So, unfortunately back in September I had to wipe my Macbook to take care of some problems. I had everything backed up onto an external hard drive and just continued to work from off of it. Then I was stupid and accidently reformatted the drive for an xbox. Don't ask me how I messed it up, I don't really understand how in the first place… so I lost everything.

All my photos, all my documents, story ideas and hundred upon hundreds of fan fiction plot bunnies, ideas and half completed stories. Obviously this killed my writing mood for quite a while, including with school starting up again I've been busy… So far I've managed to save not even a quarter of the stories, thanks to myself emailing a bunch back and forth with people and the cloud. But pictures and everything else is gone.

I've also recovered my plot and chapter ideas for Blessed by the Sea, thankfully!

So sorry about the wait and this long note I just wanted to let you all know that I am alive, wounded but alive.

So this chapter is not as long as I would like but enjoy!

Blessed by the Sea

Chapter 4: Catlike Pirates

Once out of the village we started walking up the large hill to the mansion. Large lush bushes surrounded the white house, and from what we could see, decorative pillars sat at the corners. As a whole the house stood out like a sore thumb in the small village.

"It's huge!" Luffy and I grinned. We had never seen such a large house this close up before. Even some of the nobles' houses back home were covered by fences and trees we couldn't see anything.

"Hello!" Luffy yelled and grabbed the huge gate and stuck his head through the bars with a small pop. "Is anyone home?!"

"Doesn't look like they are" said Nami as she crossed her arm. "I'm coming in!" Luffy grinned, ignoring her and slingshot himself over the fence

"Luffy!" The ginger growled with annoyance.

"Come on Nami" I grinned and easily scaled up, Zoro followed close behind "come on"

She grumbled but started climbing.

I took a moment at the top of the gate and looked over the property, it was pretty bare other than a tree poking up from the around the back. I helped Nami cover the top and we dropped down gracefully together.

"The door's locked" Luffy pouted, he walked back towards us. "Did you see anyone in the windows?" asked Zoro, he looked around lazily a hand resting on the hilt of his swords.

"Nope" Luffy's lip stuck out with an even heaver pout.

"It's probably not a good idea to try and break in either" I looked at Nami, who met the glance with a guilty shrug. I knew she was thinking about it.

Luffy turned towards the house "did you hear that?"

Everyone stopped and listened, soft laughter could be heard.

"Where is it coming from?"

We heard it again, louder this time. We followed it around to the back of the building. Sitting on the large tree was Usopp, from what we could tell he was in the middle of telling a story to a petite blonde haired girl. She was seated on the windowsill on the top story of the house. A cream shall wrapped around her shoulders, even though it was pretty warm out.

"The fish's poop was so large I thought it was an island, and I docked on it!"

The girl burst into laughter, holding her stomach "Usopp, you're so funny!"

"Of course I am! I'm the great Usopp! Warrior of the seas!"

She laughed again, and Luffy joined in, catching the attention of the two.

"Oh, hello there" the girl smiled "are you friends of Usopp?"

"Yes, Yes!" Usopp grinned and cut in "these guys are part of my pirate crew!" I grinned along while Zoro was silent, neither denying his story lie or agreeing while Nami just sighed.

"We've come to ask for a ship" Luffy said bluntly, which had Nami groaning and holding her head.

"Oh-"

"Absolutely Not!" A voice cuts in, those of us on the ground spun to see a tall man, he wore an old fashioned black suit, Black hair gelled back and round glasses sat on his nose which he used his palm, fingers spread open to adjust the rims.

"Klahadore!" the girl exclaimed "please, they were just visiting me" she pleaded, large brown eyes watered and she coughed a bit.

"No, you see visitors only make it worse" the man addressed the cough with a wave of his hand. "Now, get off this property" he glared at Usopp specifically "filthy children are not allowed"

Usopp didn't like that very much, I glowered at the man as the teen jumped down from the tree branch and stocked up to him. "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"Children of dirty pirates have no business being around those of a higher family"

That hit a cord in my stomach. How dare this man! I took this as a personal offence and was about to make it known when Usopp decked the uppity bastard. "My father is a great warrior of the sea and I will follow in his footsteps!"

"Get. Out. Of. Here."

"Gladly" Usopp stomped off while the man straightened his suit and glasses.

