It was a sunny day in Orange Town that would seem like an average day if it weren't for the pirates that had taken residence in the town. The villagers had all moved themselves out of the town to avoid the rambunctious and ridiculous Buggy Pirates. All of them except one, that is. A lone bar remained open with a single woman working.

That woman was polishing her bar and working like she would any other early afternoon to get ready to open as if nothing was different. She wouldn't let some low life pirates scare her away despite the pleading of the other villagers. She had adamantly refused to leave. This bar was her pride and joy, and she wasn't intimidated by some lousy pirates.

Iris, the current owner of the bar, was a 21-year-old half fishman and half human. She was more than strong enough to take care of herself. She had trained practically her whole life in martial arts, and had mastered multiple different arts. She had a terrible temper, and a strong dislike of humans. She wasn't somebody to be messed with carelessly.

Despite being half fishman she didn't appear anything more than human unless someone where to look closely. She had a full set of sharp shark teeth that rarely showed because she had learned to hide them by not smiling. She also had gills that were at the base of her neck, but she tended to cover them with a shirt. She also had webbing between her fingers and toes, but her shoes covered her toes and she tended to move her hands a way that hid the webbing.

She had tanned, caramel colored skin was a natural human skin tone unlike the navy blue skin her fishman father had. She had piercing emerald green eyes that typically looked angry, and pale lavender hair that appeared white in bright light. She had an athletic build, and stood at about 5'7". She had a muscular butt and thighs, a lean stomach, and an average chest size. She had been told on multiple occasions that she had an intimidating presence about her as well.

On this particular day her long hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a thin white tank top with straps that conveniently covered her gills, some loose fitting black sweatpants that hit a few inches above her ankle that were being held up with a piece of rope for a belt, and her favorite pair of black slip on shoes. She also sported a large tattoo on her right bicep of a tiger shark in navy blue ink. It was a tribute to her father who was a tiger shark fishman.

As she cleaned the bar she had her back turned to the entrance. She heard some people come in, but didn't bother turning to acknowledge them. She had no doubt it was some pirates looking for free alcohol. There was no way in hell they were getting even a sip from her.

"Hey lady, give us some booze!" one of the pirates shouted. She glanced over her shoulder at them without saying anything, and saw that there were three of them. They all looked like freaking circus clowns. Dirty, smelly, stupid clowns. She had heard that the captain of the Buggy Pirates had modeled himself after a clown, but she was unsure why the rest of his crew all looked like clowns as well. It was a themed pirate crew? How ridiculous.

"Well boys, looks like she is either deaf of dumb. We said give us some booze, girly!" another one of the pirates shouted at her.

Iris could feel her blood start to boil, but knew she needed to remain calm. If she lost it here in the bar she'd be likely to cause damage. She told herself that she couldn't let these stupid humans get under her skin right now. She needed to find a way to deal with them that wouldn't harm her bar.

She threw the rag she was using to polish the bar over her shoulder and started walking to them, making sure to swing her hips and walk as seductively as she could muster. She typically hated women who used their bodies to get their way with men, but she had also learned that her being a woman was an asset to use against men. All three were watching her with grins on their dirty faces. She didn't even want to think of what thoughts were running through their heads.

She stopped in front of the middle of the three, and reached out and put her hand on his arm. He obviously thought he had been the one chosen by her, and the perverted grin on his face grew. Before he was able to react, though, she tightened her grip on his arm. She pivoted on her back foot while putting her other hand on his arm as well, and then throwing him over her shoulder. He landed on his back, and she stomped her foot down onto his crotch. He screamed out in pain.

She quickly lifted her foot and planted it back on the ground as she turned her attention to the two other pirates. They were still in shock over what had happened and she used that to her advantage. She lunged towards them, put a hand on out the outside of both of their heads, and slammed their heads together. They started to collapse, but before they were able to do so she squatted down and swung her foot around so that it hit their legs and knocked them off their feet.

"Get out. Get out of here NOW," she said firmly.

She heard a clicking noise from behind her and and spun around quickly to see the one who she had thrown to the ground now wielding a gun. He was still holding his crotch in pain, but had managed to pull a gun out. She knew she could dodge the bullet, but that would mean risking the bullet hitting something within the bar and causing damage. This bar was her prized possession, and she couldn't stand the thought of these scummy pirates causing damage to it.

Before she had time to react something quickly moved and grabbed the gun away from the pirate. She glanced to where the movement had come from and saw a boy who looked to be in his mid to late teens with shaggy black hair and a straw hat standing next to a girl who she guessed was a similar age with orange hair.

"How did you do that?" Iris asked them. The boy got a large grin on his face stretched out his arms further than humanly possible while saying gomu-gomu something or another. She had never seen anything like that before and was baffled.

"I'm a rubber man! I ate the gum-gum fruit," the boy shouted gleefully.

Gum-gum fruit? What the heck was a gum-gum fruit? A devil fruit, maybe? She had heard of them from her father, but had never seen one. Her father had seen multitudes of devil fruit ability users in the Grand Line, but stuff that dangerous didn't typically end up in the East Blue.

Before she could respond to him the three pirates started moving to their feet. She needed to get them out of the bar before she could do anything else. The bar still had some liquid polish on it from when she had been polishing it a few moments earlier. She quickly ran her hand across the bar to get the liquid on her hands, and discreetly shot the water off her finger tips at them. They seemed confused about the pain they were experiencing; they hadn't seen the tiny droplets impact their bodies. The pain was probably similar to being stabbed by small knives.

"Don't make me tell you to leave again!" she growled.

"You'll pay for this!" one of the pirates shouted before turning to leave, and the other two left after him. This whole situation pissed her off. And not just a little bit. These pirates were parading through the town as if they owned it causing damage with every turn. She would make them pay for this.

"You should join my crew!" the black haired boy said enthusiastically pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" Iris responded with a raised eyebrow.

