"Jeez where'd you guys find this kid?" demanded a rather gruff male voice from above.
"He was just floating out there in the water so I pulled him in," replied another voice that sounded older yet more innocent.
"Sure is dressed funny," yawned a third. He felt something poking his cheek some and instinctually squeezed his eyes shut harder wishing for a little more sleep.
"Oh please, he's dressed funny? Did you seriously forget those other idiots we've had to face before? Compared to that he's dressed normally," a girl's voice now tried to convince the others.
"I wonder where he came from and how he ended up out here like that?" wondered another boy's voice. "I mean, did he get stranded fishing or what?"
"I don't know and I don't care," stated the girl strongly. "We have more important matters to deal with like stocking up on supplies in the next town. I still need to dish out a favorable allowance to spend."
"Favorable by who's book!?" demanded the deepest voice irritably.
"I take full responsibility as the ship's treasurer," she stated proudly.
"You're supposed to be the navigator!" the fourth boy raised his voice annoyed.
"Hey, don't snipe at Nami longnose!" snapped the first voice with rasp to it. "Naturally she's the best to keep track of our money since you idiots would probably spend it on useless crap anyways!"
"Hey, whose side are you on?!"
"Obviously the witch's side," murmured the deep voice again.
"Say that again moss-head I dare ya!" snapped the first voice. Now it was too loud to try and sleep any longer and that annoying poking was still going on. He groaned as he was now more awake than before and decided to just wake up already if just to tell these guys to be quiet.
"Hey guys I think he's waking up," spoke the second voice cheerfully. The arguing ceased around him and he could feel their eyes boring into him. Yup, there was no way he was getting back to sleep like this. So he slowly began to wake up. He idly wondered if Pikachu was having the same problems sleeping with these noisy people around.
As he blinked his eyes open, he saw a blurry image before him that didn't look too familiar but he couldn't be too sure just yet since everything looked like that in the morning before he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Then he pushed himself up, surprised he wasn't in some kind of bed or sleeping bag but instead he was on something wooden. He'd assumed the reason the ground was so hard was because he was actually on the ground.
He felt the blanket that'd been draped over him slip off of him as he sat up more and began rubbing his eyes. As soon as he brought his hand down he let out a startled yelp as he saw a person leaning into his face with a wide grin.
"Hiya!" he said. Confused, he tried to get back from him whilst putting his arm up like a barrier.
"Hey, stop that; cut it out! What're you doing?" he demanded defensively. Suddenly the grinning boy was pounded hard on the head by an orange haired girl from behind then jerked back by his shirt collar.
"Luffy, you don't just invade somebody's personal space like that!" she yelled at him annoyed then turned an apologetic smile on him.
"I'm terribly sorry about that," she apologized. "He's not too bright and doesn't always seem to understand the meaning of personal boundaries!" She hissed the last part at the boy she'd hit with a short glare in his direction before turning back to the boy.
"So, how're you feeling?" she asked. He blinked in surprise.
"Uh…okay I guess," he replied in confusion. Then he began looking around the place he was in with a frown. He was on a raised wooden outcropping coming from the wall and inside of what looked like a wooden cabin. There was a small kitchenette off to the side and the room was full of people who looked older than himself.
There was the one he'd seen first sitting with a pout on his face on the floor. He had messy black hair and was thin and lanky with a scar underneath his left eye. He wore a red shirt that had a v neck at the top and yellow buttons going down the front. He wore blue jean shorts with white rims at the ends of the legs and on his head he had on a brownish gold straw hat with a red rim. All in all, he was a simple looking person.
Then there was a man standing behind him wearing a white t-shirt and black pants with some weird looking kind of belt that reminded him of leg warmers around his mid-torso. His hair was light green and he had three earrings dangling from one ear and an almost bored, non-caring look on his face. At his hip looked to be one sword in a whitish cream coloured sheathe and a similar handle.
