Haruka & The Great Pirate Era
Shanks sighed as he contemplated his strategies. He had tried approaching the young 'ghost girl' as his crew had dubbed her. He got several knives thrown at him for the effort. Most people were quite afraid of threatening a Yonko. Obviously she was not.
The odd Haki-shielding abilities were annoying, too. They just made Shanks all the more determined to get her and make her tell him her secrets. Because that was pretty damn cool.
The animals in the forest kept being annoying and attempting to attack him. And by the time he was done with them, the girl was gone.
Another thing he quickly realized was that the girl constantly regenerated herself, which was also pretty cool.
All in all, Shanks chalked it up to a devil fruit. Where ghost girl had got it from, was anyone's guess.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when he subconsciously noticed an unfamiliar presence. He quickly whipped around to look at the ghost girl, who had frozen in her tracks, staring at him in fear. She took a step back, fear painting her face.
"Who the hell are you, and why the hell are you following me?" She asked quietly.
Shanks blinked before squatting down. That was a mistake, because she took another step back.
"I'm Shanks." He held out his hand. Ghost girl stared at it for a bit, uncomprehending. "Do you want to be my friend?" Shanks asked.
"Friend? What's that?" She frowned, the picture of innocence. Shanks found it hard to believe she was the same person who threw deadly objects at him regularly.
"It's someone who…" How do you explain what a friend is?
"Someone who you would do anything for." Shanks decided on.
"Isn't that family?" She asked in confusion.
"No, they aren't related to you—"
"Bullshit! You don't need to be related to be a family!" She suddenly yelled out, before quickly calming down.
"Well, some friends are pretty much a family. They're called nakama." Shanks amended. "Other friends are just as important, though."
At the mention of family, the ghost girl touched her arm softly.
"What's your name?" Shanks asked. As cool of a name 'Ghost Girl' was, he doubted she would like to be addressed like that.
"Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy."
As soon as she said 'Monkey' Shanks's jaw dropped in surprise.
"Monkey… As in Monkey D. Garp?!"
"He's my grandfather." She shifted weight from one foot to another, bowing her head so her bangs shadowed her eyes. Finally, Shanks burst out laughing.
"Well, you've got an interesting family!"
"You don't know the half of it…" She mumbled, and if Shanks didn't have super senses, he wouldn't have heard it. He'd question her later.
"Do you wanna go back to the Party's Bar with me, and meet the rest of the crew?" He asked.
"Crew? You're a pirate?" She gasped out, but she definitely wasn't afraid.
"Yup!"
"I wanna be a pirate!"
"Why? Isn't your grandfather a marine?"
"Yeah, he always throws me off a cliff every time I say that… and pirates have the most freedom, that's why!" Luffy proclaimed.
"Luffy, you're an interesting child."
He had no idea what he was about to get into.
***
13 years later…
It had happened so quickly. He had been laughing along with them, and then, the next moment, he was dead. None of the Haki users even had the time to react.
Standing behind the Straw Hats was the man who had just murdered their cyborg shipwright. The shipwright of the King of Pirates. Well, Queen. Let's not get technical.
They all looked at him with murder in their eyes, while the innocent doctor kept crying asking Franky to 'live dammit, you can't be dead you bastard.'
Franky had been killed with a simple blast of light from an admiral. Such a simple, ordinary death. And that was the worst of all. Franky was flamboyant, flashy, quirky, talented, extraordinary, unique. He deserved a hero's death, one that people would remember forever, maybe a sacrifice to save the world or something. But no. He was shot in the back by an admiral, simple as that.
Despite the fact that the Straw-Hats took the life of that admiral in return for their precious shipwright's, the hollow spot in all of the crew's hearts would never be replaced. The entire crew found it hard to stay alive, and the only reason they did so was for each other. If one of them dared commit suicide, the others would never forgive them for that.
The only consolation was that Franky had achieved his dream, and the Straw Hats were determined to keep the Sunny alive to keep part of Franky with them, forever. But the Straw Hats were never the same. Each of them had dealt with pain and suffering through death, but that was different.
Zoro remembered the girl who would never achieve her dream because of her gender, the hero who died in a completely ordinary way, and how painful that was.
Nami remembered how her mother, her savior, her light, how she was extinguished with a simple shot, and how terrible that was.
Usopp remembered his mother, the one who believed in him, and how she was defeated by a simple sickness.
Sanji remembered the pain of seeing his entire adopted family die on that ship, and that he could do nothing about it.
Robin remembered watching Ohara burn while feeling despair at the fact that her enemy was too large to defeat, in this case, death.
Brook remembered his old crew, and how they all eventually died, leaving only him, and feared that that would happen again.
Haruka remembered a kind red-haired captain, who taught her how to open her heart again, and wished, for a brief second, that she had remained emotionless, and wouldn't have to deal with this terrible pain.
If only they knew what was in store for them.
***
A few months later…
With the pain of Franky still fresh in their minds, disaster struck again. This time, it was with the man Haruka had saved, the second division commander, Ace. The fleet admiral, Akainu, had decided to finish the job when Sengoku hadn't. He decided that the Pirate Queen and the son of the Pirate King were too dangerous to have contact with each other. So, on one of the many times that the two crews met up, he went after them personally.
He sent a magma covered fist hurtling towards the Queen, thinking she was the bigger threat. Suddenly, the fire pirate shoved her out of the way, taking the blow for her. Immediately, the Whitebeard Pirates were upon him, and Whitebeard himself finished him off, not without a little difficulty, as the man was getting on in age.
"I… I… guess this is a repayment for what you've done for me.. Luffy… I just want to say… to you all… that I found myself a family, just like you asked… and even though I have the blood of a demon in my veins… Thank you! For loving me!" Ace gasped out with his dying breaths, and as the magma that had punctured his gut began to eat away at the rest of his body, he collapsed completely in Haruka's arms, while she attempted to hold back tears.
"Idiot… not you too…" She whispered into his corpse, hating everything about him at the moment. The way that they never got to get close as kids, the way that he still didn't think he deserved to live, the way that his damn smile was still on his face.