"You're strong, so you should join my crew! I'm Luffy, the man who will become the Pirate King!" he said with a big grin. So he was a pirate too? He didn't seem to be a pirate like the ones that had taken over the town. And she didn't necessarily dislike all pirates, her dad had been a pirate after all. She did think that most of them, especially human pirates, were worthless though.

"Nah, I'm good. I've got a bar to run," she answered and turned her back to them and went back to polishing the bar. He started to try and convince her, but she shooed him off with a motion of her hand. The orange haired girl dragged him out of the bar and they were gone.

Once he was gone she let her mind wander over to thoughts of her dad. He had been a pirate and had absolutely loved being a pirate. He had given it all up to raise her after her mother had died when Iris was around 3-years-old. She didn't know much about her mother other than the fact that Iris had inherited her purple hair and green eyes from her, and that her father had loved her mother more than life itself. He had been completely broken when Iris' mother passed away suddenly from an illness. He wouldn't talk about it, but whenever Iris' mother came up there was a profound pain in his eyes. Iris didn't like seeing her dad hurt, and so she had never pushed the subject.

Her father had been the perfect dad in Iris' opinion. He had given up his pirating ways and came back to Orange Town immediately when he received word that Iris' mom had passed away. He dropped everything to raise her, and she admired him more than anything for all he had done for her. He opened up the bar to provide for them, and they lived a quiet life in a house on the edge of the town.

As she had grown older and started helping him out in the bar with cleaning and busing tables, and that was when she realized how difficult the lives of fishmen were. She witnessed the constant harassment her dad received for being a fishman from the pirates and travelers that stopped on the island to stock up on supplies. Humans were awful, judgmental creatures for the most part.

Due to her father's tall and big stature that came with being a tiger shark fishman most didn't try to start any physical fights, but when given enough alcohol all reason would leave and they'd get more brazen. She had watched drunken pirates try to start something with him, but he was always able to remove the drunken humans before things escalated.

Growing up Iris had never been able to understand how he was able to keep so calm when humans made racist comments about him. It infuriated her. She had on multiple occasions tried to shut these humans up herself, but her father had always intervened. He hated when she'd try and start fights, but she would get so angry that she couldn't think about anything other than beating these idiots senseless.

Her had, however, taught her multiple forms of martial arts to defend herself if the need were to arise. Her favorite form of martial arts was fishman karate, but he had warned her against using it unless it was absolutely necessary because it would give away that she a fishman. He had always been so glad that she looked like a human and not a fishman, though she had always wished for the opposite. She would have loved to look more like her father.

Then one day her happy little life in Orange Town had suddenly come to an end. When she was 17-years-old the navy made a stop into the town to arrest her father. He hadn't even been able to say goodbye before being arrested. The townspeople had tried to get the navy to leave when they showed up asking about Iris' father, but the townspeople weren't able to convince the navy that he wasn't in the village.

The night he was arrested started the worst period in Iris' life. For months she wouldn't leave the house, and she was a raging angry mess. The chief of the town had tried to reason with her, but she wouldn't listen. She was terribly mean to him, though he refused to give up on her. Her hatred for humans, and now the navy, grew even more intense with each passing day. She knew her father had had a bounty on his head, but he had given up being a pirate 14 years prior. There was no reason for the navy to disrupt his peaceful life, and it enforced in her mind that they were just a group of evil humans. There was no justice in what they had done.

Slowly but surely she started to realize she couldn't live like this. The pain of missing her father was fierce, but she knew she should channel that emotion into ambition. She would go back to the bar and open it up, and use the money to buy a ship and set sail to find her father. She knew nothing about sailing, but if she had enough money she'd be able to pay a crew. They'd probably be humans and she hated that idea, but she hadn't ever heard of other fishman being in the East Blue.

After cleaning all the dust and debris from being closed for months, she was able to open the bar. She was able to save quite a bit of money, but still hadn't decided on when or how she was going to leave this island. She needed to start thinking more seriously about it.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard the front doors open again. She looked up and saw a very handsome, and well built man with green hair standing in the entryway. He wasn't a villager, and he didn't look like he could be part of Buggy's crew. If he was a traveler he didn't pick a very good time to come into town. Though when she noticed the three swords sitting on his hip she knew he couldn't be an average traveler.

"Have you seen a guy wearing a straw hat?" he asked.

"Yeah," she responded. This guy must be part of Luffy's crew then. Or if Luffy was a wanted man perhaps he was a bounty hunter. She didn't figure Luffy was wanted though; he seemed too small time to have a bounty on his head. Though if this guy was part of Luffy's crew she just might want to reconsider his offer of joining his crew. If she had to sail alongside humans to get off this island this guy wouldn't be a bad choice.

"Did you see where he went?" he asked, but before she could respond a thunderous crashing noise came from out side. She had never heard anything so loud and knew whatever had caused the noise must have come from the pirates. She wasn't going to stand around idly and let this town, and her father's bar, be destroyed.

The green haired man took off running after hearing the noise and she took off after him. She'd make those stupid pirates pay for what they had done to this town. She knew about where the pirates were and ran towards there, but noticed the man was running in a different direction.

"If you're wanting to find your friend I think he's this way," she shouted over her shoulder at him as she ran. As she got closer to the pirates she could see that they were all hanging out on top of a building. She ran to the top followed by the green haired man.

By the time she had gotten to the top of the building her blood was boiling and she was ready to kill every pirate in sight. She noticed Luffy was in a small cage with a canon pointed at him, and she wondered how he had ended up in the cage. That didn't matter though. What did matter was that these pirates were destroying her town. They weren't going to get away with this.

Iris then noticed a cannon sitting in the middle of the roof top deck that the pirates had overtaken. That had surely been what she had heard a few moments ago. If one of those hit her bar it would be done for.

