Spitfire [A One-Piece Fan-fic]

Prologue

“Eh? A mechanic?”

A patient smile on his lips, the dark-haired boy simply nodded, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. Silence settled on the room for a long moment, neither pirate making a move. Facing him was a rather rugged, salt-and-peppered figure. Hesitation flashed across the elder man’s face, then a moment later he shook his head, gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb. It wasn’t his business to keep anyone from leaving the shop.

“Well, no guarantees, son, but if you want the best and want ‘em below retiring age, you’ll find ‘er back there. Tall, busty blonde gal,” he told him, then paused a slightly sheepish expression crossing his face. “Ah, but, don’t tell her I said that. Got a temper on her she does.”

The boy’s smile faltered somewhat as the words registered.

“My crew is male- it’d be preferable if the mechanic was as well.”

The man barked a laugh, his entire face lighting up with his amusement.

“Male? Trust me, that gal is as good as any male, and acts like one, too! You wouldn’t have a problem.”

Nodding again, his lips pursed thoughtfully, the boy stopped around him and through the door the man had gestured towards. As his eyes skimmed over the occupants of the back room, it was easy enough for him to pick out the person he’d been told to locate. Dressed in a ragged pair of jeans and an oil stained shirt was a rather tall, irritated girl. Just above her eyes a scummy dirty pair of goggles held back her frizzy strands of blonde hair, keeping her dark, charcoal eyes free from any strands that had escaped the messy pony-tail holding a majority of it back. At a guess, he’d have placed her a few years older than himself, twenty three perhaps.

“I told you, if you touched my things one more time, I’d kill you!”

The boy paused, a curious expression flashing across his face. The girl’s object of irritation, a rather scrawny, elder male simply shot her a sheepish look, scratching the side of his face as he obviously scrambled for a good excuse.

“I lost my wrench,” he explained after a moment.

“Then borrow someone else’s!” she snapped in turn. “Leave my things alone!”

“But yours were the clos-”

The man cut off as the girl lunged forward, only held back as one of the other mechanics seized her collar, jerking the girl back by her shirt and resulting in her landing in a rather undignified heap on the ground. Seething, jumped to her feet and wheeled around to face the person who’d stopped her, the girl’s fists clenching at her sides.

“What’d the hell you do that for?” she snapped.

Chuckling, the man held one hand up innocently, the other gesturing towards where the dark-haired boy stood.

“Well, I thought it might make a bad impression on a potential customer if you murdered one of your own while he watched.”

As her eyes flickered to the person in question, the girl let out a heavy, irritable sigh, before moving her hands to her hips and grumbling a swear under her breath.

“Yeah, yeah, fine. Whatever. I’ll kill the bastard later. You, fur guy, what’s your deal?”

The boy’s lips twisted into a faint smile, giving the girl one last, studious look before offering a small shrug. The elder man had been right, she didn’t seem act like a girl. If the evidence to the contrary wasn’t right in front of him, he would have assumed her to be male due to her crude way of speaking and rude attitude. Not to mention that her attire was the opposite of what most girls seemed to want. It was dirty and stained, and if the well furnished, expensive look of the shop was any indication, her clothing was by choice, not necessity.

“I need someone to take a look at my ship,” he answered simply, his words holding a rather blunt tone to them. “I was told the best place to check was this shop, and was pointed back here when I requested that it be someone who I could potentially recruit.”

The girl scowled, her eyes turning towards the doorway behind the boy. Wisely, the man who’d pointed him towards the back was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m not good with ships,” she grumbled. “You’d be better down at the shipyard if yer lookin for someone for yer ship.”

He shook his head.

“It’s not your typical ship.”

“What the hell is it, then?” she demanded.

“A submarine.”

Her eyes lit up, all hint of her bad mood disappearing.

“Well I’ll be damned, you ain’t lying, are ya?” she demanded instantly, spinning around to seize a toolbox off of a nearby table.

“No.”

“Well, then why are we just standing here? Lead the way, I wanna see it!”

Amusement flickered across his face.

“You haven’t introduced yourself, yet,” he pointed out as he turned to face the door.

“Oh! Well, shit. Forgot about that,” she agreed, sticking out her hand that wasn’t clutched around the handle of her tool box in his direction. “Kana.”

Glancing at her oil stained hand, he slowly reached out to take it.

“Trafalgar Law.”

A/N: Welcome to my new One Piece story! Hopefully this goes a bit smoother than my other attempt, which is currently annoying the hell out of me! :D Feel free to share any opinion about this as it goes along, I love feedback and am never against hearing your guys' opinions!

Oh, and the pic to the side is one that I found on Pintrest that fits Kana pretty well.

Finally, as this is taking place of my working on Bladeswoman, I don't feel that guilty about starting it without finishing anything else. v.v Instead, Bladeswoman has simply been put in indefinite hold.