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.

Burning Memories, The Day the Town Burned

As the sun rose above the Kingdom of Ilusia, the sun shone down rays of light. Flickering off the shinier rooftops in the Silver District, the sun lit up the city, causing many things to stir. One of these things was Rana, who awoke as the sun shined through the window onto her face. She tried to roll over so that she would face away from the sun, but soon the whole room was alight and she was forced to get up.

Yawning, she hopped out of bed and ran down the short corridor to check on her brother. Peeking in, she saw that he was sleeping soundly, but there was a fresh lair of perspiration on his brow. Sighing, she closed the door behind her and went back to her room to get ready for the day ahead. She dressed herself into a simple shirt and skirt and made her way downstairs. Passing by their caretaker's office, she saw that the door was open and she looked in and said that she was off. The caretaker didn't even look up, but merely wave her off. Shrugging her shoulders, she set out for Mr. Fune's mansion. She didn't need directions, she had already memorized the route, but even if she hadn't it was an easy building to spot: It was one of the biggest in the city.

As she drew closer to the building, she began to see familiar faces and she smiled and waved at them. A few people waved back, but most of them just stared. Confused, she rounded the corner leading to the back entrance where the maid's quarters would be. Before she opened the door, though, she got a strange feeling; something was wrong and she didn't know what. Opening the door, she made her way to the cupboard where her maid outfit was kept, but before she opened it, a voice said behind her, "Don't open that cupboard."

Spinning around, she was shocked to see Mr. Fune in the room, but even more shocked to see the mess he was in. He looked like he had stayed up all night, with heavy bags under his eyes, and his usually groomed hair was in a rat's nest. He also wasn't in his usual suit vest, but instead was still in his pajamas, with a bathrobe thrown over it. It also looked like he had been drinking. The scent of alcohol reeked from him every time he opened his mouth to breath, and he had brown stains on his front.

Stumbling to his feet, he walked over to Rana, who was too shocked to move. In a firm grip that gave evidence of years of building ships, he grabbed her shoulder and in two words he shook her world: "You're fired." Stumbling out of his grip, she was about to ask why, but he had already begun his rant. "These guys came to the mansion last night, and hic they told me what you had been doing," then turning back to her, with obvious pain in his eyes, "How could you hic destroy my trust like that?"

Shocked, she didn't know how to respond, but she had to talk him down somehow. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she decided to ask a simple question, "Who were these, guys, that came to the mansion?" Hiccuping, he stumbled and used the cabinet to steady himself. Wiping the drool from his mouth, he said, "Some pirates, said something about a ship."

But as he said these words, she clenched her fists in rage. She knew she shouldn't have trusted that guy, it was her fault for trusting a damn pirate. Turning around, she was about to walk out the door to hunt down that stupid idiot, but Mr. Fune said something that stopped her dead in her tracks. "I also told 'em about how you got here, thought no harm could be done. They then told me hic something about 'Remaking an old memory'. No idea what the hell that means, but – Hey! Where the hic hell do you think you're going!"

She had already started sprinting back towards the orphanage, knowing what they meant by their cryptic message. Passing by an alleyway, she stopped and looked both ways. Thinking that this was the better course of action, she ran into the darkness and grabbed her staff. She knew that whoever the hell was there, were probably ready to fight. Darting back out the other side, she startled some passerby, but ignore them as she turned the corner in the direction of her home. Already she could see the smoke rising over the rooftops and tears began to stream out of her eyes. But she didn't stop to wipe them, and instead kept on running, tears flying behind her like a comet's tail.

Turning the corner, she was filled with anger and aggression, prepared to beat down anyone that wanted to hurt her brother and her friends; but all that emotion left her when she caught sight of the orphanage. It was now fully engulfed in flames and black smoke rose from it, blocking out the blue sky. Surprised, although not shocked, she saw the big burly form of the captain she had tried to rob when he was unconscious. When she was running there, she had realized that deep down, that that guy hadn't broken his promise. Instead, it had been her fault forgetting about him.