Currently the orange haired girl was trying to put the fuse of the cannon out; the cannon was aimed at Luffy. Some pirates tried to stop the orange haired girl, but the man with green hair pulled out his swords and blocked them from harming her. If the orange haired girl couldn't get the fuse out then the cannon would go off and take out Luffy, and whatever buildings were behind him.

Iris got an idea and went towards the cannon. She put her shoulder under the mouth of the cannon, and pushed the cannon up and over so that the mouth was now facing the Buggy Pirates. Since the building they had chosen to occupy was at the edge of town it really wouldn't matter if the cannon went off now. There were no homes or buildings to be destroyed behind them.

"Ow, that hurt!" the orange haired girl shouted. She was rubbing her head where the cannon must have hit her when it flipped over. She glared at Iris, but Iris didn't really care. Her only thought had been to protect the town, and if some human got hurt in the process it didn't matter to much. It's not like the girl looked like she had received anything more than a bump to the head. Unfortunately the fuse wasn't lit any longer.

"Zoro! You're here!" Luffy shouted from the cage he was stuck in.

"Why the hell are you in a cage?!" the green haired man shouted. He must be the Zoro Luffy just shouted to. She had heard that name somewhere before, and the pirates obviously had to. She heard some mumbling about the famed Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, and wondered if this person could be that Zoro. She was sure that everybody in the East Blue had heard of the pirate hunter. He had quite the reputation.

She then heard an overly obnoxious voice and looked over to see who she knew must be Buggy. He looked like he had come straight our of a circus; he had a big red nose and all. Humans thought that fishman were funny looking, but they were okay with a straight up clown walking around and even finding him intimidating? None of it made sense to her, and quite frankly it pissed her off.

"You must be that shitty pirate clown. Leave this island," Iris growled.

"Oh, how scary! A little girl telling me what to do!" Buggy said while laughing at her.

"That's the girl who wouldn't give us any booze!" a pirate yelled from behind Buggy, and Iris saw the three who had been in her bar a few minutes ago. Iris was seeing red. Did these lowlifes think that they were tough now that they were with the rest of their crew and their ridiculous captain?

"Since you didn't learn your lesson earlier, I'll take the three of you on again," she said to them. Now that she wasn't in her bar and didn't have to be concerned about causing damage she could run wild.

"Captain, we should kill her!" one of them shouted while still hiding behind Buggy.

"You must be the Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro. Are you here for my head?" Buggy asked with his attention completely on Zoro now. If this man was the famed pirate hunter she understood why Buggy was more interested in him than her, but it pissed her off all the same.

"Nah, I'm not interested in your head; I'm not a bounty hunter any longer. I'm a pirate now," Zoro responded.

"Well no matter. I'm interested in your head. That will surely make my bounty rise," Buggy cackled. Before Buggy was able to react Zoro pulled out all three of his swords and sliced through Buggy. Iris stood there in shock at the sight in front of her. This pirate, that had been terrorizing her town, was this easy to defeat? That couldn't be right. Not to mention that his crew didn't seem upset. There was something fishy going on here.

Iris could hear Zoro talking to Luffy behind her, but she couldn't take her eyes off the scene in front of her. This wasn't right. Not at all. No way did a pirate that had a bounty on his head die so easily. Sure, Zoro might be strong, but there was no way that Buggy wouldn't have put up a fight against him. The smirks and snickers coming from his crew was bothering her as well.

Suddenly there was movement that happened so quickly that Iris almost didn't catch it. The parts of Buggy's body that were lying on the ground started moving; specifically his hand that was holding a dagger. The hand and dagger flew straight towards Zoro and penetrated his side. He fell to his knees in pain and Iris winced at the sight. That had to have hurt.

Zoro quickly pulled the hand and dagger out of his body, and blood started pouring out. It probably would have been better to have left the dagger in his body to prevent the blood loss, but if the hand could move on its own then it probably would have continued to move and perhaps pull the dagger out in a more dangerous manner.

Speaking of hands moving on their own... Iris hadn't had time to process how insane that was. It hit her that it was absolutely incomprehensible that a hand could move on its own. So Buggy had a devil fruit ability that allowed his body parts to move on its own? The was the only plausible explanation she could come up with.

"HAHAHAHA! How do you like my chop-chop abilities?! You can't possible slice me when I'm a sectioned man!" Buggy shouted with a cackle and a grin on his face from behind them.

"Stabbing somebody from behind... That's dirty, you big nose!" Luffy shouted angrily. The look on all of Buggy's crew told Iris that this was something that shouldn't have been said. Though if he was sensitive about it he was going for the wrong look being a clown. How stereotypical was a big red nose of a clown?

"Who are you calling a big nose?!" Buggy screeched with his voice breaking.

During the commotion going on between Luffy and Buggy, Iris got an idea. The cannon was still here, and pointing towards Buggy and his crew. If she could find something to light it with she could deal with this situation. It might not kill Buggy if he could react quick enough and section away his body from the blast, but it would cause enough chaos that she would be able to retreat and think of a way to deal with this annoying ability of his.

Iris' eyes scanned the area, and found some matches. She snatched them without anybody noticing and lit the cannon. In the moments before the cannon would explode she decided she should make her down from the rooftop.

The Buggy Pirates had now noticed the cannon was now lit, and started to panic. Luffy, Zoro, and the orange haired girl had noticed as well and were frantically trying to finda way to get Luffy out of the cage. They should probably leave now and figure out the cage later. She could easily carry the cage down off of the building, but wasn't sure she felt inclined to help them. Sure, they seemed nice enough, but they were still just humans. If they knew she was half fishman they surely wouldn't be pleasant with her any longer.

