TWO A GHOST OF A DREAM

⚓️

KEELI STEPPED OUT OF THE CABIN onto the deck, feeling the green-haired man's hand on her back, guiding her. "We got a stowaway," he said, his deep voice vibrating through the air, as he walked past her and leaned against the side of the ship, one hand resting on the hilt of one of his three swords, regarding her with a cautious expression. 

At his words, the other two people spun around, and Keeli's gaze was met with the shocked one of an orange-haired girl (who, for some reason, looked familiar...?) and the intrigued one of the boy in the straw hat. Keeli grimaced; this was not how she wanted this to go — she'd thought she'd walk out of the deckhouse with her head held high, arms raised so they would know that she meant no harm, and would simply explain how she came to hide on their boat, and that she actually didn't mean to become a stowaway. (She would've chosen a bigger boat with better hiding spots if she'd had to travel as a stowaway, but she'd really had the money this time to pay for safe passage to the next island. Now she could get some new clothes with it... Maybe some cool pants...)

But, no, this guy just had to ruin her plan.

Anyway. Gotta make the best of it.

Keeli straightened herself and put on a charming smile, "Hi, I know this is—"

"Who are you?" the orange-haired girl interrupted Keeli.

Rude, she thought, as she eyed the girl, taking in her shoulder-length orange hair and her sky-blue eyes. She's cute. And then it clicked. Keeli tilted her head to the side, a knowing smile growing on her lips (it felt good to know things about other people). "You're the girl who stole that Marine's uniform. In the bar." The girl blinked, taken aback. Then, Keeli turned to the green-haired swordsman. "You had half a dead body with you and started a bar fight. And you..." She looked at the boy in the straw hat. "You ate enough for a whole village."

They'd all been in that bar at the same time... Had they been working together all along?

But, then again... They did say that they weren't a crew...

The boy in the straw hat started to grin at her in a way that looked like he'd just found the greatest treasure in the world, and Keeli thought that his face was made for smiling, with dimples on both his cheeks. He looked a bit younger than herself, but only by a year or two, Chocolate brown curls poked out underneath his straw hat, falling into his forehead. And he had olive skin, just like Keeli did.

"How... How do you know all that?" the orange-haired girl asked, an edge to her voice that let Keeli know that she was not impressed.

Keeli simply shrugged her shoulders, though. "Seeing everything is kind of my thing." A wry smile appeared on her lips.

The boy in the straw hat beamed at her. "So you're like a... like a spy, right?"

"No, I'm not a spy—"

"That's amazing—"

"I'm not a spy!"

"Then who are you?" the green-haired swordsman asked, stepping forward. The look on his face was intimidating, and he generally looked like he didn't smile all that much. He was quite a bit taller than her, with broad shoulders and muscular arms, which really added to the whole intimidating thing. Three golden earrings were dangling from his ear. He was one handsome guy, she had to admit.

Keeli crossed her arms, lifting her chin. She did not intend to tell them who she was before she didn't know who she was dealing with here. She had to be careful. A smirk played around her lips as she looked him up and down. "You first."

He scoffed.

"You're the one who snuck on my boat," the orange-haired girl said, clearly impatient. "Tell us who you are."

Keeli ground her teeth. She's right, she thought bitterly. She was the intruder here, she had no right to make demands. And if she wanted them to trust her, to grant her safe passage to the next island, then she would have to be cooperative. Otherwise, they might throw her overboard. Or kill her. She didn't know them, she had no idea what they were capable of — or what they were willing to do. She just hoped that no one would recognize her name, that none of them had ties to a pirate that she'd escaped from in the past.

She sighed. "I'm Keeli."

The orange-haired girl studied her for a moment, suspicion glinting in her blue eyes. "That your real name?"

Keeli tilted her head and put on a charming smile. "You think another name would suit me better, love?" The orange-haired girl narrowed her eyes at her, and Keeli understood that this was not the time for flirtations. Her smile disappeared — these people don't know fun, do they? "Yes, that's my real name. Keeli Arata." She looked from the girl to the swordsman to the boy in the straw hat. "Now you — who are you guys?"

The orange-haired girl exchanged a look with the green-haired man. Then: "I'm Nami."

"Roronoa Zoro," the swordsman said.

And Keeli's eyes darted toward him, wide with shock. Did she hear that correctly? The infamous pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro? The living legend who most people called The Demon? And he was standing right in front of her. This was insane. And kind of funny, actually — when she had seen him back in the tavern, she'd thought 'What are the odds that I would run into a living legend?' Apparently, those odds were pretty high.