Standing there in silent horror, Rana watched as the pirate crew kept throwing more and more pitch covered torches onto the building, despite it already being up in flames. As she watched she didn't realize that the captain had walked beside her until he spoke. "Ya know? I'm actually glad you got up first. Much nicer view from out here, what with all the lights and sound effects." As he said it, she realized that she could hear her friends screaming inside. Listening to their terror, she fell to her knees and buried her face in the dirt to hide her tears. But the captain didn't have any of it and, grabbing her by the hair, pulled her upright so that she could watch her home burn through the tears. Laughing his head off, the captain shouted for all the onlookers to hear, "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MESS WITH THE GRIZZLY PIRATES!"

Tears like waterfalls, she could now barely see the place she had once called home. It was now a flickering orange ball in her vision, but she knew better. She could still hear the screams coming from inside the building. And as she listened more and more, she realized that she was hearing screams all around her. Not from the onlookers, but a distant memory that had resurfaced.

She was a little girl again, sitting in her home with her parents preparing a meal for her and her baby brother. It had been a normal day, the sun setting as the night slowly overwhelmed day. Just as they were ready to eat, the explosions began. First, they were distant and thought someone was shooting off fireworks. But as the meal and night progressed, the blasts quickly drew closer and the sky outside their windows was turning a shade of orange. Pushing away from the table, her father stepped outside to see what was going on and just a few seconds later, he came back in, shouting at them to start running.

Running out the door, from where they lived, they could see what was happening. Since they lived on a hill, the rest of the expanse of town spread out before them: and it was being quickly destroyed. Fires spread everywhere, with explosions following close behind them. From their elevated position, they could see clearly the source of the disaster. A large boat had been sailed up onto the large stretch of beach and people were streaming off it and into the carnage. To this day, she still remember that jolly roger: a burning skull with a tongue sticking out, almost as if to mock whoever they attacked.

Leading her by the hand, her mother followed father as they ran away from the encroaching flames. They had almost escaped when the unthinkable happened. Running out an alleyway, a pirate underling ran and he stopped them dead in their tracks. Passing his son to his wife, her father readied his fists, shouting at them to run while he held him. Leaving father behind, her mother guided her through the streets, but at almost every intersection, they were cut off by another group. Luckily, they managed to find a free road and they were almost in the clear. Almost. And just as they had almost escaped the nightmare, a gunshot rang out, cutting their escape short. Catching her mother in the side, she fell to the ground, amidst the burning buildings. Struggling to her knees, she tried to stand, but fell again. Taking her son, who was crying, she gave him to Rana, telling her to run. Blindly following her mother's commands, she ran, unknowingly having tears streaming down her face.

As she ran, she realized that she was being cut off by two separate groups of pirates. So she did what she thought would be the best option and ran into a nearby house. Unfortunately, she hadn't realized how close the fires had come, and now she sat there, terrified, unknowing that she was in a burning building. Just as dust from the burning timber began to rain down, she looked up just in time to see the roof of the house collapse, with the walls along with it. Pinned to the ground, she was unable to move, and a knock to the head from the ceiling falling on her sent her into the darkness of unconsciousness.

Hours later, she woke up, not knowing why everything appeared to be so dark. She didn't know what was going on, but there was one thing she knew that was different: the deafening silence. All she could hear was the faint crackle of distant fires as the slowly burned themselves out and the small cries of her baby brother. But as she listened, she could faintly hear another sound: running feet. Struggling, she tried to push herself up, but the weight of the collapsed building was too much for her frail figure, and she fell back down. Luckily, her movements had alerted whoever was outside, and as she laid there, planks and burnt timber was slowly cleared until she could again see light. It was morning, but the sky was so clouded with smoke and ash, the rays came down in a grayish hue.

Looking at the people that had pulled her from the wreckage, she could tell that they were Marines from their uniform. Shouting to someone behind them, they alerted whoever was their boss that they had found two survivors among the rubble. Three of the Marines came together to discuss. At some point in the conversation, one of them exclaimed, "Damn pirates!" and then went back to conversing with his fellow sailors. Curious, Rana inched closer, trying to hear what they were saying. And as she listened she caught snippets of what they were talking about: damage reports, the pirates had fled, and casualties. The last one stuck, and she fell backwards in shock. One of the Marines had just said they were the only survivors.

The Marines realized how long their discussion was taking, so they ended it early, one of them leading Rana, and another carrying her brother. As they passed another group of Marines, she saw something that stopped her dead in her tracks. The Marine that was leading her tried to drag her away, but she refused. Instead, she tore away from him and ran past the second group of Marines. As she stood in front of it, tears began streaming out of her eyes again, and she fell to her knees, holding her face in her hands. Again, the Marine grabbed her arm and began leading her away, and she complied, turning away from the dead body of her mother.

As they were nearing the docks, or what was left of them. She turned to look to the side, and she saw another thing that shocked her. But this time, she didn't stop to run towards it. Instead she let herself be lead away, a new stream of tears rolling down her face as she said a silent goodbye to her father.

Reaching the Marine ship, which had docked at one of the only intact piers, she was basically dragged onto the ship, too tired from all the hysteria that had gone down in the past twenty-four hours. Pushing through what she thought was countless doors, she was lead to a sickbay, where one of the nurses took her and laid her down. As her body touched the soft fabric, she began to drift into willing sleep. As darkness clouded her mind again, she just managed to hear one of the Marines discussing an orphanage in the nearby country of Ilusia before she let herself fall into the comforting grip of sleep.

The Present

Now, twelve years later, that same orphanage was burning down. And just as she had fallen to her knees over her mother, she was now on her knees for her brother. As she wept, the Captain of the Grizzly Pirates kept laughing his head off, shouting how they were the toughest bunch around. But as she wept and as he laughed, something amazing happened: The fires went out. At first the Captain didn't notice, he was too busy laughing, but soon, a shocked and confused look came over his face as he saw that the once burning building was now soaked with water, almost as if someone dumped a giant bucket on it.

Confusion turning to anger, the Captain spun around, shouting, "Who dares mess with Barboso, Captain of the Grizzly Pirates!?" And as he turned around again, a voice shouted from somewhere above him, "That person would be me!" Looking up, he was just in time to see someone jump from one of the roofs and land on the cobbled road. He looked scrawny compared to himself, and he was about a foot shorter than him. Smiling to himself, he didn't even wonder where the idiot had come from, he just slowed them down for a bit. Calling over to the newcomer, he said, "Son, what's your name? I might remember you as one of the many people who have pissed me off!"

Smiling, Red shouted to Barboso, "The name's Cobra D. Red, and I won't forgive you for hurting a friend of mine," as he clenched his fists. Barboso was taken aback for a second, but then he turned his head upwards, laughing. "You may have a reputation kid, but that doesn't equal strength, in fact…" He quickly motioned for his first mate, who in turn, called over one of the lesser crew members, who carried a massive bazooka. Sneering, the Captain turned to his first mate and said, "Turn this bastard into a stain, Marron." Taking satisfaction in his work, Marron pulled the trigger, taking the full recoil of the weapon into his shoulder. As the shell whizzed towards Red, he crossed his fingers, hoping his hunch held true.

Jumping in front of him, a person pulled from their side a sword and slashed at the projectile, slicing it in half. Spinning to either side, the shell lost all velocity and slammed into the ground, exploding. Thinking they had gotten rid of them, the crew began to laugh, their victims blasted away. But as the smoke cleared, they were shocked to see that not only did it not kill the one person, but now there were three people. Smiling, Red nodded to Bede and Miles, who now stood to either side of him. Shaking his head, Bede said quietly to Red, "We figured you were at where the smoke was rising." Chuckling, Red said, "Good guess." Looking around, he saw the absence in their group and decided to mention it. "Henry said he has something up his sleeve," Miles said, a quizzical look on his face, "Don't know what that's supposed to mean, but I hope he fights this time."

Turning to the Grizzly pirates, the majority of the crew prepared for their fight. Rana watched in awe as these three strangers that she had tried to rob were now fighting for her. Smiling, she began tearing up as she silently cheered these guys on.