Heart of a Pirate

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Kingdom Hearts. They belong to Eiichiro Oda and Square Enix respectively.

Chapter 7: Stowaway

0o0o0o0o0o0o—Traverse Town –o0o0o0o0o0o0

Yuffie strolled through the Second District while humming a jaunty tune, a skip in her step and a satisfied smirk on her face as she did so. She'd finally done it. She'd finally gotten revenge on the pirate that had caused her so much grief.

After Sora, Donald, and Goofy had left the Third District to prepare for their journey, Yuffie had pulled Luffy by the ear back to the restaurant he had dined-and-dashed from. Upon reaching it, Luffy was met with a series of glares from the manager and employees, all of whom looked ready to kill. After the pirate captain had run away with all the food, the restaurant had been forced to cover the cost of all of the food Luffy had taken, both from the restaurant itself and the customers he had taken food from, to say nothing of the mess left behind when everyone had jumped up to pursue him. A lot of money had been lost as a result, and despite his and Sora's share of the munny from the giant Heartless, there was still a sizeable amount left that Luffy owed, meaning the pirate captain would be stuck working the kitchens until his debt was fully paid off. Needless to say, the staff – the manager especially – were NOT happy with him.

Due to the sporadic nature of Heartless activity in Traverse Town, Leon, Yuffie and Aerith had fallen into the roles of de facto peacekeepers on that world, as well as liaisons for newcomers who had just lost their worlds, keeping the headcount straight in the process. Their peacekeeping duties mostly consisted of keeping the Heartless at bay, but on occasion, they would also deal with thieves, criminals, or whoever else disturbed the peace. They all had a fair amount of skill in fighting the Heartless, but they each had different roles; Leon acted as the leader and main brawn, Aerith was the healer and diplomat, and Yuffie was the sneaky one who always had an ear to the ground. Despite her normally rambunctious and brash behavior, she still had excellent stealth and tracking skills when the situation called for it. She didn't call herself "The Great Ninja Yuffie" for nothing.

As such, when Yuffie had happened upon the angry mob chasing after Luffy, it fell to her to try and calm things back down since neither Leon nor Aerith were around at the time. Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of angry people, it had proven impossible without the other two around, and caused her no end of aggravation. The best she could manage was to speak to the manager, who she knew from meeting on numerous occasions, both from occasionally having to deal with rowdy customers and eating there herself. From him, she found out about a 'thieving kid' in a straw hat and red vest who had barged into his restaurant, devoured a big pile of food, snatched a bunch of other food off of other customers' plates and then left without paying. From that description, she immediately knew who he was talking about, having had a run-in with the exact same guy not even half an hour earlier. Yuffie took the bill from the manager, promising to find him and force him to pay. Not to mention get some payback for all the trouble she'd gone through just then.

Soon after, she had tracked the guy down to First District, who was in the middle of talking to Aerith. She immediately seized her chance and hit him with some sleeping powder, fully intending to drag him back to the restaurant.

However, to her surprise, Leon, having also been around at the time, put a stop to that. He claimed he was a friend of the newly arrived Keybearer, who also happened to be in the general vicinity, and thus should hear what was going on as well; something about him being more receptive to his new responsibilities with a familiar face around. Yuffie wasn't happy about it, but with the Keybearer having finally appeared, she knew where their priorities lay. So with her current aggravation taking a backseat to her desire to see the Heartless stopped, she went along with it.

She still fully intended to give the straw hat guy a piece of her mind afterwards, though.

After she and Leon finished explaining what was going on to the Keybearer, a young boy who went by the name of Sora, the Heartless had appeared. This was an unusual sight in the Second District since she, Leon, and Aerith (with help from Cid) had managed to keep the activity of the creatures of darkness contained within the Third District. For most of the past 9 years that the three of them had been in Traverse Town, Third District had been business as usual, but with Heartless activity increasing more and more within the past week or so, they had been forced to evacuate the residents of the district, placing various magical wards on the various ways in and out to keep the Heartless quarantined. Unfortunately, that also meant abandoning their then-current base of operations, forcing them to migrate to the hotel.

However, it seemed that with the arrival of the Keybearer, a boss Heartless had appeared to strengthen the Heartless ranks enough to break through some of the seals in order to go after Sora. It had been a miracle that the former Hollow Bastion residents had been able to find him and get him to the hotel when they did, let alone be able to explain the as much of the situation to him as they did before the Heartless appeared (though a few magic wards on the hotel doors from Aerith helped with that).

Thankfully, when the wards fell, Sora, Luffy and the Disney Castle envoys (to whom Aerith had been explaining the situation in the next room while Leon and Yuffie got Sora and Luffy up to speed) had managed to find and defeat the lead Heartless, leaving Traverse Town safe from more of the creatures, at least for the time being. Now Sora just needed to agree to go with the envoys and she could finally exact her revenge on the pirate captain.

Her scheme had nearly been ruined when Aerith had shown up and pointed out the munny that the lead Heartless had left behind, but thankfully Donald had put a stop to Luffy going on the trip with them. The majority of Luffy's debt had been covered by both Sora's and the pirate's share of the spoils, but there was still enough debt left over that Yuffie could still glean some satisfaction from putting him to work for the restaurant he had robbed. She then dropped him off at the restaurant, explained what he had to do, and left with a simple "Have fun!" and a casual wave as the doors closed behind her, the restaurant staff still glaring daggers at Luffy.

After seeing off Sora, Donald, and Goofy after they had finished getting supplies before boarding their Gummi Ship, she had gotten herself a celebratory ice cream cone, snacking on it as she walked. Just then, the restaurant manager came running up to her from behind, looking a bit frantic and out of breath.

"Oh, hey, Mr. Manager! How are you?" she asked with a smile. "Everything going OK with that idiot?"

"That's just it, Miss Yuffie!" the manager gasped out. "He's gone!"

Yuffie's smile dropped instantly. "WHAT?!" she shrieked. "What do you mean, 'gone'?!"

"Exactly what I said! He's nowhere to be found!" the manager replied, still gasping for breath. "We put him to work washing dishes and mopping floors in the kitchen, then he asked to use the bathroom. I let him go, but he wasn't coming back out! We waited a bit before coming in ourselves to check on him, but we found the window open and the stalls empty! He's gone!"

Yuffie gawked for a moment at the nerve of the guy for ditching his work before hearing the telltale sound of a Gummi Ship's engines igniting, firing up and blasting off from just beyond the main gates of Traverse Town. Looking in the direction of the sound, she was greeted by the sight of said Gummi Ship sailing off into the sky.

CRUNCH

The ice cream in Yuffie's cone fell to the ground with a soft splat as she crushed it, her arms ramrod straight at her sides and her fists clenching so hard you could hear the leather of her gloves straining. Her bangs shadowed her eyes as she ground her teeth in utter fury.

"He. DIDN'T."

0o0o0o0o0o0o – Gummi Ship, 2 hours later – o0o0o0o0o0o0

As the Gummi Ship sped through space, after having his fill of marveling at the sights, Sora inquired with Donald and Goofy about their home world to pass the time. Apparently they came from a place called Disney Castle, ruled by a king named Mickey. Donald and Goofy served as his right hand men, Donald being the Court Magician and Goofy being the Captain of the Royal Knights. The two of them served as the main peacekeepers of their world, while Mickey did the ruling, occasionally keeping an eye on the happenings of the other worlds in addition to the castle to ensure balance was maintained. Hence his current absence in the wake of the newly arisen Heartless threat.

Sora then asked about where the 'munny' that appeared after they had fought that big Heartless had come from. Apparently, those who had their hearts taken by the Heartless also lost whatever currency they had on them to the void of darkness. Whenever the Heartless were destroyed, the money would normally pop back into existence immediately. However, if a larger Heartless were in control of a swarm of lower tier Heartless, such as in the case of the big armor they had fought, whenever the smaller Heartless were destroyed, the money would transfer to whatever was leading them. And once the leader was defeated, the money it carried would pop back from the void. Aerith had apparently explained this to them, but even they weren't entirely clear on how it worked; it just did.

Goofy then began asking Sora about Luffy's stretching abilities. Realizing that his two new companions were just as in the dark about Devil Fruits as he had been when the Straw Hats had initially arrived at Destiny Islands, he launched into an explanation of what he could remember of them from what Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper had told him back on the islands. Goofy was enthralled, and even Donald was somewhat interested. He couldn't help but feel a stab of sadness, given he was talking about a newly-discovered aspect of his own world which had just been lost to the Heartless, but he forced it back down; he had to focus on finding Riku and Kairi first. He'd worry about his world later.

"Look alive, you two!" came Donald's voice, snapping Sora and Goofy's attention to him. "We're coming up on a world!" Sora rushed to the front of the cockpit to have a look.

What greeted his eyes was the sight of a strange, spherical landscape floating in space. It was covered in what looked like pink tiles alternating between light and dark pink in a checkerboard pattern, with hearts emblazoned on each tile being opposite the shade of pink of their respective tiles; dark pink heart on light pink tile, and vice versa. Jutting out of it from all over it were a number of odd things; a group of grey castle towers, a hedge maze, some hedge arches in the shapes of hearts, a few trees, and a thatched-roof cottage sticking out the bottom. It was certainly one of the strangest things Sora had seen since waking up in Traverse Town (and that was saying a LOT), but he was enthralled all the same. He couldn't wait to get down there and explore!

"WHOOOAAA! COOL!" came a voice from behind the trio.

"Yeah!" said Sora excitedly. He then froze. Wait a minute… is that…?

Sora, Donald, and Goofy slowly turned as one. There, standing behind them with his eyes sparkling brighter than ever, was…

2.5 Hours Earlier

Luffy stood at the sink in the kitchen of the restaurant, holding a freshly scrubbed plate under a running faucet to rinse the soapy water off. Seeing it fully clean, he promptly let go… causing it to drop the full depth of the sink and shatter at the bottom. Right alongside several other plates and bowls he had just cleaned. "Huh, this feels familiar…" mused the Straw Hat Captain, tilting his head as he felt the weirdest sense of déjà vu.

The restaurant staff, however, was less accepting. "YOU PINHEAD! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO CLEAN THE DISHES, NOT BREAK THEM!" the manager yelled angrily.

Just then a small white creature with a big red nose, squinty eyes, tiny purple bat wings, and a red pom-pom on an antenna on its head entered the back of the restaurant, asking for the manager and making an odd 'kupo' sound at the end of its sentences. It wore the same uniform that the rest of the servers wore, signifying that it worked there as well. Seeing the pom-pom, Luffy was immediately enthralled and began making a grab for it, at which the creature jumped in fright and took off running through the main floor of the restaurant with Luffy in hot pursuit. The creature eventually managed to shake him off by hiding somewhere in the back, leaving the pirate captain in the middle of a huge mess of knocked-over chairs and tables, food scattered all over the floor, and customers and servers alike glaring at him.

"YOU COMPLETE MORON!" screamed the manager, clutching at his hair in complete aggravation. He then yanked Luffy back into the kitchen by the arm and shoved a mop into his hands, plunking a bucket of soapy water at his feet. "Here, clean the floors! Even you can't screw that up!"

Oh, how wrong he was.

Less than a minute later the kitchen looked like it had been hit by a tornado. Food was scattered everywhere (some of it already cooked), several pots, pans and utensils lay strewn all over the floor, and all kinds of sauces, creams, and spices practically painted the floors and walls. In the center of it all was Luffy, sitting on the floor and frantically blowing on his now-burned hand to cool it off, having accidentally grabbed a hot wok off a stove.

"Whoops, guess I slipped! Heh heh!" chuckled the pirate with a toothy grin.

The manager was on the verge of popping a blood vessel, to say nothing of the chefs whose hard work now decorated the kitchen. It took everything they had not to wring his neck right then and there. How was this idiot supposed to work off his debt if he kept adding to it every time he did any kind of work?!

"Hey, Mr. Manager!" called out Luffy.

"WHAT?!" the manager immediately screamed back.

"I need to use the bathroom!"

"GAH! Fine! Go! Just don't take too long!"

Luffy immediately sauntered off to the washroom, shutting the door behind him.

"Hee hee!" Luffy grinned mischievously as he leapt across the rooftops. After closing the washroom door behind him, he had quickly squeezed through the window near the ceiling and set off across town in search of Sora. This had been his plan all along, to sneak out through the bathroom the first chance he got. He didn't care what anyone said or did, he wasn't ditching Sora, and he certainly wasn't going to be kept from searching for his crew!

After a long while of searching high and low for the trio, Luffy found himself in front of a door with a sign that said "Ship Hangar". Remembering Goofy mentioning a vessel of some kind, he immediately went inside.

The hangar was dark; only a few small lights offered any illumination in the gigantic complex. Through the darkness, though, Luffy was able to spot the outline of something big and rectangular in the center of the room, with one big triangular point on one side and a big concave surface on top. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw he was looking at a big multicolored winged box with some weird cone things protruding from the back, a clear dome on top, and a big triangular nose.

Luffy scratched his head; just what the heck was this thing? It certainly couldn't be a ship! Ships had sails and rudders and masts and all kinds of other stuff that this thing clearly didn't! That sign over the door lied to him!

Suddenly the main lights in the hangar switched on, flooding the area with light. "Aaah! My eyes!" cried Luffy, clapping his hands over his eyes at the sudden brightness. He began stumbling around in sudden blindness, inadvertently moving up the ramp leading into the inside of the winged box. He stumbled around the interior for a few seconds before bumbling into a closet of some kind, his vest catching onto the latch on the inside of the door as he passed inside and accidentally pulling it closed behind him.

"Hey, who turned out the lights?" asked the Straw Hat Captain as he took his hands off his eyes, now in complete darkness. He turned around over and over, trying to get his bearings.

Just then, he caught a whiff of some strange odor.

"Huh? Where's that weird smell coming from?" wondered Luffy aloud. He began squirming around and sniffing all over his body, looking for the source. He then grabbed his vest and pulled it up to his nose, inhaling deeply.

"Hey, it's that weird white stuff from before!" he exclaimed, remembering Yuffie covering him with a strange white powder earlier. Evidently, some of it had remained in the fabric of his clothes. "But wait, didn't… it… uuuhhhhh…" With that, he immediately conked out, slumping against the wall of the closet and sliding to the floor, the brim of his hat tilting over his eyes in the process. For the next two hours he lay snoring away, blissfully unaware of the ship igniting its engines, blasting off, and sailing through space.

Present Time

"Luffy!" Sora exclaimed joyfully.

"Ya came!" Goofy said happily.

"Eh? Sora? Goofy? Donald?" said the Straw Hat captain, looking at each one of them in turn. He looked a bit confused before lighting up with joy. "Woohoo! I found you! Now I can start looking for my crew!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" screamed Donald, face red and steam shooting out of his ears. "I SAID YOU COULDN'T COME ALONG! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING OFF YOUR BILL!"

Sora turned away from Donald, hands pressed against his ears. Geez, this guy could be loud…

"I'll do it later! Finding my crew is more important!" Luffy replied defiantly, unfazed by Donald's temper.

"No way! We're going back and dropping you off RIGHT NOW!" Donald raged, waddling back over to the pilot's seat and hopping back on before resetting the navigation coordinates back to Traverse Town.

"Wait a minute, Donald!" cried Goofy, grabbing Donald's hand before he could turn the ship around. "It took us hours to get here! Shouldn't we just go down while we're here?"

"It's too risky! Having him along could upset the balance of the worlds!" Donald argued angrily.

"But if we go back now, this place might not be here when we return!" argued back Sora. "The longer we delay, the more worlds the Heartless destroy!" This was something that hit particularly close to home for Sora. He'd just escaped having his own world destroyed; he didn't want others to have to go through that too!

Donald considered for a moment, then huffed. "Fine. But he's staying on the ship!"

Here, Sora got a sly look on his face. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked sneakily.

"What are you talking about?!" snapped Donald.

"Are you honestly telling me you trust Luffy not to touch anything while we're down there?" answered Sora with a smirk. "Like, say, turning on the engines, getting lost in space and leaving us stranded?"

Donald opened his mouth and raised a finger to retort, then promptly snapped it closed as a look of horror crossed his face. Goofy too looked nervous, while Luffy just stood there picking his nose. The duck slumped in defeat. "…fine. He can come with us."

"YAHOO! Time for another adventure!" cheered Luffy, pumping his fists into the air.

"But I'm warning you!" growled Donald, pointing at Luffy. "One wrong move and you're going straight back to Traverse Town!"

Luffy cocked his head in confusion. "Eh? What's Traverse Town?"

"GAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o—Mysterious Tower–o0o0o0o0o0o0

An aged man sat at his desk in his study, a slightly troubled expression on his face. He wore long, billowy blue robes and a pointy blue hat with stars and moons emblazoned all over it. He had long grey hair with a long grey beard that split into two points near the bottom, a hooked nose, and thick, permanently arched eyebrows that gave him a perpetually stern expression. Though he had a thin, wiry frame (though it could be hard to tell through the robes), he radiated a feeling of true power and authority. His name was Master Yen Sid.

The old mage stroked his beard thoughtfully as he ruminated on the latest development in the Heartless situation. Though there was much even he did not know about the creatures of darkness, he still had an ear to the ground (so to speak) in regards to the many different worlds that existed separate from one another, and naturally already knew about the various worlds that had been disappearing at the hands of the Heartless at an alarming rate in recent days. His student, King Mickey, had already jumped onto the situation, hoping to find and eliminate the cause, but had yet to find anything significant. However, that was not what had Yen Sid concerned.

What troubled him was the most recent world to disappear. After having discovered it through a telescope a number of years ago and observing it through magical means, he had grown fascinated by it, having witnessed the sheer number of powerful individuals that lived upon it. Particularly the various special abilities many of them possessed, apparently having come from mystical fruits of yet-unknown origin. On top of that, in the distant past of that world, there had apparently existed a civilization that had possessed powerful, advanced, and potentially dangerous technology that had since disappeared, but traces of their history still remained. The main governmental body of that world had apparently pulled out all the stops to ensure that all knowledge of said civilization stayed hidden, which was fortunate, as that meant no potential world-hoppers could bring such things to other worlds and cause disaster. However, said world had now been found and torn asunder by the Heartless, which could only mean the various inhabitants not taken by the darkness had been scattered to the various worlds, which meant disaster was likely not far behind.

However, by chance, Yen Sid had noticed that the Keyblade had chosen a new wielder, who also happened to be a resident of that world, and said wielder had apparently befriended a very strong and powerful pirate. His curiosity growing, the sorcerer had kept a close eye on the two after their world was destroyed. They had thankfully both made it to Traverse Town, and even more fortunately met up with King Mickey's two closest and most trusted companions, Donald and Goofy, along the way of their quest to find his student. Donald had objected to the pirate tagging along for the journey, but said pirate had not listened and snuck onto their vessel anyway.

Yen Sid was torn. On the one hand, the pirate was powerful and a skilled fighter, thus he would be an immense help in difficult combat situations that the Keybearer would inevitably encounter. But on the other hand, he was loud, boisterous, and not exactly a brilliant mind, which would potentially create problems for the world order as the Keybearer and Mickey's friends needed to be discreet. Only time would tell.

In the meantime, Yen Sid was certain that the Keybearer's group would inevitably encounter other such powerful individuals as the pirate, meaning there may or may not come a time that he himself would need to intervene.

Yen Sid abruptly raised his head, jerking out of his thoughts. "Inviting yourself into one's home is the height of rudeness," he said firmly, seemingly to no one.

At first nothing happened, then from the dark, the sinister form of a tall woman in black and purple robes appeared, a devious smile on her face. "I'm not in the habit of waiting for invitations since I never seem to get one," she chuckled.

Yen Sid narrowed his eyes. "Maleficent," he growled.

0o0o0o0o0o0o – Another world, several hours earlier – o0o0o0o0o0o0

Zoro yawned widely as he awoke from his slumber. Smacking his mouth a bit, he slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Mm… good nap," he said drowsily, slowly but steadily getting to his feet. After stretching and rolling out the kinks from his muscles, he began to take a look around.

"Huh, this doesn't look familiar…" he said to himself as he took in his surroundings. He appeared to be in a stable of sorts; the walls and ceiling were made of stone, and a big pile of hay lay on one side of the room while a feed box and water trough lay on the other. Torches placed in brackets on the walls lit the room. Overall, the place looked fairly new or at least well-kept, yet still felt ancient at the same time.