"You're... Roronoa Zoro? The pirate hunter? For real?" He frowned at her as he nodded. "That's so cool." She liked everyone who killed pirates. The fewer pirates there were, the safer she was.

The corner of his mouth lifted upward. "Call me Zoro."

She grinned. Cool.

Then she turned toward the boy in the straw hat who had looked back and forth between them all, his lips stretched into a smile. "And who are you, straw hat?"

One of his hands went to his hat, and that grin of his grew even bigger. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy. And I think you should join our crew."

Keeli blinked, dumbfounded. What?

He'd just met her, and he already wanted her to join his crew? He didn't even know her. For all he knew, she could be here to kill them all and steal everything they owned that was worth stealing. Zoro let out a sigh and scratched his eyebrow. Nami rolled her eyes, obviously annoyed, and let her head fall back. Probably because Luffy kept calling them a crew when they did not agree to actually be a part of it. And what kind of crew were they supposed to be, anyway?

"Your... crew?"

"Yes, my crew," he repeated, not realizing how weird all this was. "I'm gonna need one if I wanna become King of the Pirates."

Instantly, the blood in her veins turned to ice, and she stumbled back a step. King of the Pirates. Without being able to stop herself, her hands went to her arms, clasping her forearms. Through the fabric of her gloves, she could feel her uneven skin — the scars that marked her as a Banished One, someone who every pirate in the world wanted dead for betraying the pirate code. And now she was on a ship with a pirate. What was she supposed to do? She was stuck here.

But they didn't know who she was. They couldn't see her scars. She was safe. For now. She just had to leave as soon as possible before they would find out who — and what — she was. So, she forced her body to relax and plastered a smile onto her lips (she'd gotten pretty good at faking smiles in the past years; it was the only way to trick herself into believing that her life was still worth living).

"U—Um," she started, and cursed herself as her voice broke. "That's very... sweet... of you, but I'm not interested. I just wanna get to the next island, and then you'll be rid of me." She underlined her words with a nod.

Luffy's face fell, and the sadness in his eyes almost made Keeli take back her words. But she stopped herself. She had just met him. And he was a pirate. There was no room for sympathy here. He wouldn't react like that if he knew that she was a Banished One. The smile on her face shrunk, and Keeli let out a sigh. Honestly, she would love to be a part of a crew again, to be able to sail the seas with people she trusted, people who trusted her, but that dream was dead, a ghost, just like her.

"Is that why you were hiding on my boat?" Nami asked, tearing Keeli out of her thoughts. "So you can reach the next island?"

Keeli shook her head as she let her satchel fall to the floor, and sat down on a crate that was standing around. "Not entirely," she said. Nami furrowed her brows, confused. "Someone was after me. So, I hid in the next best place, which happened to be your boat. I wanted to get off but then you showed up, and that Marine, too, and I was stuck." She wouldn't tell them that she'd been hiding from a pirate; they would want to know why, and she couldn't tell them that. They might want to finish the job for him. And before anyone could ask any further, she changed the subject, "So." Keeli leaned forward, intrigued, and grinned. "Why are the Marines after you guys?"

"Because we stole a map to the Grand Line, so we can find the One Piece," Luffy said, that grin back on his lips as he pointed to the big safe they'd brought on board.

Keeli's eyes widened, and her grin vanished. She'd heard enough stories about the Grand Line when she was still a pirate herself to know that it was really really dangerous and that even the most powerful pirates had failed to survive the Grand Line and find the One Piece, the greatest treasure in the world, hidden by the (now dead) King of the Pirates Gold Roger, all in one piece (hence, the name). And this boy wanted to go there in a dingy little boat with two people on his crew who didn't even want to be a part of his crew.

But Luffy's expression was firm, unwavering, and Keeli knew that he was dead-set on finding the One Piece. On following in Gold Roger's footsteps and becoming King of the Pirates.

"You're actually serious about that, aren't you?" Keeli said.

"Of course, I am!" Luffy said, jumping up on the side of the boat, holding onto the rigging. Zoro instinctively took a step toward him as though he was worried that he could fall into the sea.

Keeli scoffed. "You're insane."

Luffy shook his head. "I'm just following my dream."

"He's definitely insane," Nami said next to her in a low voice so only Keeli could hear.

Keeli snorted. But she wasn't so sure about that anymore. He was following his dream. What a peculiar thing for a pirate to say. All the pirates Keeli knew only ever wanted to destroy other people's dreams, never follow their own. Everyone who dared to do that was brave in Keeli's eyes. And lucky. Not everyone had the possibility to chase after their dream, not everyone was free to do so...

But, different or not, Monkey D. Luffy was still a pirate, and Keeli was still a Banished One.

