Author's Note: Here's chapter two, where we meet some of our supporting cast, important really only in how they relate to the Straw Hats if anyone is worried about that.
Nami had had the common sense to grab the ship's railing once their course had diverted from the cliff face and was thus left hanging from it when the ship teetered on its side.
Grunting with annoyance, the young navigator managed to pull herself up so that she was lying on the inside of the tilted ship and could see out onto the beach. After just a moment's rest, she caught sight of Luffy lying bonelessly in the sand.
She'd glared down at the useless figure for the first few moments, mumbling curses under her breath at his nearly getting them killed (the usual ones she uttered in these common circumstances), before realising that he wasn't moving. It was then that she noticed the small crowd of spectators gathering on the cliff top to view her seemingly helpless captain.
Panic overtook her at the possibility of them calling the local marines to claim the bounty or doing something else harmful to their captain. Unlikely, she admitted, but so was the idea that Luffy would sit still for any length of time on a brand new island.
Rolling off the edge of the Sunny, Nami pulled out her Perfect Clima-Tact, or more accurately one of the blue cylinders that normally constituted a piece of her Clima-Tact, and pointed it towards the ground. Waiting a moment for her velocity to increase, Nami released a bubble from the hole in her weapon's top.
The bubble burst into a mighty gust of air, scattering the sand below in a miniature sandstorm (in a circle that Nami would land in the calm centre of) and slowing the navigator's decent to land safely on her feet from the high drop with a reduced risk of injury.
"Luffy's lucky he's made of rubber or he'd have cracked that thick skull of his years ago," Nami mentally noted with a smirk as she sprinted to her captain's side, finally spotting the shackle still connected to Luffy's ankle. "Kairoseki… it must be. That explains why he hasn't run off to explore yet. Guess it wasn't entirely his fault this time."
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a hairclip and began to work on the lock, causing Luffy to twitch in a slothenly manner.
"Knock it off…" Luffy moaned. "I'll kick your ass if you don't…"
"Shut up," Nami ordered quietly as she finished undoing the lock.
"Nami?" Luffy questioned as the chains fell away, Nami gripping them out from underneath him and flinging them down the beach. The action caused a sudden surge of energy in Luffy who jumped back to his feet with a "Shishishi~ thanks Nami!" and a wide toothy grin.
His face became serious as he suddenly crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side.
"But why did you have the key? Are you a spy?" he asked with all sincerity.
"Idiot, I didn't have the key. I picked the lock," Nami explained with an unamused expression.
"That's just what a spy would say!" Luffy accused dramatically, pointing a finger at Nami and causing the vein in her forehead to throb violently.
She rapped his forehead hard with her knuckles, drawing a pathetic whine from the rubber man, as she glared harder. Luffy rubbed his notable red lump, childishly pouting at Nami.
"Why did you hit me?!" "Because you're being a moron!"
Pulling back her fist again, Luffy sunk away, raising his hands defensively, "Okay, okay, I believe you… you're not a spy. But it's just that I've never seen you pick a lock before."
"Yes, you have," Nami tried to explain calmly but upon seeing the blank expression on Luffy's face, she let her own face fall into her hand. "Never mind."
"Well, whatever. We're on a new island now, so let's explore!" Luffy turned to begin his march but paused when he saw the crowd his ship's fall had amassed, turning back to Nami, "When did they get there?"
"About when you landed," Nami answered with a sigh, aware that anything more complicated would just give Luffy a headache. Which would lead to him giving Nami a (worse) headache… and that was bad. "The weird wind that brought us here probably drags things onto the beach all the time. Maybe watching for stuff that washes up is like a local custom."
"That sounds boring," Luffy announced loudly.
Nami would have replied sarcastically had someone not spoken up before her.
"Pirates!" someone in the startled crowd screamed, the scene quickly devolving into chaos as they scattered away from the crash site.
The two Straw Hats were left staring at blank space, uncertain what to do following the delayed reaction.
"How rude, fufufu," came a joking voice from behind them.
"Robin!" Nami shouted in surprise, clutching her heart tightly. "Don't sneak up on me like that."
"Sorry, Miss Navigator." Robin offered her usual, slightly-unsettling smile, doing little to ease Nami's nerves.
"Robin-Chwan! Nami-Swan!" Sanji shouted as he rushed around the edge of the ship. "Thank God, you're alright! When the ship went overboard I thought… I thought… oh it pains me to think it!" Sanji shouted while wiping the joyous tears from his eyes.
"Hey, Sanji!" Luffy shouted in greeting.
"Luffy," Sanji responded calmly, smartly adjusting his tie with all signs of his previous outburst having disappeared. "So, where are we anyway?"
"Uro, it's a small place that's apparently ravaged by storms that make the island completely inaccessible every eleven months out of twelve. Had we arrived a few weeks later, Luffy's knocking the ship off course would have probably killed us." Nami recited the information she'd gotten from the irritatingly chatty man she'd bought her map from, his lecherous old face making it clear that he was just looking for any excuse to keep her in sight for as long as possible.
"I've heard stories of an island like this one but they were all about the storm," Robin interjected thoughtfully. "Perhaps that means the island has little else of interest to offer, although I would like to investigate myself if we have time."