The cannon shot out the cannon ball, and created the perfect opportunity for her to leave. Just before she was about to jump from the roof she saw Zoro, despite the fresh wound in his side, pick up the cage that Luffy was in. His wound was oozing blood, and she didn't know how he wasn't passing out. He had definitely lost enough blood that it shouldn't be possible for him to be conscious. Picking up that stupid cage was making his wound worse. He either truly cared about Luffy's safety, or was incredibly stupid. Maybe both.

She didn't have time to think about these things right then. She had no reason to pay these people any mind. She wasn't sure why Buggy was after them, but it wasn't her problem. She had never allowed herself to wonder about or care about humans outside of the people in the village, and she wasn't about to start now.

She jumped from the roof, and landed on a lower rooftop where she could conceal herself from Buggy momentarily. She sat down and tried to block out the noises around her. She had to think quickly about how to kill Buggy before he could cause any more damage to the town or destroy her father's bar. She had to protect that bar at all costs; it was the personification of her father to her. Someday she knew they'd be back here together running it just like old times.

Her thoughts were interrupted though, when she heard a dog barking. ChouChou? Was somebody hurting him? She hesitated for a moment, she didn't have time to stop thinking of a plan, but couldn't ignore that dog. That dog had been through a lot recently, and she felt bad for him. And just like she wouldn't leave her dad's bar behind, ChouChou wouldn't leave his late owner's pet food store.

She hopped down from the building and ran towards the dog's barking. When she got to the pet food store she could see the dog biting Luffy. She sighed loudly; this is what she had been worried about? If this was all that was going on she shouldn't have let it interrupt her thoughts.

"Oy, you're here! You're going to join my crew, right?" Luffy shouted at her when he noticed her.

"No means no, kid," she responded.

"Who are these two, Luffy?" Zoro said. He was holding onto his side to try and stop the blood, and looked as if he was going to pass out any moment.

"They're our two new crew mates! Our navigator," he said as he pointed to the orange haired girl, "and she's strong!" he continued as he pointed to her. Iris shook her head with a sigh, but didn't say anything. He didn't seem like he was going to take no as answer, but just because he was set on being stubborn didn't mean that she would give in. It wasn't like he'd be able to force her to go.

"You really should stop that bleeding..." Iris said ignoring Luffy's comment. She knelt next to Zoro and looked at the wound. It had completely pierced his side from his back to the front. He's lucky it hadn't hit a vital organ, but he if he lost much more blood it could become fatal.

"I just need to rest," Zoro said. She rolled her eyes and said she'd go back to her bar to find a clean rag or something to try and bandage him up with. He made a comment about rather having booze from the bar, but she ignored him.

She jogged to the bar, walked in, and found a few clean rags. She stood there for a moment letting it sink in that this was probably the first time she had gone out of her way to help somebody since her father had been arrested. Even the villagers, who she didn't despise like other humans, weren't people she'd go out of her way to help. Sure she had the hots for Zoro, but that shouldn't be enough to alter her behavior.

She shook her head to clear her head, and hurried herself out of the bar and back to where the three humans were. As she jogged up to them she could see Boodle, the town's chief, lecturing them about being mean to ChouChou.

"These aren't ideal, but it's better than nothing," Iris said as she walked up to the group with the rags. She had tied them together so that they could be wrapped around his abdomen area better, though they definitely wouldn't work as well as bandage tape and gauze. She probably should keep a first aid kit or at least some basic bandaging at the bar, but she hadn't ever cared enough to stock it.

Boodle looked at her and his face immediately softened. He had been the most concerned about her staying in town with the pirates of all the villagers. He had come daily to feed ChouChou and to try and convince both her and ChouChou to leave the town until the pirates had gone on their way. His concerns fell on deaf, stubborn ears though.

After Iris' dad had been arrested Boodle tried to take Iris in as family. He had been the first in the village to welcome her father, and the only one not to judge her mother for falling in love with a Fishman and having a baby with him. If he had had any discriminatory thoughts about her father he had never shown it.

When her parents had announced they were pregnant to the villagers Boodle had been ecstatic for them. Her parents had never been married, but according to Boodle they had loved each other more than life itself. From what she had heard her mother had been infatuated immediately, and her father had assumed that she had been staring at him in disgust like the rest of the humans he interacted outside of the pirate crew he was on. Her mother had been fairly forward in her attraction to him though, and had been able to convince him that her feelings were genuine.

The rest of the villagers had thought Iris' mother was crazy, but eventually came to accept Iris' father for the wonderful person he was. Throughout all of this Boodle was the only one to never question Iris' mother. When she passed away and Iris' father came to look after her Boodle made sure that he had felt welcomed to the village. Boodle genuinely was a caring, and good person.

"Do you know these people?" Boodle asked her.

"Nope. From what I gather they're a couple of no-name pirates that have somehow managed to make enemies with the Buggy Pirates," Iris responded.

"What? That sounds dangerous! I keep telling you not to put yourself in danger's way!" Boodle shouted.

"I can take care of myself just fine," Iris retorted feeling annoyed. He didn't need to be so worried about her. It wasn't as if it would be his fault if she got hurt. She knew he couldn't help but worry, though. He saw her as family, and most of the time she genuinely appreciated that. It just happened to be annoying at the moment.

"Well this one looks like he needs to see a doctor..." Boodle said as he looked at Zoro. Zoro, however, insisted that he was fine and just needed to sleep it off. Boodle had some tape and gauze back at his house, though, so Zoro could at least be patched up.

Boodle went to help Zoro get up and walk to the house, but she stepped in. She was taller, stronger, and much younger than Boodle, and would have a much easier time trying to drag Zoro to Boodle's house.

Zoro tried to walk on his own, but the blood loss was too much and he started to stumble. She rolled her eyes at his stubbornness; though if she was being honest she probably would have done the same thing. She had him put his arm over her shoulders so that she could bear his weight. Having him so close to her she could feel how muscular his body was, and she could feel her pulse quicken ever so slightly.

