Chapter 3 | "She's your– What?!"

As he opened his eyes, the first thing Kuro saw was the blue, vast sky sparsely accompanied by white blobs of clouds.

The man made to sit up and immediately regretted his decision when a jolt of pain went straight through his torso. He also regretted the moment he dropped his body back down as it only made the dull throbbing of his head more prominent.

Letting out a small groan, Kuro resigned himself to his current predicament and closed his eyes to get some more rest, in hopes that by some miracle he'd be good as new the next time he woke up.

"Good afternoon to you too." A voice, which he had recently come to familiarise himself with, chimed from his right.

Opening hours eyes once more, Kuro turned to his head, absentmindedly noting the rustling feeling of bandages shifting all over his body. He eyed the hooded women sitting at the base of a tree, waiting to see what she had to say.

Instead, all he got was a stare and a raise of an eyebrow.

After a long moment, Kuro eventually broke the silence. "...Why did you help me?" He croaked, his throat feeling scratchy as shit after how-ever-long-he-had-been-unconscious of unuse.

Scarlett appraised the beaten man in front of her and lifted her shoulders into a shrug, "Who else would?" She remarked simply.

The truth of her words seemed to have been both painful, yet unsurprising to the captain, well... ex-captain now, she suppose. They didn't talk for the rest of the day.

The next day was a bust. It was like how it was after their first altercation, Kuro refused to look at her let alone talk to her.

So she did what she'd done just a few days before — keep him company until he breaks.

And as she predicted, Kuro broke.

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It was late that day, the sun was setting, indicating the end of another day. Scarlett had been coming and going off the cliff every morning for the past six days.

Truth be told, Scarlett wouldn't be able to wait for him for long. She only had until the seventh day to wait for Kuro's answer as that was the time when they'd get the promised ship from Kaya, the rich, young lady whom Usopp managed to befriend. There was no way she would hinder Luffy's journey just for her selfish wish.

So she was quite thrilled when Kuro finally asked, "Does your offer still stand?"

Tilting her head, Scarlett glanced at the man sitting across from her. "Yes." She answered after a beat. "It does."

Kuro took a breath, and then two. "What is your goal? Why search for a companion? It isn't like you're alone." He finally asked the question that had been plaguing his mind for the past week. "Why pick an enemy? Why me?"

Despite the barrage of questions, Scarlett wasn't perturbed. She didn't have any special reason. She merely wished for someone to converse with whilst looking over the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, and then she met Kuro purely on coincidence. That coincidence was something she took a chance with.

And having nothing to hide, she told Kuro exactly as such.

"I'm only tagging along to keep an eye on Luffy. Swordsman-san and Thief-chan are his, I only want someone of mine to talk to." Scarlett shrugged, "And you're Luffy's enemy. You've done nothing to slight me."

Ignoring her weird choice of nicknames, Kuro focused on the more important matter at hand and looked at her with furrowed eyebrows, "You're only here to keep an eye on the boy?" He parroted, "Then are you not apart of his crew?"

"If I was, would I be asking you to keep me company?" Scarlett deadpanned.

Though Kuro lifted a doubtful brow at her question, at least he seemed inclined to believe her.

"I would like join you."

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The next day, Scarlett and Kuro sneaked into the ship when the villagers were preoccupied with the Straw Hats, wanting nothing more than to avoid any potential commotion that they couldn't resolve with violence.

Which led them to this.

Not long after their departure, they were quickly found — though it wasn't as though they were hiding in the first place, having been drinking tea in the kitchen for an hour now.

The door leading into the kitchen was opened. There was a flash of orange bob before a shriek travelled across the deck, followed by a loud, distressed call for "LUFFY!!"

Upon Nami's obvious panic, said captain as well as the other residents rushed towards the communal kitchen. By the time they arrived, Zoro was already on guard, while Usopp yelped at the sight of his recent adversary and hid behind the door post alongside Nami. Luffy, on the other hand, beamed at Scarlett and threw himself at her.

Used to his antics, Scarlett caught the rubber boy just in time and spun him, his joyous laughter filling the room. "I haven't seen you since yesterday, Scar!" Luffy exclaimed as he was lowered to his feet. "I'm hungry! Are you hungry? Can you make me a—"

"Get away from them, Luffy." Zoro said, stopping his captain in his tirade. "They're dangerous."

Though there was still a smile, Luffy's eyebrows were furrowed in confusion, "What do you mean, Zoro?"

"She brought an enemy– him to the ship!" Usopp accused from his hiding place.

"Oh, it's fine. Scarlett wouldn't let him hurt us, right Scar?" Luffy asked the woman beside him, who nodded firmly in response. "See? She'll keep an eye on K–Klaha–Kla... Kla... Hm... Hey, what's your name again?" He asked, turning to the unimpressed Kuro.

The man regarded the straw hatted boy for a moment before deciding to be civil with the person who had ruined his long-term, three-year plan. "My name is Kuro." He said cooly, bringing his palm up to adjust his glasses only to remember that it had broke during the fight a week ago.

"We can't know that for sure though." Zoro frowned, still looking skeptical even as he sheathed his swords, showing his trust in Luffy's words.

Not wanting to be the reason for a discord in the Straw Hats, Scarlett stepped up to clear the air — or at least, she was about to when Luffy faced his crew with a rare, serious expression. "I trust Scar with my life. She's awesome and very strong, and she's been to the Grand Line many times already! She coulda just gone there before me but cause she's my sister, she wanted to keep an eye on me so I don't do something stupid and die. Ah! But don't worry! I made her promise that she won't butt in on any of our amazing fights unless I will actually die, so we can experience those things ourselves! Smart, right?"

Scarlett snorted slightly at his blunt choice of words but still gave him a pat of appreciation for defending her.