Beside him was a man who was openly smoking and he tried not to cringe at the memories of his mother's warnings on the topic that reminded him of what happened sometimes to chain smokers. This man's attire was basically all black as he wore a formal suit with a tie tucked in that hung from the collar of a blue undershirt. His hair was blonde while he also looked almost bored and uncaring and he had a peculiar looking eyebrow that went curly near one end.
Next there was the girl who had orange hair kept short in a pixie or princess cut which he couldn't remember which was which but didn't overly care. She wore a simple dark teal t-shirt over a dark navy blue short skirt that only reached a quarter of the way down her thighs. There were two circular designs in white on the right side.
Finally there was the fourth boy who had tanned skin, medium length wooly black hair, some rather projective lips and a long nose. On his head was an olive green bandanna with some rectangular clear goggles rested overtop. On his arm was a white and blue striped arm band and the rest of his lanky body was covered in brown overalls with a simple white sash tied off around his hip. Finally over his exposed tan shoulder – since he wore no undershirt – there was slung a yellow satchel with a light brown and cream coloured strap.
As he took them all in he became even more confused as he furrowed his eyebrows.
"So um…where am I?" he asked hesitantly.
"On a pirate ship," the one the orange haired girl called Luffy stated bluntly. They all looked at him as though he was crazy for saying that and he couldn't blame them. After all, he was pretty sure that pirates existed long ago and that they were more bedtime story material nowadays. He just blinked.
"Luffy you idiot, you don't just tell somebody they're on a pirate ship! Do you want him to freak out!?" demanded the orange haired girl angrily as she hit him again. The boy in the straw hat whined some but for some reason, he didn't seem all that hurt by it; just annoyed.
"But it's the truth," he protested pathetically.
"That's not the point," the long nosed one spoke up from behind. "We don't even know who this kid is let alone whether or not he's working for the marines or something." The long nosed one then started cowering in fear as the other two men with indifferent expressions looked at him as if asking whether or not he was stupid.
"Seriously?" the curly browed one spoke now. "The kid looks no older than ten and he's supposed to be a marine? Get real," he grumbled in annoyance. The boy's eye twitched slightly at that.
"Hey, I'm just saying you never know!" the long nosed one shouted back. Meanwhile the green haired one returned to looking at him indifferently with his arms crossed.
"Whatever, he doesn't seem all that freaked out by it anyway," he pointed out. They all took notice of it. The long nosed one then raised an incredulous eyebrow.
"Wait, you mean you're not scared of a bunch of pirates?" he asked. The boy just shrugged.
"Should I be?" he wondered. "I mean pirates are ancient history anyways. They haven't sailed the sea in forever and nowadays they're just a part of fairytales as far as I know. Oh…unless you guys are actors putting on a show or something then by all means stay in character," he quickly covered hoping he wasn't offending anyone. He recalled one time before on his journey how he'd gotten it wrong then too. However, he got no reaction as everybody just stared at him as though he had grown two heads or something.
"What?" he asked innocently.
"That supposed to be a joke kid?" the curly browed man growled dangerously. He gulped and put his hands up to indicate he wasn't trying to be rude.
"Woah hey, I didn't mean to offend anyone, honest," he proclaimed.
"More like the question is what rock has he been living under?" murmured the man with the sword. He had no idea what was going on.
"What do you mean?" he demanded still confused.
"What he means is how can you be so dumb and naïve?" the orange haired girl asked. He did a double take.
"Hold on, I don't even get what you're talking about," he tried to explain.
"Maybe he has am-nessie," stated the straw hatted boy simply.
"It's called amnesia," the long nosed one reprimanded. "And surprisingly that doesn't sound so farfetched but then what about the current news flying about the world? He'd have to have read that in order to catch up with things right. Maybe he's just been brainwashed or something."
The boy felt embarrassed as though he were missing something completely obvious. Or perhaps these people were pulling a practical joke, in which case it wasn't funny. He balled his hand into a fist and glared down at the wooden planks annoyed and embarrassed.