Once they had gotten to Boodle's house Boodle bandaged up Zoro, and instructed Iris to stay with him. There was no way that was going to happen; not with all these pirates in the town. They were worked up and surely going to cause a bunch of damage to the town. She was partially to blame for them being so worked up, and she was going to stop them.

"No, stay with him. What if he ends up having a medical emergency from the knife wound? Besides, I don't know if I'm comfortable with some pirate staying in my house unattended," Boodle said.

"Oh, and you're fine with helpless little ol' me being by myself with this strange man?" she asked in a sarcastic tone. Boodle looked frustrated with her remark, but reiterated that she stay put. He left and shut the door behind him. She wasn't sure why she was choosing to do as he asked, but she sat on the chair next to the bed watching Zoro sleep.

She glanced at Zoro and was amazed how relaxed he was. She wasn't surprised that he was passed out, he really should have lost consciousness awhile ago, but he didn't look like he was suffering from a grave injury like she knew he was. His face didn't show any signs of stress as he snored away.

She could hear some commotion going on outside, but couldn't make out exactly what was going on. She was itching to go check out whatever was going on and make sure that Boodle was okay, but something in the back of her mind was nagging at her to stay by this stranger's side. He had taken a dangerous injury, and what if it did get worse? What if he needed to be taken to the doctor at the temporary camp set up outside of the village? If his wound was infected and he suddenly got worse, or if things became dangerous because of the blood loss somebody should be by his side. And she was both strong and fast enough to get him to the doctor quickly.

She found her thoughts wandering until suddenly there was a rumbling and the ground shook as the building collapsed on top of them. She could feel the weight of the building on top of her body, and while adrenaline was rushing through her body currently and not letting her feel pain she knew she'd be some later. Right now her only concern was her father's bar. Boodle's house was in the same row of buildings as the bar.

She pushed the debris off of her and quickly glanced to where Zoro should be buried in debris as well. There was movement, and she could see him pushing the pile of wood off of him. He looked annoyed more than anything, and when he seemed to be okay enough she took off running towards the bar.

She came to a stop in front of her bar and felt her face turn hot as tears started running down her cheeks. It was gone. Destroyed. This tie to her dad was completely in ruins before her. Her knees went weak and she felt them give out from under her. Her knees hit the ground and she continued looking on in shock.

As quickly as the shock set in, it then turned into anger. She saw red. These pirates would pay with their lives; nothing else would satisfy her. They had gone too far. A quiet voice in the back of her head tried to tell her that her father wouldn't want her to put herself in danger over the bar, but she didn't care. How dare these damn pirates take her father's bar from her!

In her rage she was unable to look through what was left of her bar to see if anything could be salvaged. She wiped the tears from her eyes, and then took off running as fast as she could towards the end of town where she had last seen the pirates.

As she approached the pirates she could see Boodle at the base of the building the pirates had inhabited. He seemed to be struggling, and she then noticed that his feet weren't actually touched the ground. She was too angry to think about how strange that was, and ran to his side. There was a hand around his throat gripping tightly, and that only served to infuriate here even further. Buggy had no right to try and murder an innocent bystander like this. Boodle couldn't even defend himself!

She grabbed the back of the odd piece of armor that Boodle was wearing, and grabbed onto Buggy's hand with her other hand. She sunk her nails into the hand with as much force as she could. How dare this piece of shit pirate try to kill this human that she cared about.

She put Boodle down onto the ground as Buggy released his grip of Boodle and shrieked in pain, and immediately tried to pull his hand back to himself. She wasn't letting go, though. She had half a mind to sink her large shark teeth into his hand, but didn't simply because her dad had ingrained into her so thoroughly that she should avoid revealing that she was half fishman if at all possible.

"Oh, you're here!" a voice said from behind her. She glanced over and saw that Luffy, Zoro, and the girl who's name she hadn't caught walking up. Luffy was grinning at her as he called out to her. These outsiders had no reason to be here. She was still seeing red, and didn't need them getting caught up in this.

"What are you kids doing here?! This is my war to fight! Leave this situation to me!" Boodle shouted at all of them, including her.

"Are you serious?! You would have died had I not come and ripped this stupid hand off of your neck! There's nothing you can do here!" she shouted at him.

"Iris, I need you to stay safe! Do you think I could ever face your father again if I let something happen to you?!" he shouted back.

"You don't have to worry about facing him again if you're dead!" she screamed at him. She let go of Buggy's hand when she saw the sadness in Boodle's eyes when she screamed at him. She shouldn't have screamed at him, and she knew it. "This village can, and will, be rebuilt," she said after taking a deep breath to try and calm herself a little. "You are more important than this village. If you die there's no coming back. Protecting your, and the villagers, lives is my priority right now," she continued.

"But your bar was destroyed too... Aren't you angry? It was your tie to your father..." Boodle asked with a breaking voice. Yes, she was upset about that. Seeing her father's bar in ruins had broken her, but seeing Boodle's life in danger had put her priorities in order. This man that had treated her like his own daughter after her father had been arrested was much more important that any damn building could ever be.

"We can talk about this more after I've finished dealing with them," she said trying to keep her calm. She didn't want to yell at him any longer; he was as upset as she was about things being destroyed. "Now, please, go back to the other villagers," she continued as she turned her back to him to face the pirates.

She looked up at Buggy just in time to see him completely lose his cool. She didn't know if he just was losing his patience with them, or if the three next to her had done something to provoke him. She hadn't been paying enough attention to them.

"FIRE THE BUGGY SPECIAL CANNON BALL!" Buggy screamed in rage, and a cannon ball was shot off and all she could think about was making sure Boodle got to safety. She turned back towards Boodle to grab him and run, but hesitated a moment when she heard Luffy laugh. Had he lost it?

"You think that would make me move an inch?" he said smugly. "Gomu-Gomu Balloon!"

He started sucking in air and his body started inflating into what truly did look like a balloon. She was taken aback at the sight in front of her; she had no idea things like that were even possible.

