Warning: different devil fruit, female Luffy, sometimes out of character acting, mild-violence, spoilers.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, though that is obvious.

Prologue

It was a very normal day on Moby Dick – until Marco found a little girl on the deck.

She was small and young, around eleven or twelve years old. She was lying down as if sleeping peacefully while her hair was used as a black pillow. Her clothes were full of holes and dirt, and so was her body. There was scar under her left eye.

Marco crouched down beside her, checking for a pulse and normal breathing – everything appeared to be okay, though there were minor scratches and blood in her hands. The blond noticed a straw hat with a red ribbon innocently lying a little over said girl's head.

"Hey, Thatch," he called the 4th Division Commander, who was nearby. "Do you know her?"

By now a lot of crewmembers had come closer, full of curiosity. A kid wasn't a common sight on the ship – Pops rarely recruited people younger than twenty; Ace, one of the younger members, was this age (though his maturity was questionable most of the time, according to Marco).

"Never saw such a cutie in my whole life," Thatch answered, taking a good look at the small girl. She frowned briefly and went back to deep sleep.

"Goddamnit, Thatch – she's a kid, keep your claws to yourself."

Marco smirked while some laughed at Thatch's incredulous expression.

The 4th commander fumed, "I didn't mean it like that and you know it, shitty phoenix!"'

"What's the ruckus?" Portgas D. Ace had arrived. He looked amusedly at his best friends, before glancing at the small body sleeping on the deck. He did a double take, "LU?"

Marco and Thatch stopped – well, the latter stopped shouting, the former had remained smirking at the whole thing. Vista came closer.

"You know her, Ace?"

But Ace took a minute to answer, because he kneeled beside her and started checking her injuries. After it done, he finally looked up with still surprised eyes.

"Yeah – she's my little sister."

Marco observed how his bratty friend looked at this small kid. His eyes were usually full of mischief, but now there was only love and worry – how unexpected from someone like him. Ace had been sort of moody since Pops had ordered him to come back from Blackbeard's search. He had been angry from not completing his duty – as he called it – but didn't object their father's decision. That had been weeks ago and Ace still hadn't gotten over it. Marco wondered if he should tell him that Pops had ordered it just because Redhead Shanks suggested it – well, no need to put salt in the wound.

Ace was still trying to wake up his sister. The girl moaned softly, hearing murmurs around her. She blinked owlishly, feeling dizzy. Her huge hazel eyes wandered around, searching from a friendly face until stopping at Ace's, and widening. She grabbed the 2nd commander arm with incredible despair.

"Onii-chan! They, they – I, I was – we were and then – he came – I was so – help – Ace-nii!"

Naturally, nobody understood anything. The girl had spoken so fast and breathlessly that her words came out together and incomprehensible. Ace caressed the girl – what had he called her? Lu? – and asked with a soft voice that no one knew he possessed, "Calm down, Lu. Tell me what happened again."

'Lu' was panting and shaking uncontrollably.

"We were at the Sabaody Archipelago when a bear-man found us! He sent all my nakama away!"

Ace's eyes widened – and though it only made complete sense to him, everyone listening to it also felt sorry for the girl. They could all imagine how horrible it would be to have their nakama sent away.

"Bear-man?"

Lu nodded, her eyes becoming full of tears.

"I think he was called 'Kuma'. And there was also a weird man that was made of light."

"Light?" Ace could think of only one person and he prayed it was not this one.

"Hai. He was tall and used marine's clothes. Rayleigh-jii-san stayed to fight against him and we got separated when this Kuma touched each one of my nakama and made them simply… poof," Lu made motions with her hands, all the while trying not to cry.

Kizaru, Marco thought, but chose to stay quiet – telling the little girl who had caused her pain wouldn't do any good.

Ace wasted no time observing his sister's trembling form: he hugged her against his chest and rubbed his cheek against the top of her head, murmuring softly. Marco shooed the observers away – the last thing they needed was to see someone breaking down in front of them – and let Thatch and Vista stay.

"Onii-chan, I couldn't do anything!" The small girl cried. "They were right in front of me and I couldn't do anything!"

"Everything will be fine, Luffy, shh, shh. You were thrown away by this Kuma guy, right?" She nodded and Ace continued, "So your nakamas must have been sent to – just to a different place."

It was the right thing to say: she stopped crying, though sobs could still be heard. Luffy – so that was her name – rubbed her eyes with tiny closed fists.

"Where are we? I need to go back to Sabaody."

"Oh, of course, we… - What? Are you out of your mind, Luffy? This light man was an Admiral - Kizaru! What if you go back and he's still there? I won't let you!"

Luffy narrowed her eyes. For a moment, she looked like an angry animal.

"Won't let me? I don't recall asking for your permission, Ace."

Marco, Thatch and Vista winced. It was never a good thing when there was no suffix added. And Ace himself wasn't the calmest person around.

Said person narrowed his eyes, "That's 'cause you don't need to ask, I can simply not give permission if I want it this way. I'm your older brother; it's my duty to take care of you."

Luffy started to get up from his lap, only to fall back again when her legs wobbled. She sighed deeply and put her straw hat over her eyes. Soon enough, she was sobbing.

Ace put one hand in the back of her head (that was small enough to have it covered) and brought her frame closer to him. He really hated being so mean to his sister, but there was no way he'd let her go back to Sabaody if Kizaru was there.

Speaking of which…

"Tell me, Lu, why was Kizaru there?"

The small preteen sniffed a few times and brought her head up. Her eyes were a little red, but beside that there was no sign of earlier crying.

"I punched a Tenryuubito."

The four Whitebeard pirates did a double take, "WHAT?"

Luffy looked at them with curiosity, "Is it that bad?"

Ace lightly hit the top of her head.

"Baka! You can't punch a Celestial Dragon – are you crazy? You practically declared war to them!"

Luffy pouted, crossing her small arms over her chest.

"You're so mean, Onii-chan!"

Ace sighed once, and even though it was exasperatedly, Marco could see that there was fondness in it. He absolutely loved his baby sister.

Thatch was curious, "Say, what was a little girl like you doing in Sabaody?"

Luffy looked at him as if he was stupid.

"I was waiting for my ship to get coated, of course. My crew and I were heading to the Red Line."

Ace laughed at their faces.

"Your ship?"

"Your crew?"

"Red Line?"

Thatch appeared to be freaking out after asking about the crew, "But you, you, you – you're, like, twelve! How can you be a pirate captain?"

Ace and Luffy had the same expression while looking at the man. The kind of expression that asked "Are you stupid?".

"Dude, didn't I tell you that my sister was seventeen?" The former questioned, but it made nothing to get Thatch calm.

"When you said this you also didn't tell us that she looked like a kid!"

"I'm not a kid," Luffy protested. "Just 'cause I don't have boobs it doesn't mean I'm not seventeen."

Marco rolled his eyes. Of course Ace, the idiot, would teach to his sister such a horrible vocabulary. Well, horrible to a girl and someone young.

"But it's a fair point," Vista commented, "How can you look like so…-"

His question died in his lips as a pair of ears and a fluffy tail appeared on top of the girl's head and under her shirt, respectively. They were black and white-tipped, twitching from time to time, and so was the tail.

Luffy titled her head sideways, looking like a cute puppy.

"Say," she addressed her brother, not bothered by the others' reaction, "Is there meat here?"