Action!

(There is a bit of content from the Law Novel, but don't worry because I explain the few references.)

A ray of light crept through the tiny 3-lined opening above my head. I was in a daze, confused as to where I was. The last thing I remembered was finishing reading the Law Novel, and then everything went black.

"Weird." I muttered, and then tried to wake myself up.

To no avail, obviously. I wasn't in a dream.

I have no recollection of past times, except for my consumption of One Piece content. I can't remember my name, my age, yet I can remember the names of every important pirate in the manga/novels.

But one thing was for sure. This was definitely an.. odd situation.

Was I being kept a prisoner?? In front of me were wooden bars. My cage was built solely out of a dark wood and my legs were chained to the wall behind me.

The splashing of water outside made me think I was in a ship of some kind.

Am I a slave??

That started my suspicion I'm in the world of One Piece.

Footsteps echo around the hall in front of me. A man in pirate attire—a leather coat, ripped trousers and black hat—trudged in front of my cell.

Without uttering a single word, he threw some slop on the floor. I think he expected me to eat it.

"I'm not really hungry, actually," I told him.

"You better fucking eat it before we get to the House." He yelled at me, shoving his cutlass near the vicinity of my face.

Okay. Obviously I was in a pirate setting, and obviously I'm gonna be sold as a slave. Oh and obviously I wasn't gonna eat that.

The man proceeded to do the same thing to a number of other cells down the hall.

After he left, I could hear the crying of a lady in the cell next to mine.

"You okay?" In retrospect that question was silly, but honestly I just wanted to hear someone talk.

A response did not come. In fact, my question seemed to make her cry even more intensely.

"H-how do you sound so alive?" She finally mumbled with what I assumed was the remaining power she had.

Well, to be honest, I physically felt great. I guess however I ended up here didn't transfer the mental and physical anguish as well. I didn't answer her.

Another man spoke up, further away.

"I just want to see my son," he said, taking advantage of the rare conversation happening on this level, I could only assume.

I didn't know how to answer his statement. Something made me realise the reality of the situation. All the people around me were gonna be slaves soon. I didn't want to give him false hope.

The rest of the day I spent in silence with the light from the crack in the wall behind me hitting my face.

After the sunlight went up so much it no longer slipped through the cracks, I stood up and felt the energy at full force.

A glide through my bloodstream.

I could see it.

A drop of ink left my fingers. Then a stream. I don't even speak japanese, but something in me made me do what I did next. I wrote the kanji for the onomatopoeia "BOOM" on the air with the ink on my fingers.

I didn't really mean to do that. The explosion even dazed me for a second.

In front of me was now broken bars and an exploded wall.

The sound certainly alerted the pirates.

I crawled out of my cage quickly and grabbed a wooden plank that, due to the hole in the wall, was about to fall off anyway.

I stood to the side of the staircase which held the entrance to this level, wooden plank in my hands. I didn't want to use whatever power that was again. I mimed for the other people in their cells to remain quiet. I could now see their faces. That did something to me.

The first pirate rushed down the steps and looked toward the broken bars, but before he could alert the others, I smacked him on the back of the head with the plank, sending him to the floor.

That made a lot of noise. But it's okay.

I quickly grabbed his cutlass.

"Not a gun???" I cursed to myself as I awaited by the side of the staircase again. Then I noticed something else. A set of keys. I quickly grabbed them and rushed over to the cells, praying that these were the correct keys. After a few tries I was able to get the first person out, a fishwoman, then the second, a human man. I didn't have time, so I went back to my position after miming for the man to pick up the plank I just used and wait opposite to me.

We were standing, our faces to each other as we waited for a pirate to descend into the hall.

A face.

He swung the plank as I slashed the man. But he didn't go down as easily as the last. He screamed and shot a multitude of bullets. I wasn't hit, but my fellow prisoner was. I looked at my comrade who had just fallen, supposedly about to die. I cringed and stuttered but the adrenaline coursing through my veins quickly took control. I slashed the pirate again and he fell down in a pool of blood.

I picked up his flintlock, then I thought of a good idea. The hurrying steps of the remaining dozen pirates echoed as I rushed toward the remaining cells. Only 3 prisoners to go.

I picked the locks on their cells and forced two of the remaining slaves in front of me, side by side to each other. I held my sword at their necks and held them hostage as I let the last one hide in a corner.

As the pirates entered the hall, I proposed a deal.