"I'm still here ya know," he told them. The ones surrounding him exchanged a look before the girl sighed and came over to sit down beside him.
"Sorry it's just, we don't understand what you're talking about any better than you understand us," she explained. "I think we should exchange what we know and don't know then go from there to determine the situation." The boy glanced at her and was convinced that she wanted to help. He nodded.
"Okay," he agreed. "So where do we start?"
"How about with your name," suggested the man with the sword. He glanced up and nodded.
"Right well, my name's Ash Ketchum. I come from a place called Pallet Town in the Kanto region and honestly I can't remember what happened before I passed out then woke up here. Where I come from, I've never seen a pirate before except in a history or fairytale book so that's why I thought you might be actors or something because there aren't any pirates." He suddenly came to a realization and snapped his head up at them.
"Wait if you guys are real pirates then you're not gonna hurt me are you?" he demanded to know.
"What, no!" the orange haired girl snapped. "If we wanted to hurt you, you'd already be hurt and if we were heartless then we probably would've left you in the water!" He seemed to sigh with relief and relaxed again.
"Anyways," he continued. "That's as much as I can really tell you because everything before I woke up here is a blank." The girl with orange hair nodded.
"Okay. Then maybe you do have a bit of amnesia but at least you can remember your name and home. However, I've never heard of this Kanto region or Pallet Town so I can only assume that it's not here in the East Blue." She explained. Ash blinked in confusion.
"East Blue?" he questioned. "What's that?"
"He's definitely not from around these parts if he doesn't know what the East Blue is," muttered the curly browed man. Meanwhile, the orange headed girl just smiled at him.
"No worries," she told him, "I can explain. East Blue is one of the five oceans in the world. The others are called West Blue, South Blue, and North Blue and then there's the Grand Line. Do you recognize any of those?" Ash sadly shook his head.
"No, I've never heard of any of those oceans. But I have heard of a similar one called the Great Northern Ocean which is the closest to my home." The curly browed man nodded in thought.
"So then, you could be from North Blue. Although I've never heard it called the Great Northern Ocean before, it could be just what your people call it and so you grew up with that mindset. Though I still don't get how you couldn't know about pirates. The whole world's running wild with em!"
Ash blinked, confusion still on his face.
"How come?" he wondered. The green haired man with the sword yawned.
"Simple; they don't call this the 'Great Pirate Era' for nothing." Again Ash couldn't grasp what they were saying. The orange haired girl just sighed.
"Here why don't I show you a map and see if you can recognize anything," she offered. Ash nodded.
"Yeah, I guess that would be best," he said. She nodded then stood up.
"Right then I'll buy one of the world's currently known geography when we reach Loguetown," she declared. Ash stared at her incredulously as she smiled. To those who somewhat knew her now, they understood what it really meant.
"Of course, it's not gonna be cheap so you might have to help pay for it," she told him. He was startled but nodded.
"Okay but I'm not sure if I have enough money," he stated as he reached into his pants pocket to bring out a few coins and paper bills he sometimes kept there in case of emergencies. The rest of the cash was in his wallet while everything else was in his trainer's account.
"Wonderful," she exclaimed as she went to take the money from him but froze when she held it up to admire.
"Wait a minute, this isn't in beris," she exclaimed. Ash just blinked.
"Well yeah, it's in Poke-dollars," he told her. She looked at him baffled.
"Poke-dollars!?" she exclaimed. "But this isn't the currency for anywhere in this world." Ash blinked astonished and was a bit taken aback by her suddenly snappy tone.
"What's wrong? It's the money I've always used and it seems to work just fine," he argued. "Just ask anybody!"
"What's the point!?" she snapped. "Anybody I'd ask would only agree that beris is the proper currency of the world. Why else would wanted posters have that symbol in front of the sum and price tags are the same way! Poke-dollars, I've never heard of such a ridiculous thing!"