Luffy gave Usopp's back a proud look I would have smiled if I still wasn't upset about the man's words. The girl in the window watched sadly as we followed Usopp out. The man, who I guessed had to be a butler or someone who worked in the house, since the three kids told us her parents had died. He started to criticize the poor girl until she flinched and reluctantly closed herself into the room. Something not right was going on in the house.

"What an asshole" I flopped down onto the wooden bench, that man had grinded my nerves. Luffy had gone to follow Usopp, the teen was pretty upset with the Butler's words. Zoro, Nami and I were just outside the village with nothing else to do but wait for Luffy to return. Zoro took a seat on the ground beside the bench while Nami stayed standing, arms crossed in front of her chest. I took a heartbeat to look over the two of them, Zoro had filled out nicely since his month of starving and Nami seemed happier and also not as thin. Not that we were eating a lot of good food it was enough to get us by.

"Here" Nami cut through my thoughts, a black elastic was hanging in front of my nose. I gave her a confused glance. "Your hair is just everywhere" she sighed "tie it up"

I grinned "oh, thanks" I took the band and neatly tied my blonde, slightly blue locks into a high pony tail. Bands were hard to come by back on the island, Makino had given me a few but they usually broke in the fights with wild animals, and I didn't trust the boys with cutting it short.

We waited for hours for Luffy to return, I chatted with Nami about random things, much while Zoro napped. The sun began to set and there was still no sign of Luffy so we decided to head back into the village to grab some dinner. Once the dirt road turned to cobblestone we found Usopp slumped up against a house, crying his eyes out. He explained how he and Luffy were sitting on a cliff near the water and overheard the Butler's plans to raid the town and kill the girl in the mansion, whose name was Kaya. Apparently the bastard butler used to be a pirate. When I asked about Luffy, Usopp had said he was hit by a hypnotism attack and fell off the cliff. I laughed it off, the teen was rubber a fall wasn't going to kill him. And hypnotism, HA. Sabo had tried some of the mumbo jumbo for a week when he found a discarded book, but all he could do was make Luffy fall asleep. Ace and I found it hilarious.

I assured Usopp that my Captain was fine, he'd properly wake up in the morning. But the problem with the pirates, of course we'd help a friend protect their home, and girlfriend.

Usopp denied the latter was so thankful, he offered to house us at his place for the night. It wasn't the tidiest of places but worked perfectly fine. Nami had claimed the bed so the boys and I got comfy on the floor.

We were up before dawn and as Usopp got everyone breakfast I did a quick run around the small island, passing only a few other small villages. Syrup Village had only two beach landings, the rest of the beach was cut off by cliffs. The South Bank was where we docked and the East is where I found Luffy, still out cold in the sand.

"Oi, you gonna sleep though the fight?" I knelt down and stretched out his rubber cheeks. All I got in response was a soft snore. I sighed, Luffy always looked cute while he slept. Black hair covered in sand, tanned skin and soft features. I pulled his cheeks again "Wakey wakey"

Dark iris's opened sleepily as they focused on my face he broke into a grin. "Morning Melody" his happiness lit up my world, I just couldn't describe it better.

"Come on sleepy head, we've got some pirates to fight"

Recognition lit up in his eyes "That Butler is gonna raid the village" he frowned

"We've got about an hour until they arrive, come on" I stood and motioned for him to jump onto my back. A quick sprint back to Usopp's which took all of 1.2 seconds. And we were ready to set up the ambush.

The minions were finally all down, after setting up our traps on the wrong bank we rushed to the south bank just as the cat ear wearing pirates were jumping off their ship and marching up the steep hill to the village. Between Zoro, Luffy, myself and even Usopp with his slingshot the minions were nothing. But the hypnotism leader/ captain stood off to the side by their ship, he was spitting mad. "Damn you kids! Sham, Buchi! Get out here!" The heart glasses wearing weirdo yelled. Two men, both wearing the cat ears like the other men grumbled as they exited the ship. They both had swords in hand.

"I can handle these two" Zoro grinned fiercely.

"All yours" Luffy shrugged

"I claim the hypo-freak" I called quickly and Luffy pouted with a groan.

"Stuff it" I cracked my knuckles "you get the butler"

"While you guys keep them busy, I am going raiding" Nami grinned with a greedy glint in her eye. She sneaked off as Zoro engaged the two sword wielding pirates. Luffy and I watched for a bit, but it seemed like the Hypo-freak wasn't going to let Zoro continue kicking ass.

"Be back in a moment" I grinned at Luffy and literally just appeared in front of the hypnotist. "Hi there" I smiled as he jumped back, a hand grabbed his falling hat.