The others, though, were shocked, focusing on one particular detail in his speech. "She's your– What?!"

Luffy blinked at their surprise and scratched the back of his head, "Ah, didn't I tell you? Shishishi. Scarlett's my older sister!"

At the new piece of information, Zoro's guard lowered slightly, a thoughtful expression on his face as he sort through his view on Scarlett. Usopp wasn't quite as shocked as the other two since he had just joined the Straw Hats in their adventure. Though Nami, on the other hand, looked to be the most flabbergasted out of the three.

"You're sister– She's a girl?!" Nami gaped, hung up on that particular fact as the strawberry blonde seemed to look the hooded elephant in the room in a new light.

"Of course, she's a girl, Nami!" Luffy said in an oh-so-obvious tone, "She's my sister. If she's my brother, she won't be a girl."

Nami's eyebrow twitched at her captain's words and she sent him a flat look, which he didn't quite catch.

Scarlett tilted her head in confusion. She didn't quite understand how Nami didn't pick up on the fact that she's a girl, heck even Zoro seemed to have known about that. Then she saw the brown fabric of her hood dangling from atop of her head. Oh. She had forgotten about that.

Reaching up, Scarlett pulled the hood down and ran her fingers through her wavy, grey locks, pulling them free out of the outerwear and letting it drape freely across her back. She absently noted that she was due for a haircut soon as her hair was starting to reach her lower back.

Nami and Zoro, who had never seen her hair as she usually never took her hood off — more like forgotten to take it off, were wide-eyed once more.

"Oh." It was as though the sound slipped through her lips as she looked surprised when she said it, which made her a tad flustered. "Um, it wasn't a bad 'oh' or anything! I was just surprised that your eyes are red, like scarlet red... Ah, not that they're bad! They're quite striking, actually!" Nami quickly tacked on, "I just thought they were brown since it looked brown before you pulled the hood off and—"

"Just say that you think her eyes are pretty and get on with it, witch. You're noisy." Zoro rolled his eyes at the navigator.

That seemed to have pulled Nami back as she sent him a glare before finally saying, "I think your eyes are really beautiful." She emphasized the end of her statement, more to spite Zoro than anything else.

Said eyes crinckled up into a curve as Scarlett smiled in amusement at their antics. That seemed to have shaken them yet again.

Before she could thank her for the compliment, Luffy jumped in, "I dunno why you guys are so surprised about this, she's a girl, so what? You're a girl too, Nami." The boy used his pinkie to pick his nose. "Anyway! Scar, Scar! I want roast beef for dinner!!"

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"So he's your brother." Kuro mentioned when they were finally left alone with a promise of beef roast for dinner, "It makes so much sense now."

"Does it?" Scarlett questioned absently from her place by the oven, where a certain beef roast was being cooked — the aroma wafting off the appliance was delectable enough to make Kuro salivate.

Her hood had long been discarded onto one of the dining chairs, leaving her in a simple monochrome outfit consisted of a black mask, a black vest worn over a white blouse, black cargo pants and black boot.

"I was wondering why you bother hanging around that boy." Kuro revealed to his new... ally — well, that was a weird term to use, "It's obvious that you would hold your own out in the sea."

Scarlett let out a sound of amusement, "I'm flattered that you think so highly of me, Kitty-kun." She ignored the violent twitch coming from her peripheral view, "You are quite confident in my capability, aren't you."

"K–Kitty-kun?!" Kuro spluttered indignantly.

Blatantly ignoring him, Scarlett continued on, "Just for that I'm giving you extra mashed potatoes." She said as she fished out a couple of potatoes out of the cabinet, "Huh, look at that. Flattery does get you everywhere, Kitty-kun."

"Stop that—"

"Gravy, black pepper or barbecue?" Scarlett plowed on through, as though he hadn't spoken a word. "You seem like a barbecue kind of guy, Kitty-kun."

"Oi—"

"No? Do you like gravy instead, Ki–tty–kun?"

Kuro finally got the message and stopped mentioning it, but it didn't stop him from glowering at her. "I'm starting to regret coming with you." He scowled, though without any heat behind his words. "And black pepper."

Scarlett chuckled in response, "Good."

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Luffy: *Forgot to tell the crew that Scarlett is his sister, despite having traveled with some of them for weeks now*
Scarlett: *Forgot to take her hood off, despite having traveled with some of them for weeks now*
The Crew: *Laughing drily* "Yeah, they're related alright."

Luffy: "Scarlett's my sister, yano."
Usopp: "Uh, no. I dunno."
Nami: *Shaken to her core* "She's a girl all along?!"
Zoro: *Deep in thought* 'If she's Luffy's sister, then she should be at least trustworthy. But then, why didn't she help out with the enemies? She even helped the enemy instead. But Luffy was alright with it, so maybe they talked about it? Oh, now that she's been established to be at least on our side, should I ask her for a spar? I've never seen that sword in real action before. Maybe I'll get the chance later—'
Kuro: *Snapping his fingers* "So that's why such a competent individual is following this unruly boy! It all makes sense now!"

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What did you think about the sudden addition? Well not so sudden since I did plant the bomb from the chapter before.

I must confess though: The first time I watched One Piece, I was still in my 'slicked-back hair, glasses, dark guys' phase. So when I saw Kuro, I was like oooh yes papi, but then it of course quickly turned into oooh no papi, as the story progresses.

I did kind of forget about him though. But then I started this story, which had me reacquaint myself to the earlier arcs, which then reminded my old, teeny tiny sparks of fire for the guy.

So I thought, meh why not?

Though I did have to change up some of his behaviour and mindset because under no circumstances would I let my Scarlett get her heart broken by any of her suitors >:(

Next Chapter: "Creep-kun."

J Out!