Luffy and his crew were hanging out in the middle of the ocean like usual. Luffy sat in his usual spot on Sunny's head looking over the ocean. Zoro was up in the crow's nest, which also doubled as his training room, and today it was his turn to be on the lookout for any possible island or enemy ship.
"Hey guys," Zoro said through a mircrophone communicator thing, "I think I see an island."
"Really? Where is it?" Luffy shouted excitedly through the communicator. Zoro flinched and covered his ear from the sudden noise of his hyper captain.
"Don't yell into the microphone!" Zoro yelled. Then he sighed. "It's straight ahead of the ship." When he looked down he saw Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, and Brook run excitedly toward the front of the ship through the only eye that could open. He also saw Nami and Robin come out of whatever room they were in and the perverted cook following them. Following them was Franky but he was covered in some kind of dust.
"An island! Let's go to it!" Luffy yelled. He was so loud that even though he didn't use the communicator Zoro could hear him in the crow's nest. He went down to the deck to join the rest of the crew.
"So you actually did your job instead of sleeping, Marimo?" perverted cook said.
"Oh shut it you damn cook," Zoro said crossing his arms.
"What was that?" perverted cook said, glaring at Zoro.
"Let's go! Full speed ahead to the island!" Luffy yelled. Zoro and Sanji both sighed and didn't say another word to each other. They arrived at the island not ten minutes later.
Once they landed Luffy jumped down like he usually does.
"Alright guys! Let's explore!" Luffy yelled cheerfully.
"Hold on! We are running low on food supplies. You guys go get some food while you're out there!" perverted cook yelled. Zoro jumped down.
"Who's going to watch the ship while we're out?" Luffy said.
"Hey! Are you listening?" perverted cook yelled.
"Save your breath. He's not listening," Zoro said.
"Don't tell me what to do!" he yelled at Zoro. Zoro just stared up at him, blinked, then walked towards the group that was leaving.
"I'll stay behind and watch the ship!" Franky yelled.
"I shall as well," Robin said.
"What about you Sanji? You coming or staying?" Luffy yelled.
"I'll stay back this time. I'll have a snack for everyone when you come back!" perverted cook yelled. Luffy cheered and the rest of them marched on. This time even Nami came with them. Something about having a good feeling about the island.
They kept walking until they heard a roar. Luffy got excited and began to quickly run toward the noise.
"There goes my good feeling," Nami muttered.
"Oh get over it. You should know by now how much Luffy likes danger," Zoro said walking past her. When they arrived they saw Luffy watching a fight in awe. There was a girl on a high cliff, jumping from boulder to boulder. She had a bow and arrow in her hand and was shooting at a beast that was huge but not big enough to reach her on top of the cliff. She used her weapon like a pro and looked like she was a master.
"An archer huh?" Nami said.
"Even when I was alive I didn't see too many of those. Most people would have preferred a sword, knife, or their bare fists," Brook commented. Zoro didn't say anything. He just watched the fight like Luffy was. He glanced at Luffy and saw a familiar glow in his face which made Zoro sigh.
"Make sure you don't automatically ask her to join Luffy. Just wait a while first," he said. While Luffy had grown more mature over the past two years, his excitement for new things didn't seem to die down. In fact, it looked like it only increased.
"Yeah, I agree," Luffy said, nodding. He had forced himself to calm down and look at the fight seriously. "I do have to say, though, that she looks really strong."
"I agree. And she has a good handle on her weapon," Zoro said. The girl finally beat the beast and she jumped down from the cliff and landed on top of its corpse. She finally looked over at them and noticed that she was being watched. She quickly drew her bow and arrow and pointed it at them.
"Who are you and what do you want?" she said, looking straight at Luffy.
"Woah woah! Why are you pointing at arrow at Luffy?" Nami yelled. "Aren't you overreacting just a little?"
"He seems to be the leader of you bunch," the girl stated. "And how can you call this overreacting? I'm just defending myself against possible enemies." Luffy just stood there calmly.
"It depends on you whether or not we're enemies," Luffy said.
"We just got to this island and were simply watching your fight," Zoro said.
"We mean you no harm," Brook added.
"Yeah!" Chopper agreed. The girl stared at Luffy for a bit, then glanced at the rest of them before lowering her bow, but keeping it out.
"Who are you people?" she repeated her first question.
