Prologue

Hemet island

It was an isalnd in a corner of East blue which did not have the protection of marines, which made it a prime target for pirates.

That was only until a few years ago when a woman came to the island with a bunch of kids and took out the local criminals overnight and some unfortunate pirate crews and built a rather big home for her and the countless kids she brought with her.

Though they were curious of this person and intrigued by her identity, they had not asked her anything about it as she did not state her name and they did not want to make a big deal out of it or do anything that might upset her, lest they lose her protection and say goodbye to their happy life they led now.

They did find out that all the kids she had with her were ones she rescued from somewhere. This only eased up their attitude regarding her and quite a few housewives showed up from time to time to take care of the kids and help around the place.

Though the kids mostly stuck together as they found companionship amongst each other who had lost everything, there were still a couple of kids who were ostracized in the name of being weirdos.

One of them, a teenager with bluish-gray hair and green eyes was walking around the periphery of the village, which had an abundant forest and wildlife. He was looking for one of the younger kids in the orphanage who was his partner in crime most of the time.

'Now where the hell did this idiot go?'

He was teetering on the edge of annoyance and rage. Thoughts about just leaving and going back came to his mind but he couldn't bear to leave the only crewmate that had agreed to join him. Well, more tricked into joining him, as his 'first mate' was just 5 at that time.

Just when he started to think about how to punish his stupid first mate after he found him, he heard the grass rustling and someone walking towards him.

Looking towards the sound, the teenager found a boy around 7 with brown hair and black eyes walking towards him. Identifying him as the one he was looking for, the older boy started speaking.

"And what the hell are you smiling for?"

"Look what I got here."

Looking at the boy's hands, the captain saw him holding a weirdly shaped fruit. He had neither seen something like that anywhere nor had he heard about it.

"Well it does look rather interesting."

"I know riiiight? They all look different from each other. Anyway, you should try eating it."

"Yeah no, I don't just eat anything. Anyway you brat, did you know how much trouble I got into because of you?"

"Eh why? I've been here pretty much all day."

"That's EXACTLY why, you idiot!!! That old hag blames me for everything you do as well. Tch, let's go now otherwise I am going to get beaten up if we're more late."

"Why don't you try eating this first? It's veeery good."

"Enough about it. We're leaving."

Turning around soon after saying that, the older boy didn't wait for the brown haired boy to reply. He didn't need to as he saw the boy run and catch up to him soon. Making their way through the dark night, they reached their foster home around supper.

As soon as they reached the foster home, they saw the old lady that was taking care of them, Mammy two-shoes as they called her. As she was like a mother figure to the kids there, mammy was something they started calling her. The two-shoes was added by the blue haired boy as she often used them to punish him.

"Ah! What fine weather it is today."

He had his head turned to the side and kept whistling as he tried to just pass her, an action which was copied by the younger boy next to him.

Seeing them like that, the former marine was close to blowing a fuse as even the boy she had brought with her changed completely after meeting this brat who claimed he wanted to be a pirate.

Grabbing their collars as they tried going past her, she pulled them to her eye level. Gulping hard, the older boy started speaking.

"Oh! Mammy, I didn't see you there."

"You-"

"Oh my, what was that again? You are very hungry? Well I guess so, since you've been playing in the forest all day."

*Groooowl*

As if right on time the stomach of the younger boy made a sound. Looking at his sheepish expression the boy made while scratching his head, the almost eight feet lady just sighed and walked in, still holding them by their collars.

"You know we can walk right?"

Ignoring the older kid, she took them all the way to the dining table where no one was present as meal time had already passed and everyone was probably asleep.

Plopping them down onto a couple of chairs, she went into the kitchen to cook something for them. Left alone the younger boy reached out to his back and pulled out the fruit.

"Here, why don't you eat this while we wait for food."

"You should eat it yourself. Wasn't your stomach growling earlier?"

"Hehe you know that was just an act. Look, I can do it again." *Grooooowl*

"Hehehe great job on the improvisation. You're getting better at fooling others."

Looking at each other they started smiling rather sinisterly but only looked comical if anybody watched them. The younger boy pushed the fruit in front of his captain, who just sighed after breaking out of his smile and took it.

Looking at it once more, he took a bite. An action he regretted immediately as he felt like he had eaten shit. A taste so horrendous that his immediate reaction was to spit it out.

Unfortunately he wasn't able to, as his mouth was clamped shut by the boy next to him. Glaring at his mutinous first mate, he did the next best thing to get the piece of fruit away from his mouth, swallow it.

His mouth was set free when he did so and just when he decided to berate his first mate, he saw the rest of the fruit rot away from the corner of his eye.

"What the hell?"

"Ooooh I knew it."

"Huh what the hell-"

The conversation was cut short as they saw mammy come in with two plates of food and set them on the table. Sitting in a seat which was obviously too small for herself she said,

"There's more if you want."

" "Seconds" "

"I'll just bring the pot over."

Seeing them scarf it down in no time, she smilingly shook her head and went to the kitchen. They made quick work of the food and were kicked into their bedroom, which they shared after they annoyed too many kids there.

"So, feel any different captain?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"What you ate was called a devil fruit. They have weird shapes and horrible taste and take away your ability to swim but they give the eater great powers."

Explaining about devil fruits on a blackboard he took out of nowhere, the first mate continued as his captain sat down in a small seat and was taking notes whilst wearing glasses.

"There are different types of them and we have to find out which one you ate."

"Alright sensei, how do we do that?"

"...."

"...you don't know?"

"Well you'll just figure it out! I'm sure you will!"

"Whatever, I'll go to sleep and think about it tomorrow."

Seeing his captain throw away his glasses and going to bed, the first mate decided to do the same and crawled into the lower bunk.

"We will be going to work tomorrow."

"Eh? Work? What work?"

Hearing his captain mention work, the boy was confused as his adopted mother would probably beat up anyone who made kids, especially ones she was raising work. According to her, they should just play and study.

"Idiot, we're building our ship."

"Ohhh, we're finally gonna do it?"

"That's right. I think it's time for us to get our of this island."

Smiling as he said that the older boy turned around to see his first mate looking at him with shining eyes after climbing into the top bunk.

Kicking him down and tucking him in, Jasper D. Thomas closed his eyes and went to sleep dreaming of the places he and his first mate Jinx Gerald would visit.

___________________________

Author's note : The names of the two characters are reversed to fit the One piece world. You know like Monkey D. Luffy instead of Luffy D. Monkey. I'll leave a picture of the two characters our main characters are based on in the paragraph comment for thisi