Her Wanderlust Odyssey

The Boys in the Forest

Don't tell me that this is another boring island, Sakura thought as she docked on the port on her 4th island in the East Blue. The East Blue has been very disappointing so far. Dawn island was its name and on the Oceanside, surrounded by tall walls stood the Goa Kingdom. She was not impressed. It was another typical kingdom in her eyes, with the people who had no status or wealth rotted outside the walls and where the people with status and wealth lived the "perfect life." She wandered around the city center and was bored out of her mind. Eventually, she arrived at the Gray Terminal, otherwise known as the trash of the kingdom. Filled with unwanted goods and people ejected from the city, it was pretty much a lawless community. The funny thing was that the people there seemed more normal than the people inside the city. The moment she stepped into the Gray Terminal, everyone stared at her and grinned. Oh god, don't tell me that these guys are thinking about mugging me. Sakura sighed as she dropped her hand to the sheath of one of her katanas. They all almost immediately looked away. Pfft. She started to walk towards the forest hoping to relieve her boredom.

=~+~=

Sakura walked through the forest and found this treehouse that was being built. It was pretty tiny, so Sakura assumed that some kids were built it. As she observing the unfinished treehouse, she heard a group of voices nearby. She headed towards the voices and found 3 boys, where two of them were having a duel of some sort. They were keeping score of their duels on a board nearby: Wins~A-156 S-142 L-10. Pfft, whoever is L sure isn't that good of a fighter! Sakura laughed a little too hard and the 3 boys were suddenly alarmed and then armed themselves with some pipe looking weapon. "Who are you and what do you want?!" demanded the boy with curly hair and freckles. 

Sakura put her hands up and slowly walked out of the bushes that she was hiding in. "Woah there, I come in peace. I'm Sakura and I was just wandering the forest when I saw you boys having a duel of some sort... can I join?" 

They lowered their weapons and the boy with freckles spoke up again, "Don't you have better things to do, leave us alon-"

 Suddenly, the boy with the straw hat butted in, "You wanna have a duel with us?! That sounds fun! I wanna fight you!" 

"Woah there Luffy calm down. Let's at least introduce ourselves, plus she doesn't look like someone from the Bluejam pirate crew," said the boy with a top hat of some kind. "Hi there Sakura-san. I'm Sabo, the overexcited boy here with the straw hat is Luffy, and the angry-looking boy over there with freckles is Ace." 

"Well hello there Sabo, Luffy, and Ace, and as I said before, I'm Sakura, a pleasure to meet you boys." 

"Woah are those swords?!" Luffy exclaimed while pointing at her waist.

"Why yes Luffy, they are katanas. Wanna check them out?" Sakura said slyly. She unsheathed the two katanas and showed them to the trio. 

"Woah that's so cool! I've never seen real katanas before!" Luffy and Sabo excitedly yelled. Even Ace looked amazed. 

"Wanna try to cut something with them? But be careful they are pretty sharp, it can take a limb off," she asked. 

"Of course!" they all yelled at once. Sakura let out a laugh as she watched the three of them take turns holding the katanas and cut some branches off of a nearby tree. I guess it was worth exploring the forest and coming to this island. The East Blue is getting interesting.

=~+~=

Over the course of a couple of months,  Sakura's friendship with the trio grew and she would often go back to the Goa Kingdom to visit them and to tell them about the adventures she had. She would also help train the boys by having 1v1's with each of them. Though she didn't exchange a cup of sake with the trio, she was basically their unofficial older sister. All of this just encouraged them even more to become pirates one day. Little did she know that the future that was hoped for them was right in the other direction.

[End of Part 1 of the short story The ASL Trio] 

A/n: Sorry for this short story! Hope you're enjoying the short stories so far! Feel free to tell me what you think in the comments! Also, I've decided to try to start a schedule on Fridays or maybe every other Friday I'll post!