The cannon ball was bounced back towards Buggy and his group, and Luffy deflated. She couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation, but she was thankful that Luffy's ability had kept Boodle safe from the cannon ball. The orange haired girl seemed almost angry that Luffy had this ability, though Iris guessed it was more that the girl was in shock. It was, after all, shocking to see such out of the ordinary things.

Iris turned her eyes back towards the pirates as the dust settled, and was thoroughly disgusted at what she saw. Buggy and the skinny man standing next to him had used other crew members and some strange gigantic lion as a shield.

"You humans disgust me," she growled quietly. Seeing this only served to reinforce her belief that humans are a deplorable species. There might be a few good ones, but on average they were a selfish lot that thought of nothing but themselves.

There was some fighting going on among the Buggy pirates, but she was so angry with their disgusting behavior that she didn't care to listen to what they were saying. Buggy sent one of them flying towards them, but Luffy was able to quickly kick the man and send him flying further.

The skinny man then came riding out on a unicycle like a true circus act. He pulled a sword, and Zoro jumped in front of Luffy drawing his own sword. She noticed he was now wearing a bandanna covering his green hair and casting shadows on his eyes that gave him a more ominous look.

Zoro's wound was now bleeding through the bandages that Boodle and had put on him, and didn't look to be in good shape. There was no way he could last long in that state. The skinny man didn't seem to care, and was obviously aiming for the wound as he went after Zoro. He managed to get a few strikes in, and each time Zoro fell to the ground in pain.

Iris made a movement to go intervene; she wouldn't let one of Buggy's lackeys kill him because he was too stubborn to realize his limits. She wouldn't normally feel the need to step into human matters, but she didn't feel like standing by and watching somebody die in front of her like this.

Luffy's hand went up in front of her before she was able to take more than a few steps to stop her from getting involved. She was going to swat his hand away, but judging by the look on his face it was obvious that he wouldn't let Zoro die. She begrudgingly stood in place and turned her attention back to the fight in front of her.

Then, Zoro did something that left them all speechless. He stuck his own sword into his wound and slashed himself to make the wound worse. He must be insane; no sane person would do that. Had the blood loss started to effect his brain?

"If you're so fascinated with my wound I'll make it bigger for you. Does this handicap satisfy you? I'm going to be the greatest swordsman in the world. Now let me show you the difference between my level and yours," Zoro said with a confident smirk. He might be crazy, but that smirk was quite sexy. She kind of hoped he actually had the skills to back up his confidence; that would be even more sexy.

She watched on as he fought while glancing back to Boodle frequently to make sure that he was okay and not getting too close to the fighting. He must have realized that there really was nothing he could do in this situation, because he didn't seem to be wanting to involve himself. She was still worried that he might try to get involved again, and it distracted her from fully watching the fight in front of her.

When she was watching the fight she noticed, in addition to Zoro being strong, that he used very graceful movements when using his swords. It was obvious the hundreds if not thousands of hours he had spent perfecting his moves. It was reminiscent of watching her father practicing fishman karate; he could do the movements as effortlessly as breathing. It was second nature to him, and that was the same vibe she was getting from Zoro. The mastery of his abilities furthered the attraction she felt towards him.

After not very long, it became apparent that Zoro had the upper hand to everybody but Zoro's opponent. Buggy even decided that he'd get involved, and sent his hand flying toward Zoro. She went to grab the hand, but Luffy stretched out his arm and got to it first.

"You stay out of this," Luffy said with a grin on his face. The look on Luffy's face revealed that he was not so patiently waiting for his turn to fight; there was an excitement in him that he was having a hard time containing. She understood having a desire to fight, though her desire to fight had always came from a place of rage rather than for the joy of fighting. This kid was interesting.

She looked to Boodle who was sitting on the ground watching everything unfold. There was a look of pure amazement in his eyes as he watched on. The most excitement this little village ever had were small time pirates getting into small fist fights, and so this was something brand new. She was honestly fairly amazed at the scene around her, too. She had heard of devil fruit abilities, but didn't figure she'd be encountering one on this little island. Now she had seen two humans on the same day that had eaten them.

Iris heard Zoro shout something. It sounded like "onigiri" as ridiculous as that seemed to be yelling at the moment. She quickly turned her attention back to the fight and watched as Zoro used all three of the swords that sat at his hip to finish off the skinny circus freak. She had never witnessed somebody use three swords at one; having one in each hand and one in his mouth seemed like an odd idea to come up with, but it seemed to be working for him.

"Luffy! I'm going to take a nap now," Zoro called out as he collapsed onto the ground.

"Yeah, I got this!" Luffy responded.

It looked like the only people left standing were Luffy, Buggy, Boodle, and her. She wasn't sure where the orange haired girl had gone to, and she didn't really care. She was, however, disappointed that it looked like she wasn't going to be part of the main fight. Luffy had a look of determination sitting on his face, and she knew if she tried to step in that he wouldn't let her.

She decided to take a seat on the ground where she was standing and watch the fight. Her anger had subsided somewhat; that was quite odd for her. Once rage had built up within her the only way to release it was to beat the shit out of whoever had caused her to become angry in the first place. But for whatever reason she was okay with Luffy doing it in her place. Perhaps some of the debris from Boodle's house had knocked her in the head a little too hard when it collapsed on top of her.

"Alright, hand over your Grand Line map!" Luffy said to Buggy.

"What?! That's not someplace nameless pirates like you can go to! What are you planning on doing? Sightseeing?!" Buggy shouted.

The Grand Line... That is where he father was from. It's probably where he would be now, but in a prison somewhere. She did want to go there, eventually, to find her father's whereabouts and to rescue him. She had heard from him how difficult it was to sail, but at the same time it had always been obvious to her how much he had loved sailing the seas of the Grand Line. He had told her many stories of dangers that he and his crew had faced, but he always told those stories with a grin on his face and a sparkle in his eyes.

