It has been fifty-seven years since the execution of the Second Pirate King, Monkey D. Luffy, and he has left a legacy in his wake so great that some say he was more legendary than the First King, Gol D. Rogers. But like the last Pirate King, at his execution, he told the world that he had again hidden the One Piece for the world to find. Many saying it was the start of the next Age of Piracy, but then, war broke out among two families: The Monkey family and the Cobra family. After four decades of bloodshed, the war finally subsided. And nineteen years later, a member of the Cobra family set out on a quest to obtain the One Piece, his name is Cobra D. Red. P.S. I wonder how many people actually read this paragraph every time.

A Secret Background, The Girl Tells Her Tale!

As the sun began to set, the trio were still up, hoping that Red had made his way back to the ship, by then. As they peered out into the darkness, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, they quickly began to realize that Red wasn't there yet, and they sat down to discuss what might've happened to him. "You don't think he got caught, do you?" said Henry, starting the conversation. To this, Miles shook his head, saying in reply, "No, Red's too strong to let some Marines catch him, he's probably hiding out somewhere or got lost." Shrugging, Bede nodded, agreeing that it seemed like something Red would do. So, coming to an agreement that Red was probably somewhere, lost, still in the city, the trio began to make their way towards the Silver District.

But, as it would turn out, they weren't the only pirate crew in town, as they came across them, stumbling out of a bar. One look at them from Miles and he could tell they were bad news. Hoping to avoid a confrontation, the three tried to skirt around the band of men, but as they were finally walking away, one of them called out from behind. "Oy! Did ya idiots juss cross the cap'n's path?!" Sighing, the three turned to see that the cannon fodder of the group had all raised their swords and started to drunkenly wave them around, obviously trying to scare them. From the back, they could see the captain, who appeared to be the drunkest out of all of them. He was red in the face and had snot dripping from his nose which he didn't even bother wiping. Laughing stupidly, he took a sword from one of his subordinate's hands and he too waved the sword around. Sighing, Miles, drew his swords and began walking towards them, prepared to end the fight quickly. Bede followed behind, hands in pockets, feeling sorry for the drunken crew.

After a few short minutes, the entire crew, including the captain were on the ground, either unconscious, or somewhere in between. Dusting off his hands, Bede stated in a clear voice, "Well that's that." Nodding Miles replied, "Well, who knows what they'll do now. We better watch our backs in this part of town. Who knows if they'll try and get us back." Coming to an agreement, the crew decided instead of throwing them into the bay, that they'll leave them there. Putting his arm around Miles' shoulders, he smiled, "Good work team!" Turning to him, Miles said, "You literally did nothing. All you did was hang back and shout at them." Getting angry, Henry replied, "Not everybody on the crew has to fight, ya know!" Shaking his head and chuckling, Bede said, "Well it wouldn't hurt if you could." Arguing over positions in the crew, the trio walked away from the pile of bodies they left on the street.

As the coast became clear, out of the shadows came the girl, in thief attire. Walking towards the pile of men, she smiled behind her mask, thinking that it was too easy. Flipping through the men's wallets, she only came across about a hundred beli from all of them combined. Sighing, she said to the unconscious crew, "C'mon, you guys are pirates! You got to have some kind of money with you." And as she said this, her eyes wandered onto the captain, who was easy to spot, being the largest man on the crew. Smiling, she thought to herself that there was bound to be some big money on this guy. But as she went for the guy's pockets, she felt something grab her arm, and she spun around to see the first mate, just now becoming conscious, with a murderous glare in his eyes. Struggling to come loose, she prolonged the moment until he finally tore her mask off, revealing to him that she was a girl. Letting go, the first mate watched as she ran away into the darkness, and kept watching until he couldn't hear her footsteps on the rough cobblestone street.

As she ran through the darkened streets, thoughts of panic went through her mind. Two guys had figured out what she looked like under the mask over the past two days, and one of them had found out where she worked during the day. Slowing down, she turned into an alleyway that was next to the wall that separated the districts so that she could think. As she thought, her panic thoughts slowly turned into fear as she realized how dangerous the situation was. Although she didn't like it one bit, she concluded that she'd been hoping she'd never use: She would have to run away. Wiping the tears from her eyes before they fell, she ran towards the very familiar footholds and began to make her way up the wall.

As she climbed, she thought of the fear in her brother's eyes as they would run to the next town, wondering what was going on. As she thought, she realized how similar that night was to, the first time. Pausing on the wall to clear her thoughts, she said to herself that there was no use thinking about the past. Starting again, she began to climb faster and a little more recklessly, almost falling and slipping several times, but she finally made her way to the top. As she stood there, she looked back and ahead, staring at both the expanse of whitewashed buildings, to the even larger expanse of dilapidated housings. Sighing, she knew she'd never see the place she had called home again. Working her way over the shingles, she looked for the area she had marked as her way down. Finding it, she was about to start the climb down again, when she heard a voice behind her, "You know, if you want to keep a secret path secret, you should really make sure no one is following you."

Spinning around fast, she was about to ask who it was, but she lost her footing. As the world slowed down, she tumbled backwards into the street below. She saw her life flash before her eyes and thought that that would be the end. But shooting from the darkness, a hand grabbed ahold of one of her flailing arms and pulled her onto the roof. Panting from fear, the girl was doubled over, and after a few minutes, she could stare in the face of who she already knew. "What the hell are you doing up here!" she shouted, sending a wave of her anger straight at Red. Taken aback, Red replied in his own shout, "I could be asking you the same thing!" Looking at him incredulously, she replied, shouting, "I robbed you last night! How would you not know what I was here to do?" Shaking his head, Red thought for a moment, then said, "I guess I should reword my sentence. I mean why are you doing this?"