"W-where did you come from?!"

"Well… when a man and a woman have sexual-"

"Just shut up and be hypnotised!" He sputtered and whipped out a small ringed blade and shoved in it my face as it swayed back and forth. Annoyed I snatched it out of the air and tossed it into the ocean, making it skip across the water a few times.

"Wha-" he watched dumbfounded

"You're annoying. Lightning Kick" My attack jutted out in quick sessions, with my speed everything around me slowed. I circled the man kicking and doing some flips for momentum, hits collided with his back, chest, stomach and head, the last of which sent him soring half-way up the hill and into the cliffside beside the newly fallen Sham and Buchi.

"And just what is happening here?" from out of the tree line came Klahadore, the pirate turned butler. The only difference from when we saw him last time are long claw like blades were attached like fingers to his gloves.

"Such a simple plan" he sighed "but you failed, and now I have to clean up"

The Hypnotist I was surprised to notice was semi-conscious but could only reply with a few groans while the sword wielding men began to beg for another chance. Luffy was watching him carefully, Usopp I could tell was shaking in his boats. The butler began to sway. This caused his men to freak out and even those minions that were just waking up started to run back to their boat.

"No! Captain! Please don't!" some yelled.

I watched as he moved up and down the hill, his moves were all over the place and almost random. Usopp was freaking out about how he had disappeared, but he was just moving too fast to be seen. A quick look at Luffy and I could tell he knew where he was, but Zoro, was just a tad too slow and couldn't keep up. Claw marks started to litter the dirt and shred the men who tried to escape and those that were still out cold.

He can't see where he's going I noticed. I had this trouble first starting out with the devil fruit, but soon my eyes caught up to speed. But this guy was completely blind. He stopped suddenly about half way down the hill. Breathless he calmly wiped the blood from his blades, no one was free from a hit, other than Luffy, Usopp and myself. Zoro had a small dribble of blood coming from his calf.

"There" he turned to Luffy and Usopp at the top of the hill "now, just to deal with you"

Usopp stepped forwards bravely, "You're plan has failed! This is the end for you!" he sent off a volley of different shots, though none had managed to hit. The butler was faster than them.

"Klahadore!" out from the direction of the village Kaya arrives, at her heels are the three kids that followed Usopp around yesterday.

"Ojo-sama, just what are you doing here?" his voice was dangerously low.

The poor girl was shaking. "I found Merry… he told me everything. How could you….. I will give you all my money, just leave us alone!" the three kids were protectively around her, sticks in hand.

Klahadore sighed, "It's not that easy, Ojo-sama" and growled out "it's not just the money! Being a pirate became boring" I scoffed, why'd be become one in the first place then "all I want now is a nice quiet life, with more money then I know what to do with and no pirate reputation or troubles, letting you live is not an option"

"You're such an idiot" Luffy spat "not worthy of being called a pirate" he looked around, "stepping on your comrades, after travelling with them you get bored and throw them away?!"

"You know nothing, I will get what I want!" he roared like a child.

"No!" Kaya's voice wavered and her hands shook, from somewhere in her shall she was hiding a pistol. Her small hands were barely covering the hilt. "I won't let you Klahadore" she was crying. The boys around her legs exclaimed loudly, worried about the weapon.

"You aren't strong enough to pull that trigger" he mocked. In a split second he rushed forwards, Kaya squeezed the trigger. I watched the bullet miss and hit the sand. Kaya, noticing her miss squeezed her eyes shut expecting to get hit but Usopp was the first to react and put himself in between of the two of them. Fist flew and connected with the pirate, destroying his glasses. Unfortunately Klahadore was quick to retaliate, Usopp was flung back with four deep slashes across his chest.

"Usopp!" the kids and Kaya yelled and ran to his side.

I ran up the hill to his side and looked over the wound. It was deep but didn't hit anything important. I ripped his shirt and started to put pressure on the wound, Usopp was glaring at the butler, surprisingly not unconscious

"You can't stop me"

But he can. I glanced at Luffy who was quiet and obviously ticked off at the butler's actions and words.

"No one can stop me!" the man was almost crazed now, broken glasses hung off his ears, previously well maintained hair was in disarray and blood soaked suit.

Luffy started walking, head held high and fists clenched. The few feet down the hill, Klahadore was covered by Luffy's shadow pulling him from a crazed laugh. "I don't like you" Luffy said slowly.