"I'm going to be the Pirate King," Luffy stated.

Iris laughed quietly to herself. This kid had guts spouting that off so simply. She had heard occasionally of no-name pirates deciding that was their goal, and then either giving up or dying in the process. It was something that the big name pirates like Whitebeard, or the Red Haired Pirates to do.

She expected Buggy to laugh at Luffy as well, but instead he got angry and claimed that all the treasure of the world was his and that he would become the Pirate King. That made Iris laugh not so quietly. How could an idiot like him possibly become the Pirate King?

"What are you laughing at?!" Buggy shouted at her with his voice breaking like a boy going through puberty. That made her laugh even harder.

"How the hell do you think a stupid, big nosed pirate like you could ever become the Pirate King? That title is something of legends! It's not for some stupid clown!" she said with a laugh.

"Who did you say has a big nose?!" he screamed at her losing his cool.

"Let's start this fight already. And you're being too loud, big nose. You're going to wake up Zoro," Luffy chimed in.

"You'd better watch what you say to me! Seeing that stupid straw hat reminds me of somebody I knew a long time ago, and it's pissing me off more than normal! I hate that stupid red haired guy..." Buggy growled.

"Red haired? You know Shanks?" Luffy asked with an obvious interest now in his voice.

Did mean Luffy mean Red Haired Shanks, the leader of the Red Haired Pirates? Did Luffy have some sort of connection to him? There was no way some no-named pirate from the East Blue could know one of the Four Emperors... Was there?

"Oh, you're interested now. I'm not telling you anything," Buggy stated.

"Where is he now?" Luffy asked ignoring what Buggy had just said.

"Did you not just hear what I said?! I'm not telling you anything. Stupid," Buggy shouted.

"I'll just beat it out of you, then," Luffy said with a grin.

"You'll be dead before you get a chance," Buggy said.

Iris watched as the lower half of Buggy detached from top half, started spinning as knives came out of his shoes, and started flying towards Luffy. This was definitely the most insane thing she had ever seen. Devil fruit abilities where out for more out of the ordinary than she had expected.

Luffy's limbs were stretching out towards Buggy as he fought, and Buggy's body continued to separate and reattach. Luffy seemed unable to make contact with Buggy, as every time Luffy got close Buggy would separate his body before Luffy could reach him. Luffy would need to either tire Buggy out to where his reaction speed slowed down, or be quick enough to grab onto pieces of Buggy and cause damage to the separated pieces.

As the fight continued, the town became more and more destroyed. She could hear Boodle complaining behind her every time something new was destroyed, but he seemed to be respecting her wishes and not getting involved. Or perhaps he was too scared to get involved at this point.

Iris continued watching from her spot on the ground, and saw Buggy's hand fly towards Luffy with small daggers being gripped between his fingers. Luffy easily caught the arm, but it separated again and the hand continued towards Luffy. He was able to move his head quick enough to not get stabbed, but it caught on his hat and ripped it.

For the first time since arriving here Luffy looked absolutely irate. He shouted about the hat being his treasure, and that he wouldn't forgive anybody that harmed it. Buggy smirked, and pushed the daggers into the hat causing some large tears. Luffy looked like he was about to explode.

Through the yelling exchange between Luffy it became obvious that they were in fact talking about Red Haired Shanks. It blew her mind a little that somebody like Luffy could know one of the Four Emperors. And if Buggy had sailed with him in his younger years, did that mean that Buggy had been to the Grand Line? She couldn't imagine that he was competent enough to do so.

Suddenly things took a turn, and Buggy's top half was flying in the opposite direction. The orange haired girl was back, and he was headed towards her. She was holding a large sack of what Iris guessed to be treasure from Buggy's irate yelling about taking it back. Iris guessed the girl didn't have any sort of fighting abilities, and Iris quickly got to her feet so that she could run and intercept Buggy.

In all the fighting she had seen between Buggy and Luffy she hadn't seen any sort of separation in his face. It seemed that he was able to separate at joints, and so his face and head seemed like a safe place to try and attack.

The moment he was close enough she reached out and slid her hand so that it moved under the hat and grabbed onto his hair, and punched him straight on the nose. His body collapsed after her punch, and he was making pained noises. She had used enough force to break his nose, but she didn't think it would cause this big of a reaction.

Iris then noticed that Luffy had kicked Buggy in the crotch. Buggy had neglected to pay attention to what was going on to his bottom half and had left it completely unguarded. She continued gripping his hair tightly so that he couldn't get away from her.

Once he had recovered from the shock of both being punched in the nose and kicked in the crotch he started screaming at her to let go. Did he think she was obedient and stupid, and would simply obey him? Instead, she used the heel of her hand to hit him under the jaw and force his mouth closed. He bit his tongue in the process, which was her goal, and screamed out in pain as blood started flowing out of his mouth.

He threatened that he was going to kill her for this, though it was a little difficult to make out what he was screaming about between the blood in his mouth, and his tongue swelling from the injury. His body separated at the joints to try and get her, but he was even dumber than he looked if he thought that would work. She headbutted his forehead with hers with enough force to knock him uncoscious.

She dropped his head and let it fall to the ground. She picked up her foot from the ground and stomped it down on his unconscious head. She could feel a wave of relief washing over her as she realized that this fight was coming to an end. The pirates would be forced to leave with their captain being defeated. It would take awhile to rebuild the village, but that would be okay.

"Oh yeah... The map..." Luffy said as he went to look for what Iris assumed was the Grand Line map that he had mentioned earlier.

She could feel some movement under her foot, and looked to see some parts assembling to Buffy's head. It wasn't all the parts though, and he looked hysterically ridiculous. She picked her foot up as she laughed at the sight.

