Chapter 4

Shanks Interlude

"Ugh… god damn my head!"

The nineteen year old pirate captain swore under his breath while he squinted and tried to find his shirt with half closed eyes, his head was really killing him and his mouth tasted like something had died in it.

Why was his shirt off again? Oh right something about a bet that he could attract girls shirtless faster than Genku with free beer. Slightly grinning Shanks fished his creased shirt out of an empty barrel on the deck. He had won that bet hands down and damn that busty blonde had been able to move!

A lot more cheerful than five minutes ago he wandered down into the galley and took a slice of bread and an apple out of the fridge, his poor stomach wouldn't be able to take more than that and at least it would cover up the bad taste in his mouth until he could find his toothbrush.

Hisana Interlude

Hisana awoke bright and early like every day, she had learned to get as much sleep as possible in those unfamiliar hotel rooms she had spent her nights in and could mostly ignore the noises around her if she wanted. The moment her mind was halfway awake she started to stretch before she moved to the floor beside the bed to start her work out routine. This was the only thing that helped Hisana with alleviating her nerves before an important race.

Afterwards she leisurely walked down to the dock to check over her Finn dinghy for damages that could have occurred over the night. Fool play unfortunately was a popular way to disable the competition on the Grand Line and Hisana had to make emergency repairs more than once on her poor little racer boat. Happy to find it in an impeccable condition the black haired young woman made her way back to the inn to eat a healthy breakfast with her team. The others had plans to visit a nearby resort before the race to relax their muscles and prevent injuries but Hisana didn't feel like it. She was always tired and easy to distract after visiting the hot springs and she really didn't need that before a race. So she slowly wandered through the streets after splitting off from her the others and enjoyed the morning sun.

Hisana let herself relax while she watched the bustling atmosphere around her, when a certain smell let her look around. Across from her was a stand which sold squid balls, since she had been fourteen the food always made her feel nostalgic. On one hand she was reminded of the day she had met Shanks and had won her first race but on the other hand she also missed the red head and wondered what he was now doing. It was strange that she felt such a connection to person who was practically a stranger, after all she had only known him for a few hours before they had parted again.

Another glance at the food stand and Hisana finally made the decision to buy herself some as a special treat before her race, she could use the extra calories. Once she had gotten her treat Hisana couldn't help but smile happily while she wandered further down the village, her thoughts wandered back to her encounter two years ago when she met Shanks. She was wondering what that knucklehead was doing at the moment. Hopefully building up his pirate crew more and visit different islands on the Grand Line.

After they split up Hisana had sailed home and showed off her winnings. Only three days later a representative of a local Finn Dinghy production company had visited her home and she had signed her first contract only a week later. Since then she had changed the company and race teams two times, each time after being recruited for a bigger company. The only down side was that she rarely spent time at home with her family. Hisana nowadays only visited for birthdays and wrote the occasional letter from the different places her job took her and now she was on the Grand Line and there was next to no contact aside from the two den den mushi calls that had been arranged before she even had left her home Island. Sighing the black haired girl's shoulders dropped, she just hoped that her parents would someday forgive her for being such a bad daughter.

As Hisana turned around her elbow got hit and she lost the tray with her treat. She closed her eyes and slowly breathed in; she would NOT kill that person responsible for the loss of her food. Calm down, she told herself, this was not done deliberately. Slowly turning around she was met with a sheepish looking blond man with a blue bandana, a blue button down shirt and white trousers. Hisana also saw some pistols partly hidden on his sides and some pouches hanging from his belt.

The culprit was a pirate… what was it with her and pirates that made her loose her food? Honestly!

"Ugh sorry, let me buy you new ones!" the older man said in a sheepish voice.

Sighing she nodded and was just about to turn around when an amused voice behind her told the blond guy, "It's fine Yasopp, I will buy her the squid balls… after all it's not the first time."

Hisana's eyes went wide and even while turning around she whispered, "Shanks…" before she nearly bowled him over in the next moment.

His booming laugher could be heard across the whole market and after Hisana calmed down a bit and relaxed her death grip, she noticed that they were surrounded by a group of mostly rough looking men that stared at them as if they weren't sure what to make of her and the whole situation. Pointedly she looked at Shanks for an explanation and possibly an introduction.