"My name is Monkey D. Luffy. I'm the captain of the straw hat pirates," Luffy said.
"The name's Roronoa Zoro, I'm the swordsman of the staw hat pirates," Zoro said.
"I'm Nami, I'm the navigator," Nami said.
"The name is Usopp! And I'm the ship's sniper!" Usopp said grinning.
"My name, young miss, is Brook. I am the musician," Brook said bowing.
"I'm Chopper! I'm the doctor!" Chopper said.
"We have three more people at our ship on the coast not too far from here," Luffy said. The girl nodded. Brook slowly approached the girl and stopped about three feet away.
"If I may ask, may I see-" he started to ask. Nami quickly walked up and hit him with her fist.
"Now's now the time to be perverted!" she yelled. The girl looked at them with suspicion. Luffy walked up to her and stood only two feet away from her. She drew back her bow a little more when she noticed him.
"Don't mind Brook. He's like this with almost every girl he sees. Even mermaids. Anyway, now that we've told you who we are, why don't you tell us your name?" Luffy said. After a moment's pause the girl finally spoke up.
"Very well. My name is Haley and I'm an archer as you might have noticed. I don't belong to any pirate group," she said.
"Nice to meet you Haley. Say, since you aren't part of any pirate group, why you join mine? We don't have an archer yet and you seem like a pretty cool person!" Luffy said, making his usual grin.
"What happened to waiting a while before asking?" Zoro asked, eyeing Haley with suspicion. Luffy turned toward him.
"Didn't feel like waiting. Plus I just got a feeling that she's good person!" Luffy said. Nami sighed.
"You and your simple feelings," she muttered. Haley simply stared at Luffy with a blank stare.
"What makes you think I want to join you?" she said.
"Good point. But I won't take no for an answer!" Luffy said, grinning at her over his shoulder.
"Is this guy always like this?" she asked the others.
"Yes," everyone except Luffy said. Haley sighed.
"Then I guess I have no choice. But if I find anything that will jeopardize my life on your ship, I'm leaving right away got it?" she said. Luffy grinned and nodded.
"Understood!" he said. He started to walk into the forest.
"Oh! Zoro and Nami! Why don't you two show her to the ship? And bring that huge beast with you! Sanji'll cook up something yummy!" Luffy called over his shoulder.
"Alright!" Nami said.
"Let's get going," Zoro said, starting to walk.
"Hold on Zoro! The ship is in the opposite direction!" Nami yelled at him.
"Ha?" Zoro said. He turned around and Nami led the way back to the ship.
When they got there Haley was impressed by their ship.
"Hey guys! We have another crew member now!" Nami called up. She climbed up the ladder and motioned for Haley to follow. Zoro jumped up to the deck instead of using the ladder.
"Show off," Nami muttered.
"Who's our new nakama?" perverted cook asked as he walked out of the kitchen with a towel in his hands, drying them. Robin stood up from where she had been sitting reading.
"Sanji, Robin, this is Haley. She's going to be joining us," Nami introduced.
"Let me guess, Luffy asked you to join, at first you refused, but then he wouldn't take no for an answer?" perverted cook asked. Haley nodded and perverted cook sighed. Robin laughed.
"Typical Luffy. He did the same for most of us," perverted cook said.
"Well it's nice to meet you in any case," Robin said.
"My name is Sanji, I'm the cook on this ship," perverted cook introduced himself.
"I'm Robin, I'm an archeologist," Robin said.
"Haley, I'm an archer," Haley said.
"Oh, we don't have an archer yet," perverted cook said.
"Well we do now I guess. Welcome to the crew," Robin said. An explosion was heard from one of the doors on the ship and it opened to reveal smoke and Franky stumbling out.
"Well that didn't go as planned," he said.
"That's Franky. He's a cyborg and the ship's repairman," Nami whispered to Haley.
"I see. An interesting crew you've got here," Haley said.
"Yeah well, you can thank our captain for that," perverted cook said. "I'll go back to preparing the snack since we have a beautiful newcomer." He walked back into the kitchen.
"Well, welcome aboard to the Sunny, Haley. Until the boys get back you can just hang out around here. Everybody tends to do their own thing most of the time," Nami said.
"Oh, um, okay," Haley said. Nami looked like she suddenly remembered something.
"Hey Zoro! Before you do anything can you bring up that thing Haley killed? Sanji can cook it for dinner or something Nami called.