Ash was now somewhat nervous. All it took was to bring up money and this girl went completely nuts. The long nosed guy made his way over to Ash, keeping a respectable distance from the girl before he sat down beside him.
"Don't worry, you did nothing wrong," he promised. "She's just really nuts about money."
"What was that?" snapped the girl and suddenly the long nosed one was cowering behind him as a shield.
"Hey!" he demanded. Meanwhile the green haired man seemed unconcerned while the straw hat wearing boy just started laughing at the scene.
"Jeez, calm down already," the swordsman drawled out. "So what if his currency's not the same; it's no big deal. What's more important here is that we're still freaking him out and this is just another clue about where he might come from. Who knows, maybe in his homeland, this stuff's really what they use and there's some kind of conversion system." The orange haired girl stopped steaming a while to think it over then pouted.
"Fine, I suppose you have a point," she agreed. Ash just watched the scene before him completely lost.
"You're really making it hard for me to believe you're pirates I mean…are you guys always like this?" he pondered worriedly. The straw hat boy grinned at him cheerfully.
"Yeah, but it's really fun," he said. Ash felt like a transformed ditto trying to fit in with a herd of tauros. He sweated nervously.
"Just…who are you guys anyway?" he asked figuring it was about time they introduced themselves. The straw hatted boy seemed to pause for a second before his grin was back in full swing and was laughing.
"Oh right; we didn't say our names yet huh, whoops!" he continued laughing before he grinned wider and leaned into his face again, though thankfully not too close this time.
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy and I'm the man who'll be king of the pirates!" he declared without hesitation. Ash blinked astonished once again.
"King of the pirates…what's…"
"Ahem, before we get sidetracked again," the girl spoke up, "My name's Nami. I'm the navigator of the crew and treasurer. I hate 'bad' pirates but love money and tangerines!" She stuck her tongue out playfully and winked at him which also made him sweat a little.
'She kind of reminds me of Misty a little,' he thought to himself. Suddenly the long nosed one had his attention as he was posing dramatically beside him.
"I'll bet you're dying to know who I am," he proclaimed. "I'm the famous brave warrior of the sea, Captain Usopp! I once defeated the dastardly crew of Captain Kuro with a single lead pellet and my trusty slingshot!"
"Really?" wondered Ash somewhat amazed.
"I remember having to carry you the rest of the way after you got yourself beat up," the green haired man stated irritably. Again Ash was perplexed by the strangeness of these characters before him.
"So then uh…you're the captain here?" he asked the boy now known as Usopp.
"No I'm the captain," Luffy corrected irritably sending Usopp a childish look of annoyance. Usopp was quick to attempt defending his pride.
"Well sure, Luffy's the captain of our ship and everything but I'm still a captain!"
"Of what?" demanded the curly browed one. Usopp had to think long and hard at that.
"Of well…you know…um…aha! I'm the captain of all snipers. That's it!" he declared proudly.
The curly browed man rolled his visible eye at his crewmate and turned to Ash, whilst exhaling a line of smoke from his lips.
"Anyways, I'm Sanji the ship's cook," the man greeted. Ash nodded and turned to the last member who had yet to introduce himself.
"Roronoa Zoro," he spoke without hesitation. "It's a name I suggest you remember." Ash gulped and sweated some more.
"S-sure," he stuttered trying not to get on this man's bad side. He pulled himself together.
"It's nice to meet you all," he said. They nodded in return.
"So Ash, what kind of place is this Kanto? I mean it must be pretty nice if you haven't heard of any pirates," Nami stated conversationally.
"Oh well, it's pretty nice. I mean it's only one of the regions I've been to but even so, it's still home."
"You mean there's more than one region on your island?" questioned Usopp. Ash turned to him confused.
"Huh whadya mean? Kanto's not on an island; it's a part of the Alpha Continent." Zoro's eyes seemed to widen at that.
"You mean that it's part of the Red Line?" he demanded. Ash only furrowed his brows further.