She had to get off this boat.

⚓️

THE SUN HAD SET A WHILE AGO and Keeli had almost forgotten how beautiful it was to watch the sunset from a boat in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by nothing but water. It looked like the warm light bathed the whole world in orange. Now, the sky was painted a dark blue, and clouds covered the stars and the moon. She had missed this. She had missed everything about being on the sea — the soft rocking of the boat, the salt in the wind, the feeling of being free to go wherever she wanted.

Keeli sat at the front of the boat, her arms resting on the railing and her head resting on her arms, and she simply watched the waves move. For once, Keeli felt at peace. The smile on her lips was even a real one. If it wouldn't be so much more dangerous for her to live life as a sailor, she'd do it without hesitation. She'd get a boat and set sail and never look back. But pirates ruled the seas, and she would not put herself into that kind of danger. She already had to deal with enough pirates on land.

Nami was kneeling beside the safe they'd stolen from the Marine base, her ear pressed to the lock, trying to crack it. She'd been at it for a while now, with no luck so far. Mostly because Luffy was clambering about the boat, unable to sit still for longer than a few minutes. Silence also wasn't his strong suit. Zoro had gone inside the deckhouse to take a nap. And, honestly, Keeli was tired, too, but she wanted to enjoy being on the sea for as long as she could. She gladly sacrificed her sleep for that. (She also didn't want to sleep on a boat with people that she barely knew.)

"Can you not do... that?" Keeli heard Nami's voice, and she turned around. Luffy was hanging upside down from a wooden beam, holding onto it with his legs, a wide grin on his face. With one of his hands, he was keeping his hat secure on his head.

"Sorry," he said, but he didn't sound very apologetic. "It's hard to sit still."

"No shit," Keeli couldn't help but comment.

Luffy made a backflip down, landing safely on his feet. "I'm feeling so... so piratey."

Keeli snorted. She couldn't help herself, OK? Even though Luffy was a pirate, he wasn't scary. And, at this point, she wondered if he would even know what a Banished One was, and what it meant to be one. Stealing the map to the Grand Line was his first pirate score — he'd said as much about a hundred times already since they'd left Shells Town behind —, which meant that he hadn't been a pirate for long and most likely didn't know much about the ways of pirates. And he definitely didn't look like someone who was familiar with the different kinds of punishments that pirates used.

"Yeah? Well, you're going to end up feeling watery if I have to throw you overboard," Nami said, clearly annoyed. "I told you I need absolute silence."

"I know, I know. Absolute silence." Luffy stepped up on the railing and walked over to Keeli, holding onto the rigging for balance. He stepped over Keeli, giving her a small wave and a big grin, and then lay down on the bowsprit. "It's just that... this is my first real pirate score." He looked back at Keeli and then at Nami. "Can you believe that?"

"You've only said it a million times already," Keeli said, at the same time as Nami said, "Yeah, I can" — Luffy jumped down from the bowsprit again — "because you told me right after you asked me — yet again — to join your crew." Nami rolled her eyes.

"We do make a pretty good team," Luffy said, walking back to Nami. Then he whirled around and pointed a finger at Keeli. "And you should join, too."

Keeli's breath hitched in her throat. This was about the fifth time that he'd offered her a spot on his crew on his quest to find the One Piece and become King of the Pirates. But Keeli was aware that, if he found out who and what she was, he wouldn't want her on his crew anymore. Even if they wouldn't mind that she was a Banished One (which she highly doubted), it was simply too dangerous; the target on Keeli's back would affect him and the rest of the crew as well. And she didn't wish this fate upon anyone.

(Well. Maybe Captain Krait. Then he would know what harm he caused her every single day.)

"My answer is still no," Keeli said.

A mischievous smile appeared on Luffy's lips. "We'll see about that."

Keeli sighed. He didn't give up easily, did he?

Luffy kneeled down next to Nami, putting his head on top of hers, ear to ear, as if he wanted to hear the clicking of the safe's lock through Nami's ear. And Nami, well, she looked like she was about to murder him. Keeli watched them, amused. "Is it open yet?" Luffy asked her.

"No. And can you please give me some quiet and some space?" Nami pushed Luffy away, hitting his hat off his head in the process. The wind picked up the hat, carrying it away. Luffy tried to grab it but he was too slow. The hat flew over Keeli's head and, before the wind could blow it out of reach completely, she elegantly jumped up from her seat and caught it.

Luffy ran over toward her, stopping right in front of her. "You caught it!" he yelled, excited, "Thank you!"

Keeli couldn't help but smile at him. "We can't have you lose the most fashionable hat in the East Blue, can we?" She put the hat on his head, and he grinned.

"Really? Most fashionable?" Nami mocked, looking up from the safe at Keeli.

Keeli just shrugged, a teasing look on her face.

Luffy turned back around to Nami, the grin that had lit up his whole face just a moment ago gone. "Not cool, Nami," he said, more serious than Keeli had ever heard him be (which didn't count for much, because she'd just met him a couple hours ago). "Don't mess with my hat."

"Why do you care so much about that old thing anyway? It looks like you fished it out of the trash," Nami said, unbothered.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure."

Keeli could agree with that. Some things weren't valuable because they were expensive. Some things carried emotional value. Her gaze wandered to her satchel, and her thoughts went to the deck of cards that she carried around with her. Honestly, she didn't know why she still kept it — it had been a present from someone she'd loved, a man she had considered family, who had betrayed her. Yet she still couldn't bring herself to throw away that damned deck of cards.

"Will you three knock it off? I'm trying to take a nap," Zoro called from inside the deckhouse.

Keeli was brought back to reality.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Were we interrupting your beauty sleep?" Nami replied.

"Don't like what you see? Look away," Zoro said.

And Keeli had to smile. Something about these people felt ... comfortable. Though she couldn't explain how or why... They all fell silent after Zoro's comment, letting Nami work on the safe. Luffy sat down next to Keeli, while Keeli turned back to the ocean and the night sky. The moon came out behind a cloud, sending diamonds of light scattering over the rippling surface of the water. A content smile appeared on her lips once again, and a calmness settled over her body, one that Keeli hadn't felt in a very long time.

"You've been staring at the ocean for hours now," Luffy remarked, and Keeli turned toward him.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Have you been watching me?"

"Yes."

Keeli raised an eyebrow at him. That was very straightforward.

"Why do you do it?" Luffy asked.

"Why do you wanna become King of the Pirates?" Keeli asked in return.

"Because it's my dream."

She nodded. "Exactly."

Luffy pulled his brows together. "So... The ocean is... your dream?"

That familiar longing rose in her chest, making her heart feel heavy — just like it always did when she thought about her dream and how it would never come true, how she would never have the opportunity to follow it. A lump formed in her throat. "I've always wanted to explore the world, the four seas, and discover new places." The wind picked up her curls, whirling them around her head, and Keeli closed her eyes. "To just... be free to go wherever I wanna go. I mean — can you imagine the things that are out there that we have no clue about? I want to discover these things, all of them." She sighed. "... One day."

"You want to be an explorer, then," Luffy said. Keeli opened her eyes and looked at him, and after a moment's hesitation, she nodded. "Sounds very similar to a pirate's life to me. I'm sure that when we go to find the One Piece, we will discover a lot of new and interesting places."

She averted her gaze to her hands, her arms, and was once again reminded why she couldn't follow her dream, why she couldn't join his crew. She balled her hands into fists, the muscles in her arms flexing. She could feel the scar tissue move against the fabric of her gloves.

Luffy studied her. "Why don't you want to join my crew?"

Keeli shook her head, a bitter scoff escaping her throat. "Because I can't."

A grin slowly grew on his lips. "But you want to?"

Keeli's head shot up. "I didn't say that!"

"But that's what you meant!"

"I— No! I just—" She stopped herself, taking a deep breath. "It's complicated." And you wouldn't want me on your crew if you knew who I am, she thought. Then, she frowned. "Why do you want me on your crew anyway? You don't know me."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I know enough. And I think together we'd make a pretty good team."

Keeli eyed him, intrigued. Luffy really wasn't like any pirate she'd ever met. The ones that she knew were evil — they kidnapped children so they could force them to do the work that they didn't want to do, not caring about the fact that they were ripping them away from their families, that they were ruining their lives, and that they were crying themselves to sleep every single night. But Luffy...

"You're not like other pirates," she remarked. "All the pirates I know are ruthless and don't care who they hurt as long as they get what they want."

He grinned. "I'm a different kind of pirate."

And for some reason, Keeli was actually inclined to believe that.

A metallic thud rang through the silence, and Keeli's gaze snapped toward Nami, who was staring down at the safe with wide eyes. Next to Keeli, Luffy jumped up and bolted over to Nami, obviously excited. Keeli followed him. Maybe she wasn't involved in all this Grand Line business, but she was curious. The Grand Line was a place that millions of legends circulated around, because no one actually knew anything about it, and Keeli, having the spirit and the curiosity of an explorer, just had to know more...

