𝐒𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐀 *ੈ✩‧₊˚ ᵒⁿᵉ ᵖⁱᵉᶜᵉ

I. 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐥𝐮𝐞

warning: graphic depiction of choking/violence

YOU'LL HAVE written this in one of many journals, hatching away at the paper, ripping out pages, rewriting them, tongue to ink, all in some attempt to immortalize the Straw Hats properly— and it will always start with the day you met them. It was some objectionably plain day in January, back when you had still blindly followed under Captain Tempest as his Lieutenant Commander, with millions of doubts resting upon your shoulders. The weight was so great, of course, that the only way for you to wear that damn white "Justice" embroidered coat was to wear it the way every coat was supposed to be worn.

You'd been sitting in your little secret spot on the northwesternmost part of Shellstone Island, a reasonable distance from the overbearing watch of Murex Base, somewhere in the blind spot that was Wentletrap forest. Auger Village wasn't too far either, but it was too small even to be considered an issue. You sat nestled in the branches of some big, ancient oak tree whose trunk had bent to the right halfway up. Your view was partially obscured, just enough that all you could see was the sea to the north. If you squinted just enough, you could see a hint of the Conomi Islands on the horizon.

That's all to say that you had not seen the Straw Hats until they were directly beneath you, standing under your tree.

You had heard them first, all screams and screeches, their words undiscernible to your livid ear as your wrapped fingers dug into the bark of your beloved oak. You had tried to ignore it at first, chalking it up to some cadets that you would have to straighten out later so they wouldn't ever come near your tree again. But as the voices grew closer and yelled much less, you started coming to terms with the fact that the voices had to belong to pirates.

"God, I can't believe you don't know your east from west!"

"This wouldn't have happened if you gave better directions."

Oh, so they were lost.

"We are so screwed! Of course, we'd land on an island full of marines!"

"Just our luck... Hey, what should we do, Luffy? Merry won't get unstuck until sometime tomorrow."

And they were stuck.

And were with... Straw Hat Luffy.

You'd nearly fallen out of your spot in the branches just as their voices grew closer to your tree. You grit your teeth— the Straw Hats had landed in an effective dead zone, too far out of range for the old transponder snails that Headquarters refused to retire. The poor snails were just a few years away from dying, and you had chosen this spot because you knew it. You had taken a snail the first time Tempest had laid his hands on you and walked out as far as you could until he could no longer yell through it.

Now, here you were, facing the consequences you had never expected to face.

You slowly steadied yourself on the branches, trying to blend the sounds of your movement with the crunching footsteps of the Straw Hat crew. You slowly reached for the branch above you, up on your tiptoes, ready to pull yourself up, until you saw that telltale straw hat below you, some good ten feet down. You held your breath, taking note of the boleadoras that weighed down your hips, watching as his crew stopped behind him. Below and behind you.