Haruka The Great Pirate Era
Sabo walked into his room, expecting to be greeted with the familiar sight of his dorm room. He did not expect to see a girl sprawled on the floor, sleeping soundly. Looking closer, he noticed that she was wearing a ragged and torn red t-shirt and jeans, not the standard Revolutionary Army clothing. A tattered straw-hat hung from her neck via a grimy cord. A pile of black fabric was gathered up and used as a makeshift pillow for her, while in her left hand was an eternal pose. Sabo couldn't see her face, since her red hair covered it. Looking closely at the body, Sabo could tell that it was abused and pushed past the girl's limit. Her skin and hair was caked with blood, and her muscles were quite obviously strained. Her breathing was ragged, and she seemed to be half alert, straddling the line between sleep and wakefulness. Sabo had spent enough time in the same conditions as her to know the symptoms. This girl was on the run.
Sabo considered waking her up, but judging from the dark circles under her eyes, this was the first time she had been able to sleep in days. He wasn't a cruel person, and he decided he could let her keep sleeping. He also noticed that she was clutching a parasol in her right hand, which made him wonder if she was nobility. But he could tell from the small signs, like the way the blood was splattered, the way she had collapsed, and her build that she was a skilled fighter. Looking closer, he picked up the Eternal Pose in her hands, turning it until he could see the writing on it. Once he made out the words, he froze.
This girl had an Eternal Pose to Baltigo.
That was impossible. Baltigo was hidden to anyone except the Revolutionary army. Not even they had an Eternal Pose to it. Hell, Sabo didn't even know there was even a map with Baltigo on it, let alone an Eternal Pose! Quietly, he took the pose in his hand and slipped off to Dragon's office.
"Yo! Sabo! Back from your mission?" Koala calls out. Sabo smiles and nods politely before looking back to the Pose in his hand. There was no doubt about it. It leads straight here. Suddenly, he was halted by bumping straight into a beefy man who's name he didn't care to remember.
"What'ya got there, pretty boy?" He growled. Sabo readjusted his grip on his staff before bringing the Pose up in front of him.
"An Eternal Pose to Baltigo."
"Where the hell's a runt like you getting something like that?" He cracked his knuckles in an attempt to look intimidating, and it probably would to an ordinary person. However, Sabo was not an ordinary person, and therefore was unfazed.
"A girl. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to figure out why the girl has an Eternal Pose here." With that, he pushed past the guy and walked straight down the hallway, stopping at the end where Dragon's office was. He knocked on the door and listened for the words.
"Come in."
Sabo complied, silently shutting the door behind him. He held up the Eternal Pose and looked straight into his leader's eyes.
"It's an Eternal Pose to Baltigo. Why?" Sabo asked, placing it on Dragon's desk. Dragon picked it up and turned it to inspect the base. He then turned it around to show Sabo a symbol on the base. It was a red rose and a knife, crossed to make an X shape. The symbol of the assassin, Bloody Rose.
"I gave this to my wife, if she ever needed to find me." Dragon explained, handing it back to Sabo.
"That doesn't explain why there's a girl in my room with this thing in her hand. And why is she in my room?" Sabo kept staring at the symbol in his hand.
"That is your new room-mate. I can't tell you any more about her, since she requested that she be the one to explain to you what was going on." Dragon picked up his pen and resumed doing paperwork. "Although she doesn't want to give you her real name, she will be going by the alias of Roze D. Haruka for the next few years. Please greet her nicely. She's been through a lot to get here."
Sabo clutched the Eternal Pose in his hand before nodding and walking back to his room. A room-mate? Maybe she woke up and he could ask her what was going on. And why was she hiding her name?
He opened the door to her room to find the girl still snoozing on the floor. Sighing, he picked her up and placed her on the bed next to his. Then he noticed her tattoos. The first one, and largest, was on her shoulder, and had been obscured by her short sleeve. It was a standard pirate mark, but instead of a skull, there was a straw-hat much like the one hanging from her neck. Black lightning crackled from the edges of the bones, forming a circle around the mark. The one under it Sabo recognized from the Eternal Pose. It was a red rose crossed with a knife. The third one under that was the symbol of the Yonkou, Red-Haired Shanks. Why she had that symbol, he had no idea. It was obviously made by them, however. You could tell from just the way it was drawn on, that it shared the same characteristics that all Red-Haired pirates with the mark on them had. A little known fact was that all pirate crews had small distinguishing characteristics when they tattoo the mark on their body. Ones that couldn't be copied anywhere else.
So she was affiliated with the Red-Haired pirates? And somehow with Bloody Rose and the Revolutionaries. Sabo's eyes traveled down to the last tattoo on her arm. It was the mark of the Heart Pirates, a fairly new crew on the seas. He wondered why she had that mark. It looked pretty old, and those pirates were around for a year, at best.
Sabo was snapped out of his thoughts when the girl sleepily opened her eyes. Then she noticed that Sabo was looking at her tattoos, and he sheepishly turned his head.
"Sorry, I was just curious." He apologized.
"It's okay. I know it's not normal for a little girl to carry around pirate marks." She assured. "You must be my new room-mate, Sabo."
"And you're the girl that calls herself Roze D. Haruka. Why do you have pirate marks on your arm, anyways?" Sabo asked, pointing at the tattoos.
"These tattoos symbolize my family." She rubbed at the permanent additions to her skin.
"Family? You're related to those people?" Sabo asked in surprise.
"Some of them I'm related to, some are bonds stronger than blood." She explained, then dropped her arm.
"What's your real name, anyways?" Sabo asked, sitting on his bed, across from her.
"Can't tell you."
"Can't or don't want to?"
"Both." She answered honestly. "I can tell you that you will probably recognize my name, though."
"Why? You famous?"
"Nope." With that, she got up. "Is there any food around here? I haven't eaten in weeks."
Sabo nodded and led her out of the room. There were a bunch of questions floating in his mind, though. Why did she have an Eternal Pose to Baltigo? Why would he know her real name? What did she mean, family? Why was she on the run? Why couldn't she tell anyone about herself? What was her real name?
This girl was a mystery. And Sabo was going to solve her.