"No, I mean the Alpha Continent. The Kanto region's there and so is the Johto Region as well as a few other ones too. Other than the Alpha continent there's also the Beta Continent, Gamma Continent, Epsilon Continent and also the Delta Continent. But I'm not too sure of the region names there since I haven't gone to either one. I have been to the Orange Islands though which is an archipelago just south of Kanto and…"
"Woah, woah, woah, slow down already," Nami said holding up her hands. "What you're describing sounds like an entirely different world. There's only one sure continent in this world and that's the Red Line that encompasses the world's circumference. The rest is mostly just oceans and islands." Now Ash was really starting to get troubled.
"No, that doesn't sound right," he said with a deeply troubled look. "I might not have been that great in school but I still know what our world looks like. I've seen the maps myself. I've never even heard of Blues, Grand Lines or even Red Lines till today." As Ash attempted to piece together a complicated puzzle Luffy meanwhile came to a rather abrupt conclusion.
"Well, guess you're from another world then," he stated simply with his arms crossed while he continued to sit on the floor. Everybody looked at him.
"Luffy that's ridiculous," Nami tried to reason.
"I dunno, makes sense to me," Zoro stated as he thought it over. "I mean, you can't have two entirely different maps of two different worlds if there isn't another world right?"
"How does that even make sense?" Usopp demanded. Zoro just shrugged.
"Dunno, but right now until we figure something out then that's a pretty logical conclusion to me," he muttered.
"Yup," Luffy said. "In other words…it's a mystery world!" he summed it up and began nodding as if he were some kind of sage. Nami just glared at them annoyed before turning to Ash.
"I'm certain there's a logical explanation for all of this and we'll find it once we get our hands on a map. Until then just ignore those two idiots," she suggested. Ash wasn't too sure what to think of that.
"Okay I guess but…what if that really is the case?" he asked. "I mean…how would I even get back home?" Luffy just shrugged.
"Eh, we'll worry about that later," he said as if it were going to be easy. He then grinned. "Until then, why don't you stick with us? Being a pirate's really fun." Ash smiled apologetically.
"Thanks but I don't think they'd let me compete in the league if they knew I had a criminal record," he said.
"League?" asked Usopp. Ash turned to him eyes bright.
"Yeah, now that I've been awake longer I can somewhat remember where I might've been headed before I blacked out. I was probably on my way to compete in another pokemon league after visiting home."
"What's a pokemon league?" asked Nami. Ash's eyes were alight with a new kind of fire.
"It's a competition where the best of the best compete with their pokemon in order to obtain victory. One day I want to be a pokemon master and so I've been competing in these leagues with my different pokemon teams in order to become a champion. Of course, I've only actually won the Orange Island league so far but even so I'm not gonna give up! Pikachu and our friends are gonna…."
It was here that Ash's flame went out as he realized a horrific fact. His shoulder was vacant of yellow electric mice and he hadn't heard his friend's voice once since waking up. He bolted to his feet in a panic while looking wildly around.
"Oh no!" he exclaimed.
"What's wrong?" questioned Luffy. Ash continued to panic.
"Where's Pikachu?" he asked almost hysterically. "What happened to him?"
"Who's Pikachu?" Usopp queried.
"He's my first pokemon and my best friend. We go everywhere together but he's not here. Please! Did you guys also rescue a small yellow mouse type creature from the water too? He'd look like this," he exclaimed before diving into his pocket again and pulled out his pokedex. While Usopp and Luffy awed at the technology, Ash just prayed it still worked. Once he was able to turn it on to his relief, he searched up Pikachu's data and showed it to the crew.
"Here, this is what he looks like," he exclaimed. Nami blinked in surprise.
"So this is a pokemon," she asked then cooed a little. "Aw, it's so cute." Usopp also leaned in to look.
"Cute; it looks weird to me," he stated.
"So have you seen him?" Ash asked desperately. Usopp only shook his head.
"Sorry but I can't say I've ever seen something like that before," he replied apologetically. He turned to Nami.