However, what truly caught Zoro's eye was what had been lying asleep next to him while he had been unconscious: A white horse with a light blue mane and tail. The color of said mane and tail was strange enough, but the truly bizarre part was the large pair of wings it sported on the sides of its body. Zoro raised an eyebrow; it was just like the bird-horse that Gan Fall rode up on Skypiea, except with coloring that was far easier on the eyes.

Getting curious, Zoro gingerly grasped one of the wings and lifted it up, taking a good look at the underside. It seemed quite similar to a bird's wing, feathers and all. Still curious, he began poking and prodding at the wing.

Unseen by the swordsman, however, the horse's hind legs began twitching in reflex, before winding up and bucking Zoro in the chest, sending him flying across the room and crashing into the opposite wall.

"Gah! Dammit!" cursed Zoro, rubbing the new lump on the back of his head before turning an angry glare on the horse, said animal somehow still sleeping peacefully. "Stupid horse…!" he growled, standing back up and storming towards the winged animal as he reached for his swords… only to find them gone.

"What the hell?" The swordsman's anger immediately vanished upon noticing the absence of his most prized possessions, giving way to apprehension. Quickly looking around the room once more, he then noticed said swords leaning up against one of the corners of the room, still in their usual condition. Letting out a soft sigh of relief, he immediately made his way over and picked up his weapons, sliding them into their usual place in his haramaki on the left side of his body.

He then turned back to the still-asleep horse, considering for a moment. "I'll let you off the hook. THIS time," he growled, still a bit grumpy about what just happened, but he had more pressing concerns. Namely, figuring out where exactly he was. Zoro then turned and walked out the doorway.

Upon exiting the stable, the Santoryu user found himself in what looked like a big training ground. Large weights and barbells lay various parts of the area. Big red and white targets stood in a row with several nicks and holes from daggers and arrows in them. A large pile of broken training dummies cast a shadow on a smaller pile of intact ones. Various swords, shields, maces, and other such weapons lay on racks off to the sides. A big stack of barrels lay in the corner. And all sorts of other training accouterments one could imagine littered the grounds.

"What the hell is this place?" Zoro wondered to himself. "And how did I get here?"

A flood of memories immediately came rushing into Zoro's mind. The big storm on Destiny Islands… sensing an evil aura from the cave… being attacked by a swarm of black insect-like creatures… getting pulled down into a vortex of blackness…

Zoro immediately put the pieces together. Whatever force had pulled him into that portal had also brought him to this strange new place. How, he couldn't say. All he knew was that he needed to find a way back. Or at the very least find a way to reunite with the rest of the Straw Hats.

In the meantime, though, only one question was on his mind…

"Where the hell am I?"

Author's note: And finished! Bit of a shorter chapter this time around, since there's a whole bunch of different plots happening at the same time, and a bit of world building to be done on top of it all. Not much action either, but after all the action in the past 2 chapters, I'm sure you guys could use a breather. Still, I hope what's here managed to entertain you all :)

Another big thank-you to FictionReader98 for his help with this chapter, as well as his suggestion on the Yen Sid subplot. It stemmed from a thought he had about what Yen Sid had been up to during the events of Kingdom Hearts 1, and this is what he came up with. It seemed like a cool idea, so I'm including it in the story. Thanks again, man!

If you look closely, Luffy never does find out from anyone what the name of Traverse Town is. Aerith does call Traverse Town by name when reassuring Sora in the previous chapter, but I'm making it so that Luffy wasn't listening during that part, instead focusing on his idea on how to sneak himself into the Keyblade group. Also keep in mind that Luffy is in general a terrible listener even when someone is speaking directly to him, so I don't think this gag is entirely out of the realm of possibility.

You know what I realized? Upon re-reading Chapter 5 to catch myself back up before finishing Chapter 6, I realized that Sora's predicament with the Heartless constantly chasing him is like a lighter version of Guts's curse from Berserk. I haven't read that much of Berserk, so nobody spoil anything for me please, but the similarities are uncanny. Just sayin'.

That's about all I've got to say for now. Look forward to the next one!

Luffy has managed to join in on the Keyblade group's adventures, much to Donald's aggravation. Can the rest of them keep him under control in this new world? What sorts of strange things will they encounter? And what does Maleficent want with Yen Sid? Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of Heart of a Pirate!