Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. One Piece and all of its characters belong to the amazing Eiichiro Oda. Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) and all of its characters belong to the spectacular Hajime Isayama.

Warning: Language, Violence

Chapter Nine

Aboard the Thousand Sunny

"Oi, what are you brats still doing here? Don't you have some barracks or something to get back to?" Sanji said with a glance towards the group of new recruits (and Hanji) who for some reason decided not to leave with what seems to be their superior officer.

"Um, yeah, about that," said the kid named Eren. "We actually haven't been given orders as to where we are supposed to go… so we don't actually have anywhere to get back to. We were wondering if we could stay here for the time being."

"Yohohoho! Of course you can all stay here!" chuckles Brook, ignoring Sanji's scowl. Turning towards Hanji who was busy poking his various joints he adds, "I was wondering if I may have the pleasure of seeing your panties."

Hanji snorts in amusement, "A skeleton that can talk and that is perverted! How can you even get aroused? Do you even get aroused? You don't have blood or any sort of chemical processes that are the components of-"

As Hanji continued to talk and ramble on about the possibilities of a skeleton being sexually active, the other soldiers turned away, a few blushing, and focused their attention back on the blond cook. Sanji sighed in defeat and met their gaze.

"Whatever, are you guys hungry? Most people are after a tough fight like the one you guys gave those…. What do you call them? Never mind. Come on in the galley, I'll fix you something up." At that, Sanji pulled a cigarette out of his pocket along with his lighter, lit it up, took a long drag, and turned to enter the galley after making sure all of the recruits were following him. When one girl hesitated he turned back around to face her, digging up the information that she was the one named Mikasa and that she had some kind of thing for the kid named Eren.

Jean, Connie, Eren, and Armin entered the galley in front of Sanji as he faced Mikasa for a long minute.

"Thank you," she finally said. "For protecting Eren. And Armin."

Then she entered the galley. Sanji took a huff of his cigarette and followed in order to begin making everyone sandwiches out of the leftover meat the Strawhats used from their last meal.

It went unnoticed that the group was short a certain blonde soldier.

oO0Oo

Meanwhile, Usopp had made his way up to the crow's nest so that he could keep an eye out on the area surrounding the ship. He couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen and he was sure that his deathly afraid-of-being-on-the-ground-where-monsters-could-reach syndrome was kicking in. So, he went up high, as high as he could on the ship to keep watch, even though no one had asked him to.

Usopp watched the crazy scientist lady poke and prod at Brook, and then when Franky sauntered over, she diverted her attention to him. After a while it seemed as if she changed her methods and began firing questions away at the two of them, making them look bewildered before one of them cracked a joke and they all begin laughing. Turning away, he then saw Sanji usher the soldiers into the galley, stop and talk to the black-haired girl, and then follow them in.

As that scene started to become uninteresting to him, he again turned his gaze to the streets that were on either side of the river that the Sunny resided in. He caught the sight of one of the soldiers he met earlier sneaking away. Well, that's strange, he thought. What was her name… Amy? Anna? Oh I know! Annie! I wonder where she's going….

He pondered for a moment before brushing it off as unimportant and began to scan the streets below for any kind of approaching danger.

On the Streets with Levi

Levi was annoyed. They had just barely left the ship and had only been walking for a few minutes when he turns at a commotion going on behind him. The two women, Robin and Nami, seemed to be trying to sooth the deer-creature who was looking around desperately for something. The immature one seemed to be laughing and enjoying the chaos.

"What is it?" He snapped, making sure to voice his displeasure.

"Shishishi," The boy named Luffy giggled. "Zoro's wandered off again. I'll go find hi-!"

Before he could finish and run off, Nami grabbed him by his shirt collar. "Oh no you don't! You'll just end up getting lost, too, and start causing all kinds of trouble!"

"Awwww, but Zoro gets to have an adventure, why can't I?" Luffy whined, trying to make his best puppy eyes at the navigator. It didn't work.

"Because I said so." At that she turned back to Levi whose face clearly showed his frustration.

Levi took a deep breath and sighed heavily. "Petra, Oluo. Go and see if you can't find their swordsman. Then meet with us in Commander Erwin's office after you've determined that he hasn't started any trouble. That's all."

As they started to head off, Chopper piped up, "Hey, I'll go with you! You'll have a better chance of finding him with my sense of smell!"

"Fine," Levi said. "The three of you go. The rest of you follow me. As I said before, We're going to Commander Erwin." He watched as the small group split away and began searching for the wayward pirate.

Levi and the others continued ahead in silence for a few streets until Nami finally spoke up. She had been wondering for a while just what it was about this country that had them so high strung. She and the crew had been to islands and countries that had been taken over by sociopathic and cruel pirates and yet the inhabitants of those places still were able to find some kind of joy and hope. In contrast, all of the citizens that Nami saw within these walls seemed to either be perpetually terrified or struggling to maintain their state of being blissfully ignorant.

"So what's up with this place?" Nami asked. "Why do you guys hide behind these walls?"

Levi scoffed. "We are not hiding. It is protection for those here that are not trained to protect themselves against the titans."

Robin glanced over at Levi contemplating what he said. "How long have these titans been a threat? Judging by the age of the walls it has been several centuries. Why has no one simply left the island?"

"Well for one," Levi replied in a bored tone. "Until you guys showed up no one even know that we were on an island. Anyone outside of the survey corps that have ventured out of Wall Maria have not been heard from again and even when the survey corps carry out a mission outside the wall, at most half of us return. These walls are safe."

"But don't you have any maps of the island? How could no one know that there is something else other than what is inside these walls?" Nami said, visibly perplexed.

"No. The first people who ran this country outlawed anything and everything that contained and explained things beyond the walls. That still in effect now, but people don't care. This is their whole life and most are content to live the rest of their days here. Those that aren't join the survey corps and more than likely die."

"Oooh, isn't that a bit harsh?" Nami said, shocked.

"No, It's the truth," was the blunt reply.

oO0Oo

While Robin and Nami were question Levi about the specifics of the island, Luffy was pestering Gunther and Eld. He continued to blab on about what he called the "giant perverts" and ask them about what kind of adventures they have had on the island. At some point during Luffy's excited chatter, Gunther and Eld shared an exasperated look and interrupted the hyperactive pirate.

"So…," Gunther began. "How did you become a pirate?"

"Well, I got on a ship and sailed off. Somehow I ended up in a barrel and floating in a sea… But then I got rescued by my friend Coby! Coby was funny! He was a pirate, too, but I helped him join the military after we met Zoro and beat up some officer in the military."

"Why did you even become a pirate?" Eld asked. "I thought pirates were supposed to be criminals."

"Shishishi! We are! And I'm going to become the Pirate King!" Luffy exclaimed.

"What's the Pirate King?" Gunther questioned.

He quickly regretted his question as Luffy launched into an exuberant explanation of what it meant to be the Pirate King.

A/N

Ummm… Well guys, I'm sorry? I didn't really mean to leave you guys hanging for so long but I've had really good reasons! Haha.

If you want the reasons, you can head over to my author's profile and read it there. Anyways, don't worry, eventually this fic is going to be completed. It's just going to take me a while because my life is a bit hectic right now.

Sorry for any spelling/ grammar errors and, as always, stay awesome!

Kitt