Said pirate took in the raised eyebrows and leery smiles and promptly scratched his neck awkwardly while he addressed his men "Guys, this is Yamamoto Hisana, a friend of mine."

Having done his duty to his crew he turned back to the female beside him "So Hisa-chan you came to the Grand Line! To see me again maybe!?" he teased her while he took in the changes in her stature.

"Pff don't flatter yourself! I'm here because of the races of course!" Hisana said grinning while she took in the red head; he had grown since they had seen each other the last time.

Shanks eyes lit up at her answer and he asked conspiringly, "Are you participating today?" with a stupid eyebrow waggle.

Suppressing a giggle at the over the top expression, Hisana answered, "Yeah, I'm with the Matsuda company here. I have been racing with them for nearly four months now."

Shanks eyebrows raised a bit before he asked, "Matsuda? Isn't that one of the biggest Finn production companies on the Grand Line?"

"Yes… how do you know that?" the black haired girl asked curious.

Since when was Shanks a Finn Dinghy expert?

The man in front of her avoided eye contact while he rubbed his neck sheepishly, "Ah, eh well… I looked Finn racing up after I left two years ago."

Hisana couldn't help herself and pecked him on the side of his chin, he was even taller now than he was two years ago, although she also grew a few inches in that time.

"You can be really sweet sometimes." She said with a fond smile.

Without giving the other males around her another look she grabbed his hand and dragged him to the fried squid balls stand.

"You promised." She stated as she looked at him expectedly.

"Hai, hai." Said red head snorted.

He smiled good naturedly and ordered two big portions of Hisana's so loved treat, when the two turned around again Shanks' men all had mischievous grins on their faces.

"Well, well isn't that interesting…" Genku said, "I didn't know you were so sweet Shanks." he teased his captain while he fluttered his eyelashes in Shanks direction.

Hisana was amused by the antics of the crew and said, "Well, Shanks is only this nice to girls, so don't expect him to treat you like this before you had a sex change!"

That made the rest of the crew laugh hysterically at Genku while Shanks just grinned and put his arm casually as you please around Hisana, while she munched contently on her squid balls. She gave him a glance out of the corner of his eyes before she leaned into the warm embrace and let herself relax. Shanks had made her feel safe the last time and that hadn't changed.

"How long do you have time until the race begins?" Shanks asked the black haired girl under his arm, absently taking in the length of her bound hair and her delicate collar bones.

Said girl looked at her wrist watch and cursed, "Uhm, ah shit, only twenty minutes left! Sorry I have to run!"

With that she crammed the last two squid balls into her mouth like a chipmunk and started a full on sprint down to the port, leaving Shanks and his crew behind in her dust.

Grinning Shanks shook his head and turned to the others, "Hey what do you say, want to watch the race?" the others gave affirmative grins and grunts.

"So…" Ben drawled, uh oh that meant normally nothing but trouble for Shanks, "Yamamoto Hisana. How old is she, how long have you known her and since when do you have a crush on her?"

For a moment Shanks played with the thought of denying what his first mate was implying before he slumped his shoulders, that wouldn't work with Ben.

"Damn it!" Shanks grumbled while he looked sullen down to the port, "She is sixteen now, I met her two years ago and since then… well I can't forget her." The pirate captain finally admitted when they were only a short distance away from the port.

Ben whistled, "Damn captain, that sucks, you don't do things the easy way do you? She isn't even legal for another two years."

Sighing Shanks looked frustrated at his first mate, "Tell me about it! And I won't start anything yet, the age gap is a bit too big for my liking. Pirate or not, I'm not taking advantage of her like that!"

To that Ben could only nod, his captain may be an idiot most of the times but when things turned serious you could count on Shanks to do the right thing. Still the whole situation was funny as hell for the first mate, from what he had seen Hisana was mostly obvious that Shanks acted like a love sick puppy around her, or at least acted like it. He was somewhat curious if the black haired teenager was really completely obvious of his captain's feelings for her or just decided not to react to it.

"Well come on lover boy, we can't miss the race of your little heart breaker!" he teased good naturedly while he dragged Shanks closer to the finish line.

"Now you are just making fun of me!" Shanks complained but followed Ben without much protest.