Chapter Text
It had been four years since you quietly deserted your post as a navigator for the Marines. You'd left your lookalike cousin to take your place, and your superiors never noticed. It helped that you'd been freshly assigned to a new ship just before you made the switch, your captain barely knew your name at that point.
Now you sailed as a pirate, stealing small trade vessels regularly to keep the marines off your back. You never made yourself a pirate flag, choosing to fly under the radar as an unnamed merchant crew. You would tie up your victims to your ships mast while shifting over your belongings to the better vessel. Usually you got away with it by hiding their den-den mushi in a chest which you'd leave in the safe on your old ship.
But today you had some shitty luck. You'd gotten into a fight with a rowdy band of pirates over a certain amount of berry, and a marine vessel happened to be passing by as the thieves started blowing holes in your keel.
Shrapnel whizzing past your head, chips of wood lodging themselves in your hair, you look over to see the navy ship coming about, seemingly to intervene. Never had you been more grateful that you hadn't been given a wanted poster. While you were distracted by the oncoming ship, one of the pirates attacking your crew had boarded, and was rushing straