A/N: I don't know what to say about this story. It's another idea I have since I'm in the midst of watching One Piece. My inspiration comes from the first episode of The Seven Deadly Sins. I thought it's a great way to begin this fanfic.

Disclaimer: One Piece is not mine. :( I only own my OCs.

Warning: Self-insert, OCs, OOCs, written in first person, violence, Mary-sue, some alternate universe, and may have some bad grammar. Also, there will be mind play or mental issues involved for the main character. Try reading before judging it.

Please leave no flames.

I watch five strange people eating together at a table. Four of them are males and one is a female. One male- straw hat- gobbles food like it's running away from him. The other men complain about him eating all the food. The other pretty female just sighs and turns her head away from the commotion.

Nome, the owner of Yover, says the five-mysterious people must be pirates because a pirate's ship can be viewed at the edge of the town. Other customers don't seem to be bothered by them, especially the blond busty lady who passes them like they mean nothing. Nome doesn't worry that the pirates are shady folks. They are dressed too normally to stand out, well, except for a man who wears three swords and carries a scary expression on his face. I try my best to stay clear of him.

It's not that I am a coward. In my line of work, being a waitress and all, I see and hear things, enough to spell trouble. And the man wearing a straw hat on his head, eating with a carefree expression on his face, is also a magnet for trouble.

How do I know? It goes beyond instinct to pure knowledge. I just know.

So I keep clear of them while watching, because I wait for a moment when a fight is about to break out. Then, I'll take my cue to leave. The last thing I want to do is draw any attention to myself. It's the reason I choose to work as a waitress in Yover Inn, in hopes that I don't run into any pirates, the marines or anyone else with an intelligence to see that I'm different from everyone else in this world.

My eyes settle on the orange haired female. She's the one I have to be wary of. Her mind is as sharp as a tact.

"Rue, take these ales to them fellows over there," Nome's voice calls to me. I take my eyes off the shady pirates and make my way to the counter where a tray of ales is waiting for me. Quickly, I glance to the bulletin board behind the bar table to see the wanted posters. One poster of a young black-haired guy sporting a goofy grin and donning an oversize hat catches my attention. I find it hard to believe that no one is observant enough to notice that the same person is eating in the tavern with us.

"Serving today will be great."

I blink and nod my head to Nome. Then I take the tray from the counter and make my way through the rowdiness of drunkards in the tavern. I swerve away from a roaming hand when the female with orange hair looks in my direction. I avert my gaze to another table where a group of men are singing and laughing over their craziness.

Hastily, but with ease, I put the tray down on their table.

"Thanks miss," one of the men say.

"How ab-ut joinin' us?" another man slurs his words.

I shake my head while plastering a fake smile on my face. Before one of the drunkards can get a hold of me, I step away but that leads me to look at the table where the pirates occupy and the same orange hair woman signals with her hand to bring more ale.

Inwardly, I curse at my bitter luck. Now, I am going to be walking into trouble. Instead, I incline my head to her and make my way back to the bar to get her order.

Nome hands me a tray of more ale. I add some more soups and freshly baked bread with the cups.

"Great, they're some of our best paying customers." Nome approves of my work.

I wove through the pack of drunkards, dodging hands that tries to grab me. Halfway through my trek, I catch Nome's eye. He nods encouragingly at me, his black hair gleaming in the dim light. He wants me to keep them drinking. To keep them buying. Surely with how straw hat eats, his friends and him are going to be occupying the table for some time.

I avoid making eye contact with them. Of all people to meet in this world, I come across Luffy, Nami, Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp. The fates must be laughing at me.

As I put their tray on the table I hear, "Thanks." I can assume the display of gratitude is coming from the captain of pirates. I refuse to glance at his usually smiling face.

I take my leave immediately and notify with a flicker of my eyes for the other waitress to serve the table. Her face lightens up at the prospect of getting heavily tipped. I don't mind. I rather avoid conflict then make extra money.

"You just gave her the good customers," Nome says as he goes back to making drinks for other patrons.

"Lena's the one with the pretty face. Better the pirates part with their money for her," I reply.

"That's not the way we do business."

"I'm aware of that, boss. But they're pirates and I'm better off leaving Lena to handle them." The truth is I do not want to be reminded that somehow, I am reborn into an anime world and I happen to be in a world where pirates rule the waters. One Piece.

I pick up some wet mugs and with a clean cloth that Nome already set on the bar table, I begin to wipe the mugs.

"She may know how to handle them, but you have the cuter face."

I do not respond to my boss' comment.

"Besides, you can use the extra money for some new clothes."

I pause in my task and raise both eyebrows at my boss. "Since when do you notice my clothing?"

"Since you're not like Lena or other women who spend their money frolicking over who has the best dress."

I drop the cloth from my hand and set the dry mug on the table. Putting my hand in the air I begin counting each finger, "First, I'm not Lena. Second, I have better things to do with my money like pay rent and food. Third, clothes are just material and I don't want to have too much of it. Lastly, I don't have the space."

"Or maybe you don't have the right guy in your life to look good for," Lena replies from behind me.

I roll my eyes at her. In this world, many people are old fashioned. "I have better things to ponder." Like how I'm going to survive.

"I'll let you think but I will need some help carrying the orders to the patrons you ditched." She gives a slip of paper to Nome. His eyes widened at the list of food.

"Well, tonight we're going to have enough money for you to buy those extra clothes. I am going in the back to get those cooks to make this big feast," Nome says. "Lena, keep them busy."

"You got it, boss." She turns to me. "And I wish you good luck." She swipes a hand through her brown hair to keep the strands in place. Her dark brown eyes glitter.

I choose to remain silent. With Nome in the kitchen and Lena serving the customers, I am left to hold the fort. More orders come to me and with deftness and memorizing how Nome makes his drinks, I make them before passing them off to Lena. I examine the way she nimbly dodges men who grope her, all without disturbing the tray on her shoulder. She has swift feet, good balance, and is intelligent. I wonder on many occasions what makes her work in the tavern. Unlike me, I've been alone since I can remember. My parents died in one of the pirates' pillage in our town. Maya, an old lady, at the time took me in and she cared for me like I was her daughter. She taught me the basics -to read, write and do math. But then she died from an illness, a rare type of disease that ate away her strength. After her death, some weird men took everything of hers, claiming that her personal possessions and property belonged to her family. A family that never visited her while she was alive.

Shaking my head from those sullen thoughts, I shift my gaze to the pirates. I see the slight tense in the swordsman's shoulders. His head is down, his eyes are closed. Straw hat has an unreadable expression on his face. Pointy nose looks like he wants the floor to open and swallow him whole while the blond has his legs crossed. A cigarette dangles from his fingers. Their female companion sits straight up, her fingers grabbing at the hem of her yellow mini-skirt. Her pretty face is serious. There is no denying, the atmosphere at their table is intense. Almost as if they're asking for a fight.

I stop mid-task of wiping more mugs. It's then I observe the other men and few women in the tavern are quiet. What the heck just happened? My eyes dart to Lena. She is safely at the counter. I glance around the room, trying to add what I miss. The atmosphere in Yover changed. It is as if everyone is waiting for something. I look to the five pirates sitting still at their table. My eyes land on the swordsman, who is sitting like a statue. His right hand is placed on the hilt of one of his swords.

I want to leave. It's my cue to exit the room. But I can't find it in me to abandon Nome, Lena and the other cooks.

All I can do is keep looking at the Zoro. So do the other patrons. Are they waiting for him to attack? Do they recognize his captain as a wanted person in the ad? There are some thieves, hunters, mercenaries, who will take a leap at fighting the pirates.

Shall I drop one of the cups on the floor to distill the atmosphere? I bite my lip, realizing that I haven't let out a breath for the fear of capturing everyone's attention. Even now, my heart is pounding fast in my chest.

I should do something, anything to stop the intenseness building in the room. Maybe if I can sneak into the back, warn Nome about the stillness in the room. He's one to bring in good entertainment.

Unfortunately, bits and pieces of my life starts to flash before my eyes. Me, as a little girl playing by a pool side when I suddenly fall into a deeper end of a pool. I'm in middle school and I get into a fight with another girl over a group of friends or whom I thought were friends. Then I'm running late for class in high school and as I'm about to walk to the school building a police van stops in front of me and I'm escorted into their vehicle. The last image is of me, looking skinny, sickly and pale, laying in a hospital bed and my parents are crying for me.

My hand lets go of the mug. It clatters on the counter before rolling to the edge, falling on the floor and breaking into smithereens. All eyes shift to me and it's the weight of their stares that brings me to myself.

In rare cases like this one, snippets of my previous life flood my mind. And then I'm hit with reality. I know I lived and died before. I understand that I have been reborn. But I can barely remember my past. Yet everything about this world, One Piece, I do recall the characters, the setting, and the events. I feel like my mind has been programmed with information from the start. And I can only think of one reason for having knowledge about One Piece whereas I can't recall my own name from my last life. The side effect from being reborn into a world of anime means that memories of who I was is a puzzle. To make everything worse, I have a desire to discover my past.

Yes, I'm not normal, which is why I have to be extra careful around people.

A broad hand is wrapped around my waist. "Such a pretty face should be sitting with me," a man says, grinning down at me with a wolf's smile. I step back, but his hold on me is strong.

"I've work to do," I say with a neutral voice. I am use to getting myself out of situations -where men want me to keep them company. It no longer scares me.

"How about you use the same attention on me," another man adds in. He's a mercenary with a worn-looking blade strapped to his back. In the corner of my peripheral vision, Lena is walking toward us.

"My shift is coming to an end," I say as pleasantly as I can while stepping back. Calmly, I pry the first mercenary's fingers off my waist. Inwardly, I sigh in relief when he lets go and doesn't make an attempt to latch back on.

"What are doing after?" the second male asks.

"I'm going home to my husband," I lie. He glances down to my finger and luckily, I wear a couple of rings on my fingers, especially one on my wedding finger. It's a technique Lena taught me to fend off rough men.

Both men scowl and lose interest in me. I breathe easier as they leave me alone. Lena finally reaches me. She's reading my facial expression, learning long ago never to verbally announce my distress. I do the same for her if our situations are reverse. Reading I'm okay, she grabs the drinks that I already made and left on the counter to send to the other patrons. All around me, the intenseness has faded, like it wasn't the air. Again, I exhale in relief.

I go back to holding the fort until Nome and a couple of other cooks come from the kitchen with plates full of delicious food. They set the dishes on the trays, motioning me to serve our temporarily best patrons. Turning my attention to straw hat and his crew, signs of respite vanishes. The pirates I want to avoid are the same ones I have to face.

I hoist the tray on my shoulder and I mentally chant the letters of the alphabet in my head to calm me down. Only thirty more minutes and then my shift will be over. I can say goodbye to Luffy and his crew because they don't stay long in towns. This is going to be no different.

"Thank you for waiting," I say to the pirates as I reach their table and I serve them as I normally do with the other customers.

A/N: If you do decide to continue reading this fanfic, thank you.