Prologue

"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"

Often, she found herself thinking those exact words over and over again. Not because she remembered them to be from one of favorite songs of all time, but because they applied to her situation so much at the moment. She couldn't make out if what she was experiencing at that moment was a part of her imagination – her dreaming such things was common, if she remembered correctly – or if it was truly real.

But she found it hard to believe, honestly. She just couldn't believe something like this to be real. The part about her dying had been easy to accept – because she does remember being run over by a truck. But this... This was something she couldn't bring herself to believe.

Blue-green eyes stare right back at her as she looked into the mirror. A hand reached up and touched the young, chubby face and the warmth of her – no this can't be my body! – skin spreads across her palm. The cheeks were slightly flushed and soft orange – is orange hair even possible?! – curls plastered to her forehead.

"Is this really me?" Her voice matched her childlike features and the young child moved back from the mirror, her pupils dilating at every step she took. She didn't know why she couldn't look away; she didn't want to look at this face any more. It wasn't hers.

None of this was hers.

So where are mine?

Never once did she step out of her room. It made the others that lived in the house rather worried. But she didn't care – at that moment, she didn't care for people that weren't her. Besides, it wasn't like if they were her real family, why should she care about these strangers?

Now that she thought about it... she wondered if her real family were okay.

Food was often brought to her door and she would eat it. A rough voice that was feminine would often accompany it, and sometimes she thought that the person would bust the door down if given the chance, but it seemed as if she was always calmed down before she could do it.

She remembered that the voice belonged to an overly large woman with manly features and long, orange, curled hair. She remembered referring to her as mother once.

The girl also thought that she and the manly woman were the only females in this house. Every other time she peeked out the window in her room, she would see mostly men and from what she remembered seeing before she had locked herself in, only men were around. That wasn't what freaked her out anyway, they all looked too suspicious to be just normal people. They reminded her of crooks with their rough talk and the weapons she remembered seeing some of them carrying.

Not only had she somehow been reincarnated, but she had come to be a child of some criminal. Not something you would like. Children of criminals often wound up following in their parents' footsteps because that was the only route for them to take. Anything else and they could either end up in jail or dead. She doesn't want to die again. She didn't want to accept this either.

She remembered when she had finally come to terms with this - the fact that she was dead and she had to deal with it. How she had raised her head from the pillow and had finally decided she couldn't just lie here moping. No one was going to come help her - no one she wanted anyway. She had had to come to terms with the fact that that life before was over and this was her new one.

She was alive, that was the best part. All of this was just her second chance, right? She shouldn't be so angry and sad over it anymore. She had locked herself long enough in the room.

Her eyes slipped back to the door and she cringed away from it. She wanted to leave the room and apologize to everyone, but part of her thought that she didn't need to apologize – it's not every day you find yourself in some child's body! But she knew she had worried these people. They, after all, cared for the little girl in whose body she was stuck in. Although she didn't know them personally –the memories didn't count – the least she could do is try to be a little more civil.

It had only been a week – if she counted the strokes she kept in the small notebook under the pillow correctly – since she had locked herself in her room after she had awoken.

The process of her remembering her past life had been abrupt. The memories had just started filtering in one evening as she helped one of the men put away the plates used for eating. The sudden influx of memories had startled her to drop the plate she was holding, and she had collapsed. Afterwards, she had woken up to find herself in her room. She hadn't left it ever since, unless it was to go to the bathroom to clean up. Other than that she avoided everyone – had even yelled at them to not step foot into the room.

Banging on the door made her jump, and her eyes turned back to the door.

"Oi! Mora, you gotta come out and eat today!"

"That's not her name, idiot. It's Monalisa. What are you even following me around for? Go away!"

"Shut up, Ace! I forgot okay? And I want Morisa to come out just as much as you do!"

Well she tried to avoid everyone. Two certain people just happened to always bug her to come out of her room for the past week. At first, she had found it annoying but now...

Now... maybe she should follow their advice and get out.

Getting up from the small bed, Monalisa – it's not Suzanne anymore – walked to the door. Her small hand closed around the knob and slowly turned it and pulled the door open. She had decided this morning to just remove the chair from the door as she had thought it was time to face everyone once again.

Peeking out, she was met with the two youngsters that were around her age. If she remembered correctly, the one that had yelled first just a moment ago was the younger of the two and also the one that had started to live with them a little before Monalisa had had her little accident. He was slightly taller than her and wore a very large straw hat – she remembered seeing it on someone else a while back – that shadowed his short dark hair and much of his face when it slid down. Monalisa remembered that he was seven – being two years older than her and his name was Luffy.

At the moment he was facing the boy that was not only taller than him by a good four inches but was also older than him by three years, who had lived with Monalisa and her supposed family ever since she could remember. He also sported black hair that was longer and freckles spread across his cheeks. An annoyed expression currently covered his face as he glared right back at Luffy. She recognized him as the second to speak. His name was Ace, if she recalled correctly.

Removing herself from the doorway, she walked forward to greet the duo by tapping Ace on the shoulder.