"You are in my way" the butler swiped out but missed as Luffy stepped to the left, as a counter his gomu-gomu pistol smacked right in the middle of his face, a loud snap was his nose and the rest of his glasses breaking.

The fight started, Luffy was dominating even when Klahadore started the technique from beforehand, but Luffy was faster.

Zoro I could see was finished up with the other cat pirate members and was just watching the fight intently. Kaya was crying over Usopp, unsure about what to do to help. "I'm fine" Usopp said quietly.

"You're gonna need stitches" I commented, lifting the torn pieces of his shirt to look at the wound, the blood had slowed and the wounds were pretty cleanly cut and easy fix if I had the supplies. "Do you have medical supplies?" I asked the girl, keeping her busy while the kids were running around like their heads were cut off.

"… yes, yes there is"

"Ok, you take the three chickens and go grab it, or at least get some of the stuff set up for when we get there. He's not going to die in the next ten minutes. Once Luffy's finished we'll get him cleaned up"

"Ok" Kaya lead the boys back towards the village, moving quickly.

"I'm gonna die!" Usopp cried as they disappeared through the trees.

"No you're not" I wacked him up the head. And scoffed.

"My plan cannot fail!" the butler screamed. I looked down the hill to see that Luffy had clung himself onto the butler, and thrown his head back stretching to its full length "Gomu-Gomu Bell!" Direct hit!

Luffy unwound himself from the now unconscious pirate, grabbed his leg and with a big swing tossed him into the few pirate henchmen that were awake. "Now get out of here!"

The group were quick to follow his orders, those that were able to walk picked up their fallen captain and first mate as well as the rest of their crew mates and quickly boarded their ship and took off.

Luffy watched them go, standing strong and only a few scoffs and cuts.

"Come on Zoro" he grinned and helped the swordsmen to his feet, the few wounds that he had still slowly bled through his white shirt. Why he still wears white ones I'm not sure.

Nami came out of the trees, somehow now behind everyone, slung across her back was a cloth bag full to the brim. "So how was the fight?" she asked while grinning.

Usopp, having leant up to see her arrive groaned and rolled his eyes.

I laughed "looked like you had a good time as well"

Kaya took a bit longer to return with the three kids, her other butler, a small man with white curly hair was also injured by the pirate. Kaya had already patched him up and returned to the bank. With his help they patched up Usopp's chest in no time, while I put a few bandages on Zoro and Luffy's cuts.

My stomach growled loudly as everyone finished up, Luffy laughed "alright let's get some food!"

"You all are welcome to come back to my house, I'm sure we have some items we can put on the barbeque for dinner" the small blonde girl offered "it's the least I can do for you"

Nami rolled her eyes "I hope you have enough food for the two of them"

"I'm sure we do"

It was the best food we've had in a long time. Luffy and I filled our stomachs to the brim and then some. We didn't know when we would next have this much to eat. We laughed and fully enjoyed the party outside in the backyard of the mansion. A campfire was lit, drinks were passed around and Usopp was telling stories while the three kids were acting it out with a flourish.

Even Kaya was laughing and joining in on the fun, there seemed to be a new light in her eyes. She even joined us in falling asleep were we could, she was laying against the large tree close to Usopp. Nami and Zoro were close by as I fell sleep lying against Luffy's ballooned stomach, as the fire was dying.

Morning came for most well past sunrise. I looked around to see Zoro, Nami and Luffy still sleeping. Usopp and the kids were gone and I could see Kaya inside the mansion windows with her white haired butler. I gave Luffy a nudge to wake him up, sleep filled eyes opened as I bent down over his face and kissed him slowly allowing a small private moment while alone, and my hair flowed down like a curtain blocking the sun from our eyes.

"That's a nice way to wake up, Mel" he wiggled his eyebrows, as we separated. I laughed no matter how much he acted like a child, he still was a hormonal teenager like myself. I tucked the strands behind an ear just as Zoro opened his eyes slowly "Morning" he didn't seem to have noticed the moment, not that we would have minded.

"Good morning" I grinned.

The swordsmen nudged Nami awake, which earned him a hard wack.

"Nice to see you all slept well" Kaya came out the back door with a basket of fruit. I got up and took an apple from her with a smile, Luffy stretched out his hands to take the basket from the girl, and I quickly snatched two from him and tossed them to our other crew members.

"I guess you won't be staying for much longer?" she asked.