"Of course, we do, OW!" shouted the cyborg coming up behind them, flexing as he came to a halt amongst the group. "The Thousand Sunny's not fit to sail right now, that crash did some minor damage to the engines. Nothing I can't fix with the SUPAH stuff I already got on-board but it will take a while."
Slowly the other crew members emerged, Chopper having been stuck under a piece of falling debris that had given him a nasty gash in his right side, Usopp having trouble finding a safe way down and Brook was found with his long legs kicking out of the white sand, his entire upper body buried in the grainy substance.
"The true fate of all bones on the beach, I fear. Yohohoho~ skull joke!"
The only one unaccounted for was Zoro, which meant that they were in for a long search because there was no way he would find them by himself.
"We may as well go look," Nami said resignedly as she started walking towards a path that lay further up the cliff face.
"Alright, take care when finding him. I'll get to work on the ship," Franky announced as he began scaling up the ship's side and disappeared within.
The others had only begun their journey when two figures emerged to block their way… both wearing white uniforms with the word "MARINE" emblazoned on their caps.
The first was a short man with spiky blond hair (on the sides that were visible anyway) on his head, a rifle on his back and a pistol in his hand. He had a piercing stare that seemed to be sizing up the Straw Hats with an odd fervour. His partner, meanwhile, was…
"A dog!" Luffy shouted, pointing at the other man in amazement.
His crewmates may have wanted to scold him but they were stunned into silence by the amazing spectacle before them. Luffy was right, the man appeared to be a bipedal dog of some sort.
He had a bulky upper body (large enough to store a regular dog's body within), dirty brown fur and a dopey expression. His hands were abnormally large and were adorned with simple black gloves.
"Yes, he's quite the spectacle but let's not drag this out, I have things to do," the human Marine noted with disdain dripping from every word. "My name is Onji, Lord Onji to you, and I represent the local Marine branch and the local government. I'm not here to arrest you, although I am aware of your reputations. My boss thought it prudent to meet with you but I sincerely doubt there it is for anything more than to share drinks given his idiocy."
The crew seemed surprised by the reveal and after a moment of silence, it fell to Sanji to ask the obvious question.
"And why aren't you trying to arrest us?"
"Because I'm one of only two officers on the island and I don't work Mondays through Sundays, if you follow me," he answered with a sneer, his arrogance breath-taking given how little control he obviously had of the situation.
Despite not being obviously overweight or thin, Sanji was hardly intimidated by his size or presence.
Luffy meanwhile was distracted by petting the dog, whose long face lit up slightly as he licked Luffy's cheek appreciatively.
"Shishishi~ I like you, why don't you join my crew?"
The animal barked, which Luffy understood meant neither yes nor no but rather "Pet me more."
Luffy was happy to comply but the animal's attention was drawn by something behind the Straw Hat captain. Something that made his tongue roll out of his mouth and drool pour onto the ground.
Without a hint of warning, the dog lunged forward and began chasing after Soul King Brook aka the biggest collection of bones a certain dog had ever seen in his life. And these ones even ran away like you were playing fetch, it was heaven!
"No, I don't want to be buried again!" Brook yelped as his legs moved at such dizzying speeds that the naked eye had trouble separating the two limbs.
The dog was undeterred by this and managed to keep pace.
"Damn, and I just finished calming him down after his walk. He might be hyper for hours now," Onji's words had an edge to them as if he personally blamed the Straw Hats for the unusual incident. "I hope you're happy with yourselves."
"We don't even know what's going on!" Sanji protested loudly, advancing on the rapidly grating on the nerves Onji.
"Let's just go," Nami said calmly, putting a hand up to block Sanji. "Luffy, grab the dog when he runs by. Brook over here!"
And that was how the seven Straw Hats present began heading to meet Uro's leader with a squirming dog in a laughing Luffy's arms ("Come on, answer me! Are you gonna join my crew or not?!").
Little did they know that about a mile inland, a one-eyed man armed with three swords was wandering through a town and grumbling audibly.
"How did those idiots get lost in a ship crash? I just can't understand how someone's sense of direction could be that bad."
He would have continued ranting but his breath caught as he froze in place, a sudden presence overwhelming him. The cause was not hard to spot, Zoro quickly regaining his composure as he stared at its source.
A giant of a man, well over three hundred centimetres tall, stood in the fields, an oversized axe with a blade larger than the man's upper body leaning on his shoulder while being gripped by his right hand. His entire form was coated in black armour, right up to his helmet which was additionally adorned with a red faceguard that masked his mouth.
Very slowly and deliberately, the figure held out his weapon, apparently as intrigued by Zoro's appearance as the swordsman was by his.
Zoro drew just one of his own blades, holding it front of him in acceptance of his challenge. The two stared one another down as a cloud moved lazily over the sun. When it passed the two charged forward at the exact same moment as if by some unspoken agreement.
The first clash of metal could be heard for miles…
Author's Note: Does the island seem plausible by One Piece standards? I think it's alright but I'm not entirely certain.
Also I feel this dragged in places, so feel free to tell me if it did. Constructive criticism always welcome.