"Sorry Ash but when we pulled you in from the ocean you were the only one." Ash looked to Zoro and Sanji to see if they might've seen him but when they shook their heads, he turned to Luffy. They could see the mounting desperation in his eyes as he begged with them silently. When it didn't work, he put his pokedex away with gritted teeth and began to tremble.
"Ash…" Nami tried but the boy just ran out on deck and started calling out.
"Pikachu! Pikachu where are you!? Pikachu!" They heard him yell. Nami just sighed and shook her head. Luffy watched from the cabin for a bit before he finally stood up and readjusted his hat on his head.
"So…this mouse thing is his friend huh," he muttered.
"Apparently," Usopp agreed. "What I can't understand is how can you battle something like that against something else? I just don't see it." He hummed to himself in thought. Zoro meanwhile caught the look in his captain's eye.
"What're you thinking?" he asked. Luffy didn't even turn to look at him.
"That we should help him find his friend," he said firmly. "And we should help him get back home too!"
"But Luffy, we're headed to the Grand Line. We don't even know where he lives. If you were right about the whole other world thing then I doubt we'd manage to find it or figure out how to send him back. You're also a wanted man now!" Nami added this last point with an annoyed tic mark developing over her brow. He just shrugged.
"Let's not forget either that he's just a kid. He looks like he's ten or something," Sanji pointed out.
"So…if we can't find his home yet then he can be a pirate with us! I bet it'd be really fun with him around." Luffy grinned as he turned to the rest of the crew.
"You can't decide that for him," Nami snapped. She sighed as she held her head. "Though I do feel bad for him, the best we can do is drop him off with some help in the next town. I'm sure someone can figure out how to get him home but us, we've got our own agenda!"
"Speaking of the next town," Zoro spoke up pointing to the side. "I see an island." Immediately Nami was running forward, shielding her eyes from the sun. Her smile brightened as she straightened up.
"Yup, that's the next stop. Usopp, get us turned twenty seven degrees starboard!"
"Right!" he agreed. Meanwhile Ash was still calling out for his Pikachu. Nami sighed.
"If he keeps shouting like that till we get there then we'll be heard by the marines," she groaned.
"Right," Luffy said before he hopped over the railing onto the lower deck. He approached Ash and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Hey," he said, startling the boy. He continued grinning. "Stop yelling k? We're heading to an island now so let's look for your friend there!" Ash had tears starting on the sides of his eyes.
"But what if he's still in the ocean; what if he needs my help right now?" he demanded.
"I'm sure it'll all work out," Luffy replied still chipper.
"How do you know!?" Ash snapped. "It's not just Pikachu either. My other pokemon are missing too. They could all be drowning right now and we wouldn't even know!"
"Listen kid," Zorro spoke up from the upper deck. "Unfortunately the ocean's extremely vast. Besides not all of us are great swimmers and even if we were we couldn't search an entire ocean by ourselves. Plus since we're pirates that negates anyone who'd be willing to help since nobody trusts us." Ash glared at him childishly, his tears threatening to spill over any second.
"He's right, the best we can do now is get to the island and look there. Maybe he was able to swim himself to shore," Usopp added. "At any rate we can't do much out here so just calm down."
"But…" Ash wanted to protest until Luffy turned him forcefully around to face him directly.
"We're gonna find him!" he said. It was all he said but somehow it was all Ash needed because for some reason, there was something in Luffy's tone that made him believe what he was saying. Reeling in his emotions, he sniffled and wiped away his tears. After a steady breath he looked down at the deck.
"Okay," he said quietly. Luffy pulled his famous grin back on.
"Great! Now full speed ahead to Loguetown!" he shouted boisterously. With that the little caravel holding the straw hat pirates and their extra passenger made their way to the place known only as the Beginning and the End. But unknown to them, this first encounter with a stranger from another world would only be the first of many. And what the world didn't know…was that a mistake made during a certain gap in history was about to come back to haunt them.