One Piece: Fanfiction Collection

Shanks: how you met shanks

(Keep in mind that due to shanks being WAY! Older the luffy this takes place before luffy even set sail.)

You're sitting on the edge of the ocean staring out at the vast sea. You wanted a life full of grand adventure you longed to travel the sea on a ship exploring what the world had to offer. A ship sails ever closer and you become excited. "Pirates! How wonderful!" then you stop. "Wait a minute... pirates are bad... I must go and warn the village!" you ran to your small village to tell your mother about the ship you had seen. Your mother owned a pub in town and served drinks and food to everyone in town and to every traveler. You reach the pub and spend precious moments trying to locate your mother who isn't there. "Damn where is she when I need her!" you hear the front door open and run out thinking it's your mom only to see pirates fill into the pub. A man with red hair and a nasty looking eye scar leans over the counter and looks around then spots you. You stand there frozen unable to move or think clearly.

"Excuse me... might we get some drinks?" the man says watching you as he sits down. Your mother's words ring through your head. "Treat the costumers like family and they will be kind to you." You smile and reach up in the cabinet for some mugs. "Of course sir..." you're nervous but you don't let it show as you fix the drink by yourself. After you have set the glass down in front of the man he smiles. "Thank you we have been at sea a very long time... I hope you don't mind but we do like to have a bit of fun every now and then." You fight the urge to tell them not to break anything. "Of course not sir... anything else?" all the men start talking at once and it's difficult for you to make out half of it, or it would be if you didn't have to deal with this kind of thing all the time. Your mind is a fine tuned and well-oiled machine that can remember tons of orders at once.

You begin preparing food and doing so while keeping everyone cups full is a task that wore you out rather quickly. The man takes a drink of the beer you set in front of him and then looks at it awkwardly. "What is this?" he says pointing to the cup. You turn around smiling. "It's our house brew... we make it here... it's the only kind we carry..." you think he's going to get upset so you brace yourself for the worst. After a minute he takes another sip. "This beer is fantastic..." he says smiling. You breathe a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you like it sir." The man puts his mug down and smiles up at you. "Please call me shanks..." your eyes open wide and the glass you're holding slips out of your hand. He leaps over the counter and catches it before it hits the floor. "I take it you've heard of me... not surprising at all..." he hands the cup back to you.

You had indeed heard rumors of the great straw hat pirate shanks. "Where is your straw hat?" you say noticing it to be gone. He smiles "I gave it to a friend..." shanks leaps back over the bar. His cape flips up just enough that you now see for the first time that his arm is missing. "Oh my... what happened to your arm shanks..." shanks took his seat and frowns. "I gave it to a monster... but hey I still got one more arm so no big deal right." You put the now ready to eat food on the bar and the boys come up take what they want and sit back down at the tables. You serve shanks last because you're interested in his stories. Your mother walks in behind you through the back door and sees the place packed with people. "Oh my... I've missed quite a bit... is everything ok here?" you smile and nod. "Yeah mom everything's fine help me out with these orders would you." Your mom smiles and starts refilling the beer glasses around the tables.

You look around noticing there is not a single female in this pirate crew. "No girls?" you turn to shanks. He shrugs "girls don't really want to be pirates these days..." you snicker knowing that it had been your dream to be a pirate. "Maybe... I always have wanted to be a pirate... but I never had the chance..." shanks smiles at you from the other side of the bar. He scans you up and down with his eyes then turns to his boys. "Did you hear that boys! She wants to be a pirate! What do you think?" they all cheer and shanks turns back to you. "If you think you have what it takes then I see no reason why you couldn't join us." His crew cheers again.

Your mother smiles she knows about your dream and she supports you. "You always did say you would leave if you had the chance... I won't try to stop you..." she would always say when you told her about your dream. After the boys had their fill they started off to the ship leaving their captain alone in the bar. "So you coming with us or what?" you think about it for a moment. On one hand you wanted to stay and help your aging mother with her pub, but on the other hand you really wanted to go with shanks. You mother picking up on your anxiety nudged you forward. "I can handle things here you go have great adventures." You smile and hug your mother and leave with a small bag and a dream following shanks to the spot where they left the ship.

You climb aboard and look around the guys all surprised to see you actually decided to join them. The one up in the crow nest jumps down and looks at shanks fear glinting in his eyes. "What's wrong?" shanks looks at the man worried. "Captain Shanks sir... the black cat pirates... they're here..." shanks immediately jumps onto the side of the ship and look over the edge. "Damn kuro will slaughter everyone in the village... we have to do something!" his crew drew their various weapons ready to battle. "How long has their boat been docked over there?" shanks turns back to the man again. He shakes his head. "I was the first one back and I just spotted them a moment ago... they couldn't have been there when we arrived..."

You hear a horrifying sound coming from the village. "It's too late their attacking already!" you scream dropping your bag and running over to the edge and jumping off onto the dock. You run not sure if any of the crew were following you. You run as fast as your legs can carry you until you are stopped by sudden blow to the gut. A group of pirates stands over you by the mark they wear you know they aren't from shanks crew. You dodge as one slashes at you with a sword. "It's just a girl... she doesn't look like much of a treat to the plan..." they all stare down at you. "Kill her anyways!" a voice from behind them says.

As they are about to begin their assault again shanks runs in a knocks all of them down with a single blow. Then he reaches down for your hand to help you up. "Come on the village needs us." His men streamed past him into the village. You stood up with the help of shanks and followed him into the burning village. By the time you got there nobody was left and all the building were burning. "We're too late..." you stare in dismay at the remains of what used to be the pub. Shanks men searched the wrecked village for hours but found no survivors only many bodies to badly burned to identify. You search the remains of the pub by yourself your captain watching from the walk path. You knew that he didn't help you because he was afraid of what you would find and he didn't want to be the one to find it.

Just when you believe she got away because you didn't find her in the wreckage you move a piece of wood and there you find your mothers burnt remains. You break down and begin to cry not even noticing your captain had moved from his previous place and was now standing next to you. "I'm sorry... if we had known sooner the black cat pirates were here... we might have been able to stop them... I'm so sorry..." you stare at your mother body tears stream down your face. "It's not your fault captain..." you wipe the tears from your eyes and begin to dig again. One of the other crew members walks over and whispers to shanks. "Should we get the shovels?" shanks nods yes and the crew member takes a few other men with him back to the ship to retrieve shovels. Shanks kneels down next to you and helps move pieces of wood and brick out of the way. You look up at you captain who has a very emotionless look on his face.

He uses his one arm to move things out of the way sometimes losing his balance. After you have cleared away the debris you turn back to shanks. "Why did you help me..." he smiles a half smile. "I understand that you're hurting now... I was only trying to help..." you look at him gratefully. "Thank you... captain..." the other men returned with shovels and began digging holes while other crew members gathered all the bodies into one spot. You watched as one member took the body in front of you to the pile. You promised yourself you weren't going to cry again but you just couldn't hold it in. you watched as the crew buried every single body they could find. Shanks stood by you the whole time the same emotionless expression on his face.

When they got to your mother you hugged shanks because you were crying so hard you couldn't see. Once you realized you were doing this you quickly let go but he just smiled understanding and put his arm around you. Once the crew was finished they left an engraved stone in front of the mounds. It read "victims of a cruel raid by the black cat pirates lost but never forgotten." You had come up with that and you were quite proud of it. You wanted to stand there forever but shanks led you back to the ship. "I know you're upset... take your time... but we can't stay here..." he said and disappeared into his captain's quarters. You climb up the crow nest and watch your island fade away sadness in every breath you breathe and release.

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