"Why don't you bring it up yourself?" Zoro said crossing his arms.
"I may have gotten better at wielding my weapon over the past two years but I'm not that strong!" Nami yelled at him, her head growing bigger suddenly and her teeth narrowed down to a point. "Besides a pretty girl like me shouldn't be lifting heavy things," she said chuckling at the end. Zoro sighed.
"Fine, whatever wimp," he said. Nami ignored that comment and went into one of the rooms. Zoro jumped down, picked up the beast, and jumped back up, rocking the ship a little with the sudden heavy weight. Zoro left it there and went up to the crows nest. Haley looked questioningly up at him and went to knock on the kitchen door. She entered slowly.
"Um, Sanji was it? We brought back a huge beast I had killed when they met me and they said that you can cook it up or something?" she said.
"Oh did you? Then they would be correct. Just leave it out there. I'll start cooking it as soon as I'm done with these snacks," he said. Haley nodded and went back onto the deck.
"Now, what should I do?" Haley said. She wandered around the ship, exploring areas she felt she was allowed to.
After a few hours Luffy and the rest had come back from their expedition.
"Oi everyone! We're back!" Luffy yelled, jumping up to the deck where Haley had managed to get back to after exploring the ship. "Oh, hey! So how do you like our ship so far?"
"It's pretty good. There are many things I feel I still haven't seen," Haley said. The sun was beginning to set and Haley saw that the beast she killed was no longer on the main deck.
"Cool! Well, let's go eat! Sanji's probably finished cooking by now!" Luffy said grinning. He and the rest walked into the kitchen and put their stuff on the counter with Haley following them.
"What did you all get?" Sanji said.
"Plenty of fruits and vegetables," Brook said. "There are many tropical fruits that I have never seen on the island."
"Plus we got a lot of meat!" Luffy said, his grin still on.
"Excellent. I'll just put this stuff in the fridge for now. Why don't one of you prepare the table while someone else goes to get Nami, Robin, Franky, and that marimo. Dinner's just about done," Sanji said.
"I shall retrieve our friends," Brook said, leaving the room first.
"I can set the table!" Chopper said. He ran up to Sanji and took the plates from him. The rest of them just sat down at the table. Luffy's eyes had turned into meat as he was complaining about how hungry he was. Sanji yelled at him and gently insisted that Haley should sit down. Haley did so. Not a few minutes later was the table done being set up and everyone else arrived. Everyone seemed to have their own seat they always sat in, and based on where Haley was sitting, Zoro sat down next to her and Nami on her other side. The dinner went peacefully and at the end Luffy stood up and stretched.
"That was a good meal! But it looks like it's getting dark outside," Luffy commented.
"I'm going to use the bath first. Then I'm going to head off to bed. So good night everyone!" Nami said standing up and leaving. Sanji began to clean the dishes and Chopper and Usopp helped him.
"I'm going to bed as well. Good night everyone!" Robin said. Franky and Brook soon left as well
"Okay! Haley since you're new we'll have you do the first watch! How's that sound?" Luffy said.
"Um sure," Haley said.
"Luffy, why are you putting a newcomer on the first watch of the night? She shouldn't be trusted right off the bat," Zoro said. He was still in his chair with his arms crossed.
"But you said the same thing about Robin when she first joined," Luffy commented. "Besides, I don't think she's a bad person! Otherwise I wouldn't have let her join my crew!" He laughed. "But if you're that concerned you can take the first watch with her." Zoro sighed.
"Seems like there is no helping it," Zoro said. He stood up and began to walk out the door. "You coming or what?"
"Uh, yeah I'm coming," Haley said. She ran to catch up with him and they went up to the crows nest.
"It usually gets cold at night so I'd be careful of that if I were you," he said to her.
"Thanks, but the cold never bothered me, so I'm good," Haley said. She sat down on one of the seats that surrounded the huge 'nest'. She saw that there was a lot of work out equipment. "What are those for?"
"I work out up here during the day when it's my turn to be on watch. Normally there's nothing to see since no one wants to mess with our group in the middle of the ocean. Plus Nami puts us on paths were we wouldn't encounter a lot of people anyway," Zoro said.
"Oh," Haley said. "Say, I have a question." Zoro remained silent, but he showed that he was listening. "Have you ever been to a town called Shimotsuki?" His eye, which had been in its usual state, opened wide.
