You were curious.

It simply was that fact that you were curious.

Being a special person, you were able to see strings connecting the people around you. There were multiple strings between different people, some strings were thin, some strings were thick, some strings were black, some strings were blue, yellow, orange, the list could go on, but some and only some were scarlet red.

Each string symbolized a different aspect of one's life and the relationships one made.

A thick string meant the relationship was long lasting and devoted to, while thin ones were relatively new and unstable. Black was typically for dislike or hate; you learned such after seeing Ms. Nozawa argue with Ms. Koyanagi. Blue was for a strained relationship, yellow was for friendship, and orange was for happiness. There were many more colours of strings connecting people, but you loved the red strings the most.

The red string symbolized eternal love, a person bound to their soul mate.

You analyzed each and every string of all the people on your island and when the beautiful scarlet string caught your eye, you would wait for the two strings of the unsuspecting villagers to come together and intertwine, much like their hands and bodies. The citizens called you the island's infamous matchmaker, being able to point somebody out to another and in a few years time they would be married. But you had analyzed everybody on your tiny little island and your services as a matchmaker were coming to a null end.

So when a large pirate ship docked, you knew you wanted to see what kind of relationships pirates had between each other, no matter how dangerous it could get. You were curious after all.

You decided you would take a look at all of the pirates' strings when they were all together, and to your luck, they all gathered in the plaza, talking loudly as if they weren't aware of the people on the island. The boy with the straw hat seemed the most unaware of his surroundings.

And it was then you saw the strings connecting all of the pirates.

The strings between the boy with the straw hat, the man with three swords, the woman with a tattoo on her shoulder, the boy with the long nose, the man with a curly eyebrow, the tanuki that talked, the tall woman, the giant cyborg man, and the walking talking skeleton; the strings were all extremely thick, about the size of your arm, and all were that beautiful scarlet red.

You were surprised. How was it possible to be soul mates with eight other people? And all of their strings connecting to each other no less? Even the man with the three swords and the man with the curly eyebrow; they looked as if they were fighting but their strings held no malice and were thick and red.

But, looking at their strings and feeling them out, you found they all held extremely strong bonds with each other. And the source? The boy with the straw hat. How did he get them all together, you wondered. The strings weren't made naturally, the boy with the straw hat brought them together, he CREATED red strings himself!

So when the pirates left the island and you went home, you found out the pirates were the infamous Strawhat Pirates, the crew that shook the world and the captain who had declared war on the World Government. Thinking about the crew and how they were all somehow soul mates, you knew you had to redefine what the red string symbolized.

The red string of fate connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance. The string may stretch or tangle but it may never break. The string is shared by lovers and eventually soul mates. And on the offset chance that fate connects more than one person together, those people share a profound bond, deeper than lovers or soul mates. These people are called nakama.