She was about to send a retort back, but then she paused, saying in almost a whisper, "Why the hell should I tell you that?" and then, back in her shouting voice, "You're probably just going to tell my boss what I do, aren't you!?" Holding up his hands in surrender, Red said, "Woah! Chill before somebody hears you!" then lowering his hands, he said, "I promise I won't tell your boss, I wasn't planning on it anyways." Staring at him condescendingly, she began to realize that this guy meant what he said. Sighing, she sat down, preparing to tell the story.

"Me and my brother came to this place when I was five and he was two. A group of pirates had burned down our home," as she said it, she remembered the fires that had spread so quickly, so destructively, as people were cut down in front of her, "Marines came and they defeated the pirates, but it was too late; we were the only survivors."

"They relocated us here, to this town, because they said that there was a good orphanage here," as she said it, a smile spread across her lips, but it was a cold smile, without a hint of humor, "We suffered through stomach pains the next several years, but we just had enough food to get by, from the stuff our caretaker bought us and what was donated. It might not have been an ideal life, but we were still together." She took a long rattling breath in, trying to hold back the tears, before she continued the story, "But then, out of the blue, he got sick. Very sick. We couldn't do anything, he had a high fever, coughing fits, and vomiting. We tried our best to care for him as we waited for the monthly doctor to come in." As she continued, tears began to slowly come out of her eyes, but she just let them flow, only wiping them away when she began to speak again. "He told us that it was a rare strain of sickness that only could affect a few people, and my brother was one of the rare cases. He also said that there was a cure, but it'd cost a lot of money. After a weak of begging people for money, I realized that no one would give one of what they considered trash any money. So, I went ahead and got hired by Mr. Fune to work as a maid."

"I began to make money from him, which was enough to keep him well, but not enough to cure him. I realized after a year of work that it would never be enough, so I turned to stealing to get the money needed," saying this, she remembered the vast number of times she had robbed thugs and drunken idiots in the Rust District, "This is my second year of doing it, and I've only gotten better since," finally turning to Red, she said, "That's why I wear the mask, so nobody can tell it's me and I won't run the risk of being fired from my job."

Nodding, Red stood on his feet, and looked down on the still crying girl and said, "I guess I won't be asking you to join my crew…" drawing out the 'oo' sound. Smiling, she saw the obvious gesture, but decided to play along, "Rana, my name is Rana." Snapping his fingers, he repeated back to her, "Rana!" but then he became calm again, saying, "You have more important things to do here than joining me, I'll leave you alone, now." Leaping into darkness below, Red flew down and landed on the street below, to the amazement of Rana. Smiling, knowing her secret was safe, she began to climb down the wall and make her way towards the orphanage. But as she ran, she had an itch in the back of her mind, wondering what she had forgotten.

At Mr. Fune's mansion:

As the night went on, the house was full of silence, with the sounds of snores coming from the head guard's quarters. But then, the silence was broken as the sounds of pounding on the door echoed throughout the house. Startled, Mr. Fune jumped out of bed and threw on a bathrobe over his sleeping clothes. Running down the stairs, he met up with Sutora, the head guard, as they walked towards the double doors. Flinging them open, Mr. Fune was shocked to see a bear of a man taking up the doorway. Lighting some lamps so they could see, they realized the man wasn't alone, and saw that he was followed by an equally large man, wielding a massive sword on his back.

Crouching so that he could walk in, the man walked straight towards Mr. Fune, and said, "So I heard you run the ship manufacturing plant on this island, or was that false." Standing tall, Mr. Fune replied, "Yes, I do run the plant on this island, but you could've come in the morning. Why did you even come at this hour?" Chuckling, the man said, "Because this island being a member of the World Government makes it a Marine hotspot." As he said it, realization dawned on the plant owner's face, but he quickly made it stern again, saying, "And why should I listen to you?" But his question was answered quickly as the first mate pulled the sword off his back, brandishing it before them, saying, "I wonder what would happen if you don't comply." But then, Sutora raised a gun from his holster, taking aim at the captain's head, saying, "If you don't leave the property immediately, I will be forced to shoot." Not even looking, the captain grabbed ahold of the barrel of the gun, and with his veins pulsing, bent it to point up at the ceiling. Backed into a corner, Mr. Fune knew he had no choice but to comply with their wishes.

"What do you pirates want?" Smiling, knowing they had beaten the guy, the captain stated, "I need repairs for my ship, it's been an especially bad year with storms, as you know, and I need a new ship entirely. An ally of ours had their ship stolen by a stupid group of bratty pirates, and I need to get them a new one." About to object, saying that the ship repairs were more than enough, he was interrupted, as the first mate said, "Cap'n, look!" Turning, the three men turned to stare at a photograph containing the entire group of servants and maids Mr. Fune had. But it wasn't just the photograph, it was one girl, a blonde to be exact. Picking up the picture, the first mate thrust it in the plant owner's face, saying, "Who the hell is this girl?"

Not knowing what was going on and deciding it'd be better to tell, he explained to them who it was, "She's an orphan who began working here about three years ago, she said it was to help pay for her brother's treatment. Why do you people ask?" Smiling, the first mate turned to the captain and winked, saying, "Boy have we got something to tell you, letting the picture drop, shattering the glass.