"Let me go on a spare boat or I will kill these two prisoners. One of them is on the floor, dying right now. If you don't let me go and try to attack me, you'll be losing all but one of your prisoners." I exclaimed loudly, but didn't want to explain the implications. I was extremely nervous—this was a huge gambit.

The pirates considered it, until what I assumed to be their leader, spoke up.

"You may leave," he said, hesitatingly.

"Clear a path for me to one of the spare boats and I'll leave them as I get on."

They spread out of the room and on the deck of the ship. I exited the hall by the staircase. They were surrounding me in a circle about 3 metres away from myself, though the path to the boat was clear. It was very down, yet I could see it fine if I looked down from the ship's edge.

I was going to jump in the water and grab the boat, but then I recalled I had a special power (which could be a devil fruit), so I decided not to risk it.

I let go of the hostages and hopped straight into the boat, hurting from the fall but recovering immediately as I began quickly steering away from the ship. They began shooting at me from a long distance, not keeping their deal and wanting to kill me now that I had no leverage, as I assumed, but luckily they didn't hit me.

When I was far enough away, I assumed I was safe, but it seems I was wrong.

A rupturing sound erupted from the large ship behind me, along with a great splash of water.

They're shooting cannonballs at a little guy in a little ship like me!

The first couple shots missed, but I made a mistake in the steering. It seemed my death was guaranteed as my boat was about to be struck by the explosive sphere.

*Swoosh!

Next second, I found myself inside the submarine. To my right was a polar bear wearing an orange jumpsuit in a fight stance, to my left a man in a white jumpsuit with a hat that said "penguin", also in a fight stance, and I could guess there was someone behind me too.

"Are you hostile, koaaa?!" The polar bear yelled at me.

I put my hands in the air and dropped my cutlass. I knew all 3 of them. Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin, from One Piece. I guess my hunch had been confirmed.

I didn't even think about it. I really liked these guys, no need to be hostile to them.

"Nah, you?"

Bepo shifted his stance in a more friendly manner, though still appearing as though he could punch me any second. Penguin didn't drop his fighting stance at all, though.

"Why were you using that slave carrier's spare boat to sail away?" Penguin demanded an explanation.

"I made a deal with them to let me go. But unfortunately they didn't hold that deal up and started shooting cannonballs at me," I explained. "See, I was going to become a slave as well."

The three looked at each other before dropping their stances.

"Let's wait for Captain before we decide what to do with him."

"Hey, what's your name."

I didn't know my name, so I decided to just pick one right there. "Decantes."

They nodded. Shachi put me in handcuffs and kicked the cutlass away.

"Now I'm a prisoner on another ship? I'm not really a fan of this, you know?"

They ignored me and climbed out of the submarine. They made me follow as to not wander around their ship unsupervised.

We were watching Law solo the dozen pirates. When he was done he set the rest of the slaves free on spare boats and returned to the submarine by swapping himself with a rock that he threw towards us.

"Hey," I said as he looked at me.

"You're an escaped slave, right?"

"Yep."

"I'll get you a boat to sail to wherever you want."

I paused and thought. "What if instead you let me stay with you guys? The Heart Pirates, right?" I acted as though I was not quite aware of who they were. I obviously did.

"I'm not gonna let a random stranger on my ship," he coldly stated, denying my offer."

"You saved my life, I owe you a debt. With me, it's 'give and take'," I stated. Those were the exact words of the four's father figure in their early lives, Wolf. I know this because I read the Law Novel.

They looked at each other with surprised glances before turning to me. "Are you of any use? Can you cook? Fight? Navigate?"

"Not.. really? I'm not sure if I can fight but I certainly have a strong power." I stated.

"And what's this power?" Law inquired.

"I dunno. Ink flows out of my fingers and I can write onomatopoeia in the air. Last time I did it, it made an explosion."

"Bepo, get the book."

"On it!"

The bear opened the circular vault-like door that led into the submarine. In a couple of seconds, he returned back to the top of the submarine holding a purple book—the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia.

Law flicked through the book, finding the fruit I specified with efficiency. "The Sumi Sumi no Mi. You can create ink and use it offensively by writing onomatopoeia."

"That's it."

After about half a minute of what seemed like telepathic communication from the 3 pirates using only eye contact, they turned toward me once more.

"Alright. You can stay. Fulfil your debt as much as you would like. Start by cleaning the submarine."

"Oh.."

"Any complaints?"

"No.."

Besides the fact I now work as a chore boy, it seems my omniscient rhetoric convinced them to let me in the crew.

"You acted on a whim, huh.." I muttered.