Ace and Luffy didn't seem to have noticed the girl coming out of the room as they were too absorbed in their bickering to pay attention. Feeling the tap, Ace looked behind him to find Monalisa. The irritation increased at being interrupted, but he quickly masked it, seeing it was she who had touched him.

"Eh? Mota, you came out! Finally we can eat!" Luffy's loud voice caused drew her eyes behind Ace to see the young boy with a big grin on his features. He moved from behind Ace and enveloped the girl in a hug that made Monalisa stumble from the sudden added weight. "Let's go eat!"

"You finally decided to come out." Ace gave Luffy a glare – which the boy pretty much ignored.

"Um, y-yeah." Monalisa winced as Luffy continued to squeeze her – she remembered the boy had taken a liking to her because of her constantly defending him from Ace's terrible treatment of him. "I'm sorry for worrying everyone."

"Hmph, now that you're out that old hag can leave me alone and I can eat in peace." Ace sneered looking away from the two as he walked away.

"Mhmmm! Let's eat now!"

"I see it was only the threat of taking food away that got you out of that room, eh Mona." Curly Dadan stood glaring down at the sheepish looking girl before the glare leaves her face and the orange haired woman let out a sigh. "Don't do it again, ya hear?"

"R-right!" Monalisa wouldn't say she was scared of the woman that she called mother, but the woman knew how to be intimidating.

"You have a week's worth of chores waiting for you tomorrow! Don't let what happened last week happen again."

It seemed that Monalisa had really done it this time. She was always up to something – as far as she could remember, anyway; like that time she snuck out of the house and had found herself in Foosha village; Dadan hadn't been too happy then either. Or those times she didn't really want to clean with the others and often received a hit to the head for it.

She guessed she was a troublemaker back then, now that she thought about it. Even after regaining her past memories, Monalisa was still known for her mischievous acts and smart mouth. That was something she didn't have to pretend to do as she was naturally a smart mouth.

Although she had not accompanied Luffy, Ace and Sabo – someone who she had been introduced to a little while after – on their adventures, they were still close enough and she often found herself getting into fights with Ace over Luffy's welfare. They were around enough for her to grow close.

She was close enough with them that when she had heard of Sabo's death, she had cried – it was a shocker. He was only ten. Ten. – over having lost such a dear friend. She was close enough that when she saw Luffy and Ace training constantly, she joined in – much to Ace's annoyance. She was close enough that she found herself constantly worrying over the two and would often berate them for their recklessness. She was close enough to the point that she viewed them as family, just as much as she viewed Dadan and the members of the Dadan bandits as family. Which she amusedly realizes didn't take long.

Monalisa – she no longer dwelled on her name change – knew how soft she was and how easy it was for her to grow close to those around her and begin to love them. Her father would often state she was a big softie under her hard exterior.

Nice to know there's still a piece of Suzanne left.

Often she found herself alone with her mother; then the woman would comb her hair. Unlike her usual roughness when dealing with her daughter, this was the exception where Dadan would be quiet and her hands gentle as she styled and placed the orange curls into two pony tails, or Monalisa's favorite of just having it down around her small form.

There were other times she spent with her mother. Like all the 'jobs' they went on together in where Monalisa learned the art of ripping off people and stealing; when she helped prepared dinner with her; and her favorite of training with her.

Most were not surprised when Monalisa began to train with her mother. The young girl was bound to pick up an axe someday - something that Dadan made sure she did. Dadan was also trying her best to restrain the young girl from destroying her small hut due to her monstrous strength that had manifested out of the blue.

Like the person she knew herself to be, it didn't take Monalisa long to get used to it. Having monstrous strength is nothing compared to being reincarnated. She actually did like being physically stronger than the average man when she was only ten years of age.

Around that time Monalisa's week long absence was already in the past - though she did think about her past life constantly. There were times when everyone would look at her strangely when she mentioned something that was odd or when she made odd phrases and statements. But that too, didn't last for long and everyone accepted that to be a part of Curly Monalisa.

Times when she found herself staring off and getting Luffy worked up at her not paying attention to his adventures and plans of setting sail, coming back to herself and smiling faintly and apologizing.

Monalisa often found herself comparing her past life to this one and she found how different it was - how different she is now. Yes, she was no longer the quiet and subdued Suzanne Blackman, but she was instead the mischievous and outgoing, slightly perverted Curly Monalisa. Someone who enjoyed the unnatural – which this world provided in spades – and loved to find out new things.

So when Monkey D. Luffy asked Monalisa to join him on his quest to become King of the Pirates, she although a bit reluctant at first, had relented to get the chance to explore this new and odd world.

This was the time to have the adventure she had always dreamed of having in her past life.

The fact that this adventure started with Luffy and herself in a barrel drifting out in the sea was not how she imagined it but...

Oh well... It's not so bad... right?

Okay so that was a little fast paced huh? . I didn't want to divulge into Monalisa's past so soon and I actually am planning of having little snippets throughout AOAL...

So it has been awhile since I uploaded anything on here .-. But One Piece is my new addiction and I just can't help but write about it.

Be prepared for unusual update schedule because I've been known for procrastinating! But do review! It motivates me honestly :3

#Edited all thanks to my amazing beta AliceInTheSunlight! ^_^

Until next time~!