in this chapter that you didn't like - or that you did like, for that matter- feel free to review! Or I mean, if you're feeling lonely, then I'm always up for chatting. Conversation starter of the day: what are your thoughts on jewelry? I think it's very pretty, for sure, but often too expensive, and I can barely put together a semi-decent outfit every day, much less embellish it with jewelry.

Until next time!

~Whisperwing~