Willow and The Whitebeard pirates (One Piece)

Luffy and Teach Get Introduced

A few weeks had gone by, and we hadn't encountered any other ships, though we had found another place to stop for a little while. There, I was able to handle myself a lot better, as I was getting stronger as I trained with Ace and others on the ship. I was getting better at fighting, and I enjoyed just being around them, as it was like having a really weird but large family. Some nights, I would have bad dreams, either about my past, or about the time that I turned monstrous.

I was still nervous about becoming that thing again, as I had started to remember it through dreams that I would have, though those dreams didn't really come to me much.

It was a nice sunny day, and the mail birds had just dropped off the paper. As everyone gathered around to hear the news of the world, Ace pulled something out of the newspaper, handing the paper over to Thatch. After a second, Ace laughed and raised a wanted poster. "That's my little brother!" A few of the others crowded around Ace, looking at the poster as well. I tilted my head some, as Ace had never before mentioned that he had a little brother. Once everyone moved away from him, I walked over and looked at the wanted poster.

I saw someone very similar looking to Ace, though I didn't think that this person was his brother. I give Ace a slightly weird look, though I was more curious about this little brother. "You have a little brother?" I ask, looking at him.

Ace nods, "Yeah, guess he got his own crew." Ace seemed pretty happy about that.

I looked back at the wanted poster, and I couldn't believe that this kid was a captain. He didn't seem like a captain at all, he seemed way too happy, but if he was Ace's brother, I wanted to know more about him. "What's he like?"

"Ah Luffy, well, he's high spirited, persistent, and he eats a lot." Ace laughs some. I smile a little bit, as he sounded a little like Ace.

"Well, I'd like to meet him one day." I say, my tail moving slightly, as it would be pretty cool to meet someone related to Ace.

Ace laughed and smiled. "The next time that I head out on my Striker to go do something, you can tag along with me. I don't know if we'll find 'em while we're out, but if we do, then you can meet them." My tail wagged a little more, and my ears seemed to perk up some.

"Even if we don't find them, it'll still be nice to be with you." I say, and walk off to just move around the ship.

As it became evening, I headed down to the galley to get something to eat. It was packed, and I didn't mind taking food and eating it on deck. As I walked around, I saw a large person sitting at a table by himself. Something stuck with me, that I didn't like about him. He was eating cherry pies, a few of his teeth were missing, and his beard was the darkest I'd seen on the ship. I wasn't sure what it was, but I didn't like him. As I backed up to turn around and leave the galley, my apatite having gone with seeing this person, I bumped into someone. When I turned around, it was Ace.

"Hey Willow." He says, smiling. He had noticed that I was staring at Teach and decided that if I wasn't going to walk over and talk, that he'd help. He wanted to talk to Teach anyway. "I see you were interested in Teach?" He asks, before he put a hand on my back, and gently pushed me towards the table. I gave in, and walked over, feeling a little better with Ace being there. Once we got to the table, I sat down opposite Teach, while Ace sat down next to him. A felt a shiver go down my spine when Teach looked at me.

"Zehahaha." He laughed happily. "Good job on takin' out all those Marine ships. You're something else." I smiled a little bit, though it was only because I was trying to hide my discomfort. "You're Willow right?" He asked, extending a hand to me. I reached out one of my hands, his enveloping mine. He shook it once, before letting go. "I'm Marshall D. Teach, but you can just call me Teach." He laughed again and went back to eating his pies. I wasn't sure what to say to him, though I didn't exactly talk too much around anyone but Ace and Pops, but I was starting to get better with others around the ship.

I tried to keep my ears as relaxed as I possibly could, though that was proving to be a little difficult. "Well ... you could come spar with me, if you want?" I say, and instantly regretted saying it.

Teach laughed again. "Ace here seems to be teachin' you quite a lot I'd say. You've gotten stronger since you began to train, and you've picked up things even faster than some of the others have. You've got a sharp mind." I couldn't understand why something told me to keep my distance from him. He didn't seem so bad, and there wasn't anything about him that was threatening.

"Alright, thanks." I say smiling. I stayed down in the galley, sitting and listening to Teach and Ace talk. I became a bit more relaxed, though I never lost that tenseness. I finally decided to get up, and go back to the deck. The sun had already started to set, giving the ocean an interesting orange purple color. The deck seemed pretty empty, as most people were below deck eating or just talking. A slight breeze blew, and I felt a little better. I continued to walk around the ship to where Whitebeard's chair was. I stayed a little in front of it, before I sat down, just staring out at the large open sea. I hadn't even noticed that Whitebeard was still in his chair.

"Something on your mind?" He asks. I didn't turn to look at him, but I knew that he didn't mind that.

"Is instinct ever wrong?" I could feel him giving me a strange look, but he answered anyway.

"Maybe, though don't ever doubt yours on the sea, it could get you killed." He paused. "Any reason you bring that up?"

I shake my head. "Not really, I just thought that maybe you'd have a better answer for my question." I say a bit quietly, as I continued to sit with Whitebeard, and watch as the sun set on the sea."