By the end of Shanks' story, Dev's shyness is gone and she is bouncing on his lap, begging to hear another story and talking a mile a minute. "That was SO cool! It must be awesome to be a pirate! I want to be a pirate when I get older and so do Ace, Luffy, and Sabo. Sabo is the fourth member of our crew. He has blonde hair and a missing front tooth and he always wears a top hat. Ace and Sabo want to form their own crew and become known throughout the world!"
Dev's energy is apparently infectious because now Luffy is bouncing up and down on his bar stool beside Shanks. "Yeah! And I'm gonna be the Pirate King!"
"Oh? Are ye now?" Luffy nods energetically. "And how do ye expect ta be a pirate, much less King o' the Pirates, when ye can't even swim?"
"I'd just stay on the boat."
Shanks turns his attention back to the yellow-haired girl on his lap. "What 'bout ye, lass? Why do ye want ta be a pirate?"
Dev grins at Shanks, "For the adventures of course! I want to travel all over the world; meet new people, explore islands, and discover new things." She gets off of Shanks' lap and stands on the counter. "Maybe even cross swords with some of the world's greatest swordsmen." She pretends to be fighting an invisible foe with a sword. "Or even make incredible escapes from the clutches of the Marines and other pirates."
Shanks grins at her, his eyes gleaming in amusement. "Those are the same reasons why I became a pirate. And in my opinion, they're the best parts of bein' a pirate."
Dev blushes a little. Ace rolls his eyes at her reaction before saying, "It'll be kind of hard to be a pirate while wearing one of those fancy dresses that ladies always wear, Devlin."
Dev's face falls as she remembers that Garp wants to send her to a fancy all-girls school. She flops down on her butt on top of the counter and begins to pout. Shanks' smile fades as well and he puts a finger under her chin and then lifts her head to look at him. "What's wrong, Luv? What could be so bad that it'd put such a huge frown on such an adorable face?"
Dev blushes, "I just remembered that Garp wants to take me to a stupid all-girls school in a few years. But I don't want to go! I don't want to be some prissy girl who's afraid to get dirty or do anything fun." Suddenly, her face lights up with a huge grin as an idea occurs to her. "Let me join your crew! I'm going to be a pirate anyway, so why not join the greatest pirate crew in the world!"
Luffy jumps to his feet standing on his bar stool, "Hey! I want to join too!"
Shanks chuckles and the other pirates grin in amusement. "We're honored that ye think we're the greatest crew in the world, but I'm afraid that yer both too young ta sail on the open ocean."
"Aww," both Devlin and Luffy pout. Dev stands up again, "But I have experience sailing! I sailed to this island with my family...."
"WHAT?!" Ace and Luffy shout then climb on top of the bar with Dev and begin to crowd her, rapidly asking questions. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US BEFORE?!" Ace asks. "DID YOU REALLY SAIL HERE?! FROM WHERE?!" Luffy asks this time. "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FAMILY? IF YOU WERE WITH THEM WHEN YOU ARRIVED, WHERE ARE THEY NOW?!" Ace again.
Dev frowns, her face darkening and she says in a voice that's barely above a whisper, "I don't want to talk about it."
Shanks frowns as Dev shoves past the two boys and climbs onto his lap, burying her head into his chest. "It's alright, lass. Ye don't have ta tell us anythin' if ye don't want ta."
Luffy sits back down on his chair and Ace jumps down from the counter, "Luffy, Dev. It's time to go. Sabo is probably waiting for us."
Dev looks at Ace with twin wet trails running down her face, "I want to stay."
Luffy looks at Dev then at Ace, "If Dev is staying then I'm staying too!"
Ace puffs out his chest, issuing a challenge of a fight to the little blonde-haired girl. "I'm the oldest so I'm in charge when Gramps is away. And I say it's time to go!"
Dev wipes the tear trails away then puffs out her own chest to show that she accepts his challenge. She climbs down from Shanks' lap and walks over to Ace. "If I win we stay, if you win we go."
"Deal." Ace replies and the two begin their fight. They throw punches at each other while wrestling around on the ground. The Red Hair pirates all gather around the fighting pair and start to cheer on their favorite.
"What's going on out here?" Makino asks, walking out of the kitchen.
Shanks turns to her, "Ace and Devi are fightin' over whether ta stay or go."
Makino is about to shout at the two fighting kids when the fight comes to a sudden end. Ace and Dev are laying on the ground, both breathing heavily. Dev's stomach lets out a loud growl and Ace's stomach answers with a growl of its own. Ace gets to his feet first, "Now let's go home. The fish is probably cold by now."
"FOOD!" Luffy shouts then jumps down from his seat.
Dev moans then says to Ace, "Carry me." Ace raises an eyebrow and then bends down, but instead of picking her up to carry her, he grabs one of her legs and begins to drag her. Dev laughs happily, back to her normal happy-go-lucky self. She lifts her arm and begins to wave at the pirates. "Bye, Shanks! Bye, Ben! Bye, Yasopp! Bye, Lucky Roo! Bye, other pirates that I haven't learned the names of yet, but will eventually!"
"Bye, Shanks! Mister First Mate!" Luffy yells then runs to catch up with Ace and Dev, who are almost to the swinging doors of Party's Bar.
"Bye, Devi! Bye, Luffy! Bye, Ace!" Shanks shouts back.
"Goodbye, Devlin. Luffy." Ben says.
"Bye-bye, Dev and Luffy!" Yasopp and Lucky Roo yell, the latter through a mouthful of meat.
"Goodbye, hyperactive blonde girl that has a crush on our captain! Bye, Luffy!" The rest of the pirate crew yells.
Luffy suddenly jumps on Ace's back nearly causing the other boy to fall over onto his face.
"Luffy! Get off! Do I look like a donkey to you?!" Ace shouts.
"You might not look like one, but you sure do act like one," Dev says. Ace turns and punches Dev hard on the leg that he's holding. "OW! Charley horse! Charley horse!"
The Red Hair Pirates break out laughing at the kids' antics as the three children leave the bar; Ace still dragging Dev while struggling to carry Luffy on his back. When the children are gone Shanks returns his attention to Makino. "So what's those three's story, lass?"
She looks at him with sadness in her eyes, "Those poor kids. Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp is Luffy's grandfather and both Ace and Devlin's guardian." At this, Shanks' eyebrows raise in surprise. "And while Garp does care for the three of them, his job forces him to leave them alone for long periods of time. So they have nobody but each other."
Shanks frowns, "Okay. So Monkey D. Garp is Luffy's grandfather...and I know who Ace's parents were." Makino looks at him confused, but he pretends not to notice her questioning look. "But what about lil' Devi? Who are her family and where are they?"
Makino shakes her head, "Nobody knows. Garp found her in the middle of the forest five years ago, alone and covered in her own blood. The village doctor was amazed that she was even alive when Garp brought her to him."
"What happened ta her?" Shanks asks.
"No one knows. Until today, no one even knew that she came from a different island. She's always refused to talk about anything from her past even with Ace. But whatever happened to that poor girl must have been horrible because for over two years she didn't say a word to anyone. She never smiled and looked at everyone with suspicion, like she expected them to attack her at any moment." A few tears escape from Makino's eyes as she remembers those few horrible years. "She used to flinch away from anyone who even tried to touch her except for Ace and Luffy."
Shanks pulls his hat down to cover his eyes in shadow; he knows the most likely reason for Dev's behavior back then was because someone had beaten her severely. "So what happened ta turn her inta the hyperactive sweetheart that she is taday?"
"It was Ace. He was her constant companion; he would talk almost non-stop to her, but she never responded. He used to just call her Sunflower because no one knew her name. Then one day Ace was talking to her and she spoke to him. She only said, 'My name is Devlin,' and that was what finally broke her out of her shell. Now Dev is a giant bundle of endless energy."
---------------
Months pass by and the Red Hair Pirates have decided to make Foosha Village their temporary base. Dev and Luffy visit Shanks and his crew almost every day. Shanks will tell them stories or even sing them a song from his home island. Dev will then start asking him questions a mile a minute, about everything and anything, from her spot on his lap. Luffy is usually stuffing his face beside them. Shanks even gave them a tour of his ship, the Red Force, and Devlin immediately fell in love with the ship...especially the dragon figurehead. She would often explore the ship from top to bottom, accompanied by Shanks or Ben Beckman of course. There was only one room that they didn't let her go into, the Treasure Room, but she's okay with that. After all, to Dev, Shanks' idea of treasure is rum and she's not old enough to drink yet, so she has little to no interest in the room.
The only time that the two children don't visit is when the two tip off the pirates that Garp is returning to the island. That's when the pirates decide to leave Dawn Island to avoid any trouble. Of course, both Dev and Luffy beg Shanks to take them with him, but he refuses every time. When the Red-Haired Pirates eventually return, Dev and Luffy are always there to greet them, usually jumping up and down on the docks in excitement. They then get into a fist fight over who gets the first piggyback ride from Shanks, which Dev always wins.
Of course, the red-headed captain tries his best to spend an equal amount of time with both kids, and even with Ace when he decides to visit, which isn't as often. Shanks tries to find things that the three of them can do together, but on occasion, he'll spend an entire day with Luffy and the next day with Devlin. When Shanks is spending the day with Luffy, Devlin will usually hang around with Ben; who teaches her how to tie different sailing knots; or with Yasopp; who teaches her how to shoot using a slingshot. When it's Dev's turn to spend the day with Shanks, Luffy can be found either with Yasopp; listening to his wild stories, or with Lucky Roo; chowing down.
This is one of the times that the pirates are gone. Shanks told them that he and his crew were going to a nearby island to look for treasure and that they would be back in three weeks. Luffy started begging Shanks to take him with them, but, for the first time, Devlin did not. Shanks raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't say anything about it since she still gave them her usual hyperactive farewell; bouncing all over the place and waving her arms while she screams goodbye to them.
That was almost two weeks ago and all Dev and Luffy have done is sit around and mope. "So boorrredd," says Luffy while laying on the couch.
"Me too," Dev agrees, laying on her back in the middle of the floor.
Ace and Sabo walk into the living room where Luffy and Devlin are. "Hey, you two. Get up. We're going to explore the southwest woods today." Ace says, nudging Dev with his foot.
"I don't wanna," Luffy replies, rolling over and falling face first onto the floor.
"I miss Shanks," Dev says.
Ace frowns and is about to kick Dev when Sabo speaks, "You know...this is an excellent chance for an adventure. Maybe you two will have an exciting story to tell Shanks when he gets back."
At this idea, both Dev and Luffy jump to their feet, shouting "Let's go!" They race each other to the door and get stuck as they both try to leave at the same time. "Arrgh! Dev if you weren't so boyish we could both fit through the door!"
"What's that supposed to mean!?"
"If you had a girl's figure we...." WHAM! Dev punches Luffy on the back of his head, sending him flying through the door. Meanwhile, Ace and Sabo are rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically.
----------------
"Are we there yet?" A bored Devlin asks.
"Almost," Ace replies.
"I'm hungry," says Luffy.
"We'll eat before we go into the woods when we get there." Ace tells Luffy.
"Are we there yet?" Luffy this time.
"I'm hungry too," Dev whines.
"Ace, maybe we should stop and eat. It's almost noon and none of us ate any breakfast." The blonde hair, top hat-wearing boy says, starting to feel ravenous himself. Sabo was always the sensible one of the group.
Ace stops and they all hear his stomach growl loudly. He sighs, "All right. Let's eat lunch."
Although never really voted on, Ace is the group of four's leader. They all agreed upon it without really saying anything. To the other three Ace just seemed to be the natural choice for their leader. And although Dev fights with him a lot, she still acknowledges him as her leader.
They all sit in a circle and Sabo takes off his bag and then unzips it. He hands out sandwiches to the others then begins to eat his own. Ace and Luffy pretty much stuff their entire sandwiches in their mouths. And now Luffy is eyeballing Dev's sandwich.
She pulls her sandwich further away from Luffy and growls at him. Luffy pouts then gets an idea. Luffy jumps to his feet and points toward the ocean. "Hey! It's Shanks! I see Shanks' ship!"
Devlin jumps to her feet and drops her sandwich, "Where, where?!" She looks at where Luffy is pointing but doesn't see anything. "Hey!" She turns back around just in time to see the last bit of her sandwich disappear into Luffy's mouth. "Luffy!" she whines. "Now what am I supposed to do for food?"
Luffy grins at her, "Not my problem."
"Yeah, you're the one who was stupid enough to be outsmarted by Luffy," Ace says, smirking.
"Fine! I'll find some fruit or berries to eat!" She tells them before stomping off in the direction of the nearby woods.
"Be careful you don't get eaten by monsters first!" Ace teases her.
Dev ignores him and continues to stomp through the trees and shrubs looking for anything edible. Her foot stomps down on a weak spot on the ground and the ground collapses beneath her. She lets out a cry of surprise as she starts to fall down a dark hole.
As she's falling, her skin begins to turn snow white forming a sort of armor to protect her. She lands in a huge pile of rotten leaves. She slowly gets to her feet and checks herself for injuries. But it's of little use, she can barely see her hand even though she's holding it a couple of inches away from her face.
She sighs and looks up seeing a speck of blue above her. "Geez, that's a long way up. How did I even survive that fall? I guess I should look for another way out...Man, is it dark in here. I wish I had a light." Suddenly, a dull blue light appears deeper inside the cave. "Oh, I see how this works...I wish I had a large bowl of ramen!" Nothing happens.
Dev sighs in disappointment, "Fine. I'll just explore then." She wanders deeper into the cave heading towards the blue light and occasionally tripping on rocks. As she travels deeper into the cave the light seems to be pulsing; fading then growing brighter again and then repeating.
After about an hour of stumbling around in the dark, Dev finally finds the source of the blue glow. The cavern she just stumbled into is vast and in the middle sits a huge rock surrounded by a deep pool of water. She ventures farther into the cavern, which is engulfed in a bright blue light that is emitting from on top of the rock pedestal. The little blonde's jaw drops and her eyes widen in delight as she spots the source of the blue glow. Sitting on top of the pedestal, towering far above her, is an iridescent blue jewel. Dev is struck breathless by its beauty, even though she doesn't have a good view of the precious gem.
Curiosity finally gets the better of her and she jumps into the water and then swims over to the rock. She crawls onto the small amount of ground around the base of the pedestal then begins to climb the rock and, after what seems like hours, she finally makes it to the top. Hauling herself onto the flat top of the rock, Dev gets her first true look at the jewel and her mouth falls open in awe. The beauty of the jewel is incomparable to anything that she has ever seen before. It's the length of an adult's index finger, but what makes this jewel truly unique is its coloration: a pristine blue, a seafoam green, and a small amount of white all mixed together. To Devlin, it looks like the ocean has been trapped inside of this gemstone.
A large grin breaks across Dev's face at the thought of how happy Shanks would be to receive a jewel as pretty as this. With the thought of making Shanks happy running through her mind, she reaches out and picks up the jewel. Instantly, her remaining strength and energy are zapped away causing her to pass out and fall backward off the rock and towards the small patch of ground near the base of the rock pedestal... more than twenty-five feet below her.