Buggy seemed shocked that he was missing body parts, and that was when the orange haired girl laughed. She had managed to gather piece's of Buggy and tie them all up with some rope so that he couldn't assemble them.

Without a moment's hesitation Luffy's arms stretched way behind him as he laughed at the situation. His arms then flung forward at an incredible speed, and made contact with the miniature Buggy. Buggy was sent flying far away, and towards the ocean. Iris had heard that those with devil fruit abilities lost their ability to swim, and hoped he sank to the bottom of the sea and drowned.

With the fight ending Iris decided she should go back to the bar and start digging through the rubble, and see if anything was salvageable. She turned to walk away, and heard Luffy asking her again to join his crew.

"Nope, I've got things to do here," she said without stopping.

"So? You're strong and should be a pirate with us!" Luffy said cheerfully.

"I don't know you people. Why should I trust you, leave my life behind, and set sail with complete strangers?" she asked as she stopped to face him.

"Doesn't matter. I trust you, so you should come," he said, with that stupid grin still on his face. The grin on his face, though giant and stupid looking, seemed genuine. He truly thought asking a complete stranger because she was strong to join him was an acceptable thing to do. There was something about him that made her want to be able to trust him. He was a human though. She knew better.

Though at the same time she had always expected that she'd leave someday to leave on her own adventure to find her father. This just wasn't at all how she had expected it to happen. She had planned on getting her own boat, and taking the lead. If she went with Luffy she'd be following him around. Though she could always leave if she felt the need to. She felt like she was going a bit crazy to be considering this offer, but she was. She must be going absolutely bonkers.

"Just so you know, I've got my own goals if I leave with you. If my goals end up taking me a different direction I'll leave in a heartbeat," she said, and the grin on Luffy's face somehow got even bigger. "I've got some things to take care of before I can leave. Don't wait for me; you can leave once Zoro wakes up and I'll catch up," she said.

With that she turned once again to walk away from them. She heard Boodle's voice softly asking her to stop, but she didn't. She knew he would try and talk her out of this. Quite honestly she couldn't let herself stop to think about it or she'd talk herself out of it. With the bar destroyed, she really didn't have any reason to stay though. Perhaps, even with as angry and heartbroken as she felt, it wasn't entirely bad that the bar had been destroyed.

She took off running towards her house. She opened the front door, and felt some tears start to well up in her eyes as she realized that she'd be leaving. It was just a house, but she had so many memories here with her father. She wiped the tears from her eyes, and walked to her room.

Iris grabbed the waterproof bag that her dad had given her that was from Fishman Island made specifically for fishman and merfolk to keep belongings safe even at the bottom of the sea. She threw some extra clothes in it, along with her savings, and the purple bandanna that her dad had always worn as a headband to keep his long black hair out of his face. The bandanna was a memento of his pirating days, and he been one of his treasured belongings. When she found him she'd make sure to give it back to him.

She threw some booze into the bag as well; she always kept some of the fancier bottles she had come across at the house for her own personal enjoyment. It seemed a waste to leave them behind. And she'd probably need some alcohol in her system when it set in what she had actually done in leaving her home.

Before leaving the island she had one more stop to make. She walked to the cliff side behind their house, and found her mother's grave. She hadn't been here in many years. She didn't have hardly any memories of her mother, and since talking about her had always been too painful for her father she didn't really have any sense of connection to her mother. In fact, if anything she had harbored some anger towards her mother for getting sick and dying.

"Umm... Hi, mom," she started. "I know it's been awhile... But I'm leaving. I'm becoming a pirate like Dad was. I don't know if you'd be okay with that or not, and honestly I'm not sure about either. But... I think, this might be my best opportunity to leave this island to find Dad. The next time I come back I'll have him with me. So... Uh... I guess this is it. And, I'm sorry for being so angry at you all thee years. I've always known it wasn't your fault that you got sick and died. I'll be back someday, I promise," Iris finished feeling awkward for talking to the gravestone. It did give her a small sense of closure in her decision, though.

She walked towards the beach where she figured Luffy's boat was, and saw Boodle standing there. His eyes were on the ocean, and he seemed to be watching the horizon where the boats Luffy and crew had taken were barely visible. She quickly ran up to him, threw her arms around his neck, and gave him a hug.

"Thank you. Thank you for everything you've done for me, and for my dad. I'll be back someday. I promise," she said. She ran towards the ocean and dove in before waiting for him to respond. She didn't want to feel sad about leaving, and felt if she let him say goodbye that she would feel sad about her decision.

She swam under the surface of the ocean letting the salt water flow through her gills. Her body felt weightless and refreshed as she swam; she had always preferred being in the water to being on land. It was always disappointing that living in the ocean wasn't a viable option for her currently. Perhaps someday she'd get to Fishman Island and have an option to live in the ocean.

As she got close enough to see the bottom of the two boats she surfaced her head and swam like a normal human would, though still much faster than a human would be able to manage. She noticed Luffy and Zoro were in the smaller boat, and the orange haired girl was in a bigger boat with a sail that had Buggy's insignia on it. She decided she'd get in the boat with the boys, and pulled herself in.

"You made it!" Luffy said cheerfully as she climbed into the boat.

"Yeah... Though I'm not convinced that I'm not an idiot for leaving with a group of pirates that I don't know," Iris said as she tried to wring some of the water out of her clothes.

"I'm not a pirate!" the orange haired girl retorted.

"Well, I guess I am now," Iris responded as it started to sink in what she had just done. She had just left everything she had ever known, and became a pirate. She looked at Luffy who was grinning at her with genuine, and childlike glee. She glanced to Zoro, who looked like he was about to pass out.

This was the start of a grand, new adventure for this half fishman girl unlike anything she could ever even imagine. Her view of the world was about to change with every new place she sets foot on, and she was now one step closer to finding and rescuing her father. This would serve to be the first day of a new life for her; she just didn't realize it quite yet!