"You, how do you know the name of my hometown?" he said.
"So you do know it. Well, I went there when I was little. I don't think you would remember a little girl with shortish brown hair?" she said.
"If she was an archer in training, then yes I do," he said.
"I was. And I am an archer now as you can tell. But anyway, I can still remember the day I first met you and your sensei," Haley said. She turned around and stared at the dark sky.
"You were with your dad back then weren't you? He was teaching you archery," Zoro said. Haley was silent for a moment. Her eyes softened and her lips went from a small smile to a deep, sad frown.
"Yeah, I was," she said. "We had come to your hometown to buy some supplies so we could make my first bow. I was curious and decided to check out the swordsman academy or whatever it was called. Before I had gotten there I saw you training against stone pillars."
"And that was when you approached me. Wondering what I was doing. I had stopped my training, answered you, and was about to go back to it when you asked me more questions," Zoro added.
"I was curious since I had never seen the beginning stages of the fighting. Only the two of the four end results," Haley said.
"There are four results?" Zoro asked calmly, a little bit of curiosity showing.
"The first one is the person gives up after they put in a lot of effort. The second is that they die while still working on perfecting their swordsmanship. The third is they wind up a pretty good swordsman. And the fourth is that they become the best in the world. I have only seen the first two. I'll determine whether or not I've seen the third when I see you fighting," she said. Zoro chuckled.
"No faith in my abilities?" he asked smirking. When they were younger, somehow they had come to be good friends. Nothing seems to have changed since then.
"Oh I have complete faith in your abilities. But how smartly you use those abilities will determine whether or not you are a good swordsman in my eyes," she said, smirking right back at him.
"Then you'll just have to stick around until you see me fight then," he said.
"I guess so. Who knows, you might get me to be able to see the fourth result come to life. I mean yes I have heard of the legendary Mihawk, but I'm looking for the master swordsman of this era," Haley said.
"Then you would be looking at the right guy. One day I'll surpass him and take his title," Zoro stated matter of factly. She laughed.
"I sure hope so." He stood up and stopped right in front of me.
"But there is one thing I definitely want to talk to you about. It was your last words to me before you left the village, and apparently island, for good. You had whispered something that made me wonder these many years. Do you remember what that was?" Zoro said. Haley smiled. Of course she knew, but she didn't dare to look him in the eye.
"You said that you would never forget me, even though we only knew each other for a short period of time. That somehow, even though we were young, I was your first love," he said. A blush had appeared on Haley's cheeks and Zoro smirked. It was him that had blushed back then with her looking sweet and happy. Six years had passed since that time happened. They had both been 15.
"L-let's be honest. I-w-we were only 15. How was I supposed to know what love was?" she stuttered. Zoro's smirk grew wider. Back then, he didn't think he was a good enough man yet to be able to tell her what he wanted. He had just let her go in a blushed silence while he watched her laughing and smiling self walk away with her dad. Now that he saw her again, and like this, he knew he was finally a good enough man to tell her it. He sat down on the chair next to her and stared straight at her with his smirk still on. She refused to look at him. It seemed like the very thought of looking at him just then would make her lose what was left of her composure.
"I've got one thing to say about what I'm about to tell you: You better not tell the others I said this. I would never hear the end of it from that nosebleed chef," Zoro said. She looked at him with a questioning look but he just closed his eyes and shook his head. "You don't want to know."
"Okay," she said, sounding a little unsure. He opened his eyes once more and smirked at her.
"Back then, I had wanted to tell you something but didn't think myself worthy enough to say it. When you said that I was your first love, I had wanted to say that you were mine too. But now I'm going to be completely honest. I had a childhood friend whom I was very close to. She died at a very young age, many years before you and I had met. Could it have been a child-like crush I can't say. What I do know right now is this, you were my first full on love Haley," he said. Her blush got beet red and a smile was forming underneath all the red.
"W-why didn't you tell me so back then? I-I probably would have visited more had I known. I thought that you didn't feel the same and my visiting would just irritate you," she said. He grabbed one of her hands that was resting on the seat.
"Far from it. But you're here now, and you're staying in this crew right?" he said. Haley nodded. He smirked.
"Good. Then I won't have to miss you as long," he said. He put his other hand on the back of her head and pulled her in for a kiss.