"You did it," Luffy marveled as Keeli came to stand next to him and Nami opened the safe. The first thing that caught her eye was a rolled-up wanted poster with the name Kuro printed on it in capital letters. But then she saw a round metal tube, a case to keep maps safe, and the name Kuro was instantly wiped from her mind. Nami took out the case and unplugged it, pulling out a map. Keeli held her breath while she watched as Nami unfurled the roll of parchment.

It showed the East Blue, with all its islands scattered across it, and the strip of land that was called the Red Line, and, at the bottom of the map, was the Grand Line. Keeli stared at it, astonished, a spark appearing in her emerald eyes. This is amazing, she thought. Captain Krait would've killed for this map; and now Keeli, the girl he had banished, stumbled upon it. What irony.

Zoro appeared next to her, glancing at the contents of the safe. "That's it?" He sounded disappointed. But why? They had a map to the Grand Line! This was a huge deal. "Isn't there supposed to be gold inside a safe? Or jewels?"

Nami looked at him, irritated. "This is more valuable than gold. It's knowledge. This is a map to the Grand Line."

Nami gets it, Keeli thought. Then she frowned at Zoro. "You're a bounty hunter — shouldn't you be, like, filthy rich?"

"I wish," he said.

"The Grand Line," Luffy said, excited, stepping closer to Nami to get a better look at the map. "The Grand Line is just right..." he trailed off. "Where is it exactly?"

Keeli gave him an odd look.

"You're going to the Grand Line, but you don't know where it is?" Nami said, bewildered.

Luffy smiled that mischievous smile of his. "Guess I need a navigator on my crew."

Nami looked at him, deadpan, before turning on her heel and going inside the deckhouse. Keeli, Luffy, and Zoro followed her.

With a crayon that she got from... somewhere... Nami drew a large white circle on the surface of the wooden table in the center of the room. "The seas are divided into four quadrants: East Blue, North Blue, West, South." She wrote the letters E, N, W, and S in their respective quadrants. Then she sketched two wavy lines down the center of the circle. "This thin strip of land that circles the globe is called the Red Line, and this band" — she drew a horizontal line that divided the circle into two halves — "across the middle is the Grand Line. A treacherous stretch of ocean with bigger islands, bigger cities, bigger pirates. Flush with riches and ripe for the picking."

On the one hand, Keeli was amazed. Bigger islands and bigger cities — places that she'd never been to, maybe even places that no one's ever been to — sounded wonderful to Keeli. She would get to learn about new cultures and customs, discover sites that she couldn't even imagine now. She would be living her dream. But, on the other hand, she was absolutely terrified. Bigger pirates meant it was so much more dangerous for Keeli... Cold terror crawled into her bones, a shiver running down her spine.

"And that's where we're gonna find the One Piece," Luffy declared.

"I've taken out a lot of pirates looking for that thing," Zoro said.

Keeli looked at him. "Seriously, how are you not rich?"

Zoro ignored her comment. Instead, he looked at the other two. "What is it? Like, a big diamond or something?"

"It's Gold Roger's treasure," Luffy answered. "He hid it somewhere in the Grand Line. All in one piece."

"It's a myth!" Nami exclaimed. "The reason no one's found it in twenty-two years is that it doesn't exist."

"Can't wait to see the look on your face when we find it." Luffy grinned.

"A legendary thing is only legendary till someone proves it real," Keeli said, a teasing smirk on her lips as she looked at Nami.

Nami narrowed her eyes at her—

Boom!

An explosion. Keeli flinched, and all the muscles in her body tensed.

"Is that the Marines?" Zoro asked, urgency in his voice.

"How did they find us?" Nami said.

Then, the world turned red. Keeli's heart started to race, panic settling in the pit of her stomach, making it churn uncomfortably. Following the others, she rushed outside of the cabin onto the deck — but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw smoke falling from the sky, getting closer and closer.

Another explosion. More smoke.

Those are smoke bombs.

A few seconds later, they were surrounded by the smoke, and Keeli could hardly see the others anymore. A strange smell filled her nostrils. And as the smoke started to fill her lungs, she started to feel woozy. The world around her became a blur, her limbs became as heavy as lead, and it became harder and harder to stay awake. No, no, don't give in— But she couldn't resist— The last thing Keeli heard before she lost consciousness was Luffy's voice:

"This smoke smells weird."

Then everything around her went dark.

KEELI MET THE CREW, YAY! luffy and keeli are really giving little brother x big sister energy and i am here for ittt <3

this was a very dialogue-heavy chapter, i hope you didn't mind that (trust me to turn a 5-minute scene in the show into a 5000-word chapter) - next chapter is gonna have more action again and BUGGY 🤡

soo, i hope you enjoyed and let me know what you thought!