Luffy, with his mouthful answered "yeah, we've got to move on, find some more crew members, like a cook!"

She smiled "than please, I have something I want to give you"

She and her butler led us down to the south bank. "Oh my gosh!" I gasped as the ship came into view.

Sitting on the water was a small ship, it was so much larger than our little dingy. It had two sails, one large and another smaller one colored with red stripes and looked to be a carnival type. The figure head was large enough for someone to sit on, that I knew Luffy already loves and was the shape of a sheep head. A small birds nest sat on top of the main mast.

"I call it The Going Merry Go" the butler said with pride "I designed it myself. And Ojo-sama and I would like to give it to you"

"Thank you so much!" I grinned, he began to explain how everything works which Nami listened closely, I with only half an ear and the boys completely ignored. Instead they were the first aboard. Luffy sling-shot up to the deck, I followed Zoro up the small rope latter.

There were four level of decks, the main one was quite large, with the mast in the middle. There were three doors on this level one was beside a set of stairs leading to a small deck behind the figure head, the bow of the ship. This room was a storage room, it also held two cannons and cannon balls. The other rooms were side by side, the smallest had nothing in it, and the other was a larger storage room, and led to the small bathing room in the back but it had a door in the floor that lead to a bedroom. Beside this storage room was another set of stairs that led up to the next level where the kitchen was located. It had a dining room table and a good size refrigerator and full sized oven. The room didn't take up the whole deck, which allowed a walkway for a full 360 view, the helm was in the kitchen, also a smaller lamb head shape that had a window to steer from and was close by the door. A few more steps up on this deck lead to the last and smallest deck facing stern.

"It's amazing" I said running from room to room, exploring everything. It was fully stocked with everything we might need. Luffy was just as happy as I was, he popped up from the below deck room from a trap door on the main deck beside the mast. "This is the boy's room!" he called "there's tons of hammocks hanging!"

Nami stepped onto the deck, having heard everything from the butler. "You can have the bedroom Nami" I said "I wanna sleep in a hammock!"

"Then you can hang a hammock in our room, you shouldn't have to stay with the boys" she huffed, crossing her arms.

I shrugged, while Luffy pouted "doesn't matter to me"

Once we explored everything, and I had a hammock hung in one of the corners of the girl's room Nami and Zoro moved what little stuff was left of the dingy, which was mostly dried food. I had my side bag filled with everything I own. Nami convinced me to take one of the dresser drawers, I placed my one change of clothes inside, which was just a t-shirt as I liked to wear the bikini top. I put my blue goggles inside as well as the cloth flower I kept. Nami was stunned I didn't have more clothes, I just shrugged "never had a ton of clothes, just one change usually"

We met with the boys on the main deck as a large commotion came from the top of the hill. Zoro hopped down to stop Usopp who had somehow tripped and rolled down, almost ramming into Merry. He had a large overstuffed pack on his back. His muffled thanks was barely heard from beneath Zoro's foot. Once he was straightened out and dropped the pack he grinned "thanks a lot, again. Maybe we will meet again on the sea. I'm finally going to head out and become a great warrior!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Luffy as he adjusted his hat, leaning against the railing "get on here already"

I laughed, Nami and Zoro were looking expectantly at the curly haired teen. It was obvious that Luffy was going to ask him to join. And he is a really good shot.

"Yes!" he jumped up and cheered "I'm the captain!"

"No way!" Luffy yelled down at him "I'm the captain!" he laughed, knowing Usopp wasn't that serious about it.

Soon enough Nami was directing everyone on pulling the Going Merry from the bank. Once the wind had caught the sail we all turned to wave good bye to Kaya and her butler. Even the three kids had shown up to say their good byes. Usopp waved wildly until they were out of site. Luffy then took him on a tour, as Nami settled on our course and Zoro plopped down against the mast for a nap, even though we had only woken up a few hours ago. I grinned to myself and went to the bow, looking out on the ocean. Finally on a proper ship in nearly 10 years, a thought about my father crossed my mine. I wonder how he's doing, still famous from the few papers I managed to read back home. Does he think of me…? I know the dangers if anyone found out, but I can take care of myself now and Luffy knows, Ace too. I am my own pirate now, I won't be in his shadow. I promised myself this a few years ago when Ace talked about the biggest pirates around. I was going to grow bigger than him, alongside Luffy.

I grinned as Luffy called me down. "Mel! Crew meeting! We need a Pirate mark!"