The day was a beautiful one, fluffy clouds drifting in the sky, a gentle breeze on the wind and calm waves splashing against the side of a boat.
A man slept on that boat taking full advantage of the beautiful day, his hat over his eyes and arms crossed over the back of his head.
Then the peaceful lull was broken, by a thud on the side of the boat.
The man woke up and had a look, a plank of wood had drifted by and soon more debris followed, looking ahead the man saw what had to be the flaming remains of a ship.
He couldn't tell what had happened nor did he really care, more over there didn't seem to be any survivors.
Just as he was about to give up looking he spotted someone clinging to a piece of wood and their grip slipping and then going under the surface.
Diving in he grabbed the person and swam back up and over to his boat holding onto them tightly.
Safely on his boat the man got a good look at the person he had just saved from drowning.
She was the most beautiful being he had ever seen, to most she might have seemed ordinary, average even, but this woman was absolutely gorgeous to him.
Her hair was a shade of dark blue, darker then the deepest abyss, he could barely see it but it was clearly there, her clothes were white with green and blue accents around the sleeves that looked like waves, he had never seen anything like it, she wore black pants and was barefoot, her footwear had probably slipped off and sunken into the water.
What intrigued him most however were the two swords at her hip and the pin tangled in her hair, he reached for the pin to have a closer look when the woman suddenly started coughing up water and he recoiled.
As the woman panted catching her breath he reached out again, he had barely even touched her shoulder before the woman had recoiled and drawn out one of her blades and attacked.
Of course as they were in a small boat her quick movements had caused it to capsize.
The two breached the surface shortly after and neither couldn't help but laugh at what had just happened, they got the boat back upright and climbed in.
"Sorry for jumping at ya like that" the woman said squeezing water out of her blue hair, strangely he could see the blue better with it wet, her accent was strange but her voice was sweet and easy to listen to.
"No, it's alright, anyone would if a stranger tried to grab them" the man said shaking off water from his coat.
"Then let's not be strangers yeah? My name's Shimotsuki Kiyomi and you are?" she asked trailing off looking at him expectantly with her bright lilac colored eyes.
"Dracule Mihawk" he simply said slightly taken a back by Kiyomi's beautiful and unique eyes looking right at her with his equally unique yellow eyes.
And that is how Dracule Mihawk met Shimotsuki Kiyomi.
And four years after the execution of the Pirate King Gold Roger, they would have a child and named her Nicole Mihawk.
~Years Later~
"Where are we going this time papa?" asked the curious seven year old swaying on the side of a coffin shaped boat, her wide golden yellow eyes scanning the horizon with wonder and innocence as her almost jet black hair swayed with the wind and her movement.
"You'll see soon" chuckled the smooth baritone of her father sitting at the center of the boat steering it along with the wind his keen eyes that matched his daughters watching her carefully.
"Kay!" the girl chimed cheerfully with a grin.
~
As they grew closer to their destination the girls eyes widened and sparkled with excitement as she spotted a giant Ferris Wheel peaking out from behind trees topped with bubbles.
She started swaying even more literally beaming with excitement.
"What's got you so excited?" her father asked a fond smile on his face, he had a clue as to what she might have spotted.
"Nothing~" she sang teasingly.
Soon after they docked and the girl hopped off before running off before slipping and falling over "Ouch" she muttered and looked to see what tripped her.
Seeing nothing she touched the ground "The ground is all slimy" she noted lifting her hand and gasped in awe as a bubble formed where her hand just been in.
"Papa! Papa! Look! The ground is blowing bubbles!" she exclaimed in awe watching another bubble form.
"That's because these trees produce a sap that's like a thick soap, the bubbles form when the roots breath out oxygen" her father explained walking over to her.
"That's so cool!" she muttered marveled by the bubbles.
"Now listen Nicole" her father said gaining her attention by using her name.
"See that number on that tree?" he pointed out the tree next to them, it had a number painted on it with huge numbers, the one he had pointed to had the number 27.
"Yeah" Nicole nodded.
"Remember that, you're free to explore as long as you return here by tomorrow" her father said.
"Tomorrow? Are you going somewhere else papa?" Nicole asked turning to him.
"I am, papa has some business and unfortunately i can't bring you along" he said.
Nicole pouted a little, her papa always brought her along no matter where he was going but she understood that whatever business he had was probably super important.
Mihawk laid a hand on Nicole's head and ruffled her hair "Be a brave girl and wait for me okay little samurai?" he asked kneeling down to her eye level.
Nicole cheered up a bit from the use of her nickname and smiled "Okay" she nodded before tackling him in a hug.
Mihawk chuckled a bit and hugged her back, when Nicole let go he ruffled her hair once more and smiled "I'll be back before you know it" he said, stood up and left.
Nicole waved him off and watched the boat disappear into the horizon before bolting off towards the amusement park.
~
Nicole stole money in order to get into the rides and she wasn't the least bit sorry about it, she went on many rides and had the time of her life.
As she was sitting on a bench enjoying cotton candy a figure crept up from behind her and stuffed her into a bag before running away.
Nicole screamed for help but it was muffled in the bag, she tried getting out but the bag was too sturdy.
Suddenly the bag was set down and Nicole fell on her back with a yelp onto the hard surface she was placed on, then the bag was opened and she lashed out at the hand reaching in biting down on it.
"Ouch! Careful with this one it bites" the kidnapper said grabbing Nicole with his other hand holding her by the back of her dress.
"Let me go!" Nicole yelled flailing around but it was useless as the kidnapper held her at a distance.
"A feisty one, the client is going to love braking that down" the auctioneer grinned grabbing Nicole and tossing her to the guards who took the still struggling seven year old away.
Nicole had tears in her eyes as she tried her hardest to fight off these people but nothing was working and then before she knew it she was behind bars with a thick collar around her neck.
The men were nice enough to explain that it would explode if she runs away or struggles too much, there were shadowy figured in the other cells, it was cold and bitterly lonely, as young as she was she was terrified.
Nicole curled into a ball and sobbed while calling for her dad to come rescue her.
~
It had been hours, although Nicole wasn't sure, she was still curled into a ball but had stopped crying and calling for her dad, only because her throat was sore, she had watched from behind a curtain of her hair as the men shoved in more and more people.
With about twenty people there shoved into tiny cages, some sharing one the men started rounding everyone up and putting them in a line.
Nicole felt her fear and nervousness rising up again as she grew closer to the edge of the stage where she could hear an auctioneer rattling off numbers and prices.
"Sold to 271 for twenty million berry!" she heard the auctioneer call and her blood ran cold in realization, they were auctioning off people and she was next!
Before she could panic further she was shoved onto the stage and she stood frozen there even as the lights stung her eyes, she couldn't even hear anything over her heart pounding in her ears.
"Sold to 352 for twenty five million berry!" the auctioneers voice cut through the deafening noise and Nicole looked to her buyer, a fat blob of a man with hardly any hair left on his head and disgusting grin on his face, wearing extravagant garbs and a some sort of bubble over his head.
Nicole shivered she could tell what this man, no, what this disgusting pig was planning to do with her.
~
That night as Nicole and the other purchases, all girls around her own age, were travelling by ship, she figured probably to a private island where the pig could do whatever he wanted with them in peace.
The ship was swaying as a storm brewed outside but despite this it seemed like the pig couldn't wait any longer and some men, likely other slaves grabbed Nicole out her holding cell and lead her to a room.
There a woman that may have once been beautiful waited, her face now mangled with deep angry red scars and a broken bone structure, neither Nicole or the woman said anything as the seven year old was shoved into the room.
The woman approached her and Nicole cowered away backing up against the now closed door, the woman smiled sadly, despite her mangled face she had a beautiful smile, or so Nicole thought at least and it eased her slightly.
"I'm sorry, you must be scared of me, because of my face" the woman said.
"No, i'm scared that the same thing will happen to me, it's not your fault your face got messed up, although you still have a beautiful smile" Nicole told her with all the bluntness of an honest child.
It struck a cord in the woman and she teared up "Thank you" she said with another smile before the ship lurched sending everything tumbling, braking bottles of perfume in the room.
The woman caught Nicole when she lurched forward from the door, a determined fire burned in the woman's green eyes, she will not allow another child to suffer as she had, she used a key to unlock the heavy collar around Nicole's neck which tumbled down with a clatter.
Nicole looked at the woman in shock "I'm supposed to prepare you and put that collar right back on afterwards, but in this storm in the middle of the night you can escape, it's too late for me, my legs are destroyed" she told the seven year old.
Nicole hugged the woman "Thank you" she said and bolted out of the room without a second thought, somehow among the chaos of men swarming the deck of the ship trying to fight the storm she slipped past them all without being noticed.
She reached the life boats and wondered how she could lower one in the storm when to her luck a huge wave crashed onto the ship sending the life boats lurching across the deck and tumbling into the sea, she jumped in and managed to swim into one and then rowing like her life depended on it she escaped into the stormy night.
~
Nicole woke up to the sun shining into her eyes, she blinked and sat up in the boat to look around, she was cast away onto the shore of an island, she took a moment to reflect that she had escaped and laughed to herself joyfully.
She smiled leaning back to look at the blue sky and wondered about the other girls, the slaves and that woman that were on the ship, but she decided there was nothing she could have done for them.
She was thankful that she had escaped and survived.
With a new appreciation for her life Nicole jumped off the boat and set off to explore the island, walking along the beach in hopes of finding a port or a small village, even a road, anything.
Once again to her luck she found a small port town and perhaps even more unbelievably she saw the familiar features of her father searching among the crowd, not caring about the how or why Nicole was just happy to see her father.
"Daddy!" she called running over to him.
Mihawk turned and sighed in relief visibly relaxing once he saw his daughter and caught her in a hug "Oh my sweet girl, i was worried sick" he said.
"I missed you" Nicole said hugging her dad back, a light hiccup in her throat and her eyes teary.
"I missed you too" Mihawk said holding his daughter tightly before pulling back and looking into the matching eyes "As soon as we find a place to settle i'm starting your training, understood?" he asked.
Nicole nodded, she knew how important being able to protect oneself was now.
~
A few weeks later they found the abounded island of Kuraigana and made their home there after dealing with the local wildlife, then Nicole's training as a swordsman began.
~
Ten years later Nicole felt she was ready to set off on her own, Mihawk wished his daughter luck and she left on a small sailboat and sailed into the distance, a freak storm broke out and blew her all the way to the East Blue where she met Zoro on a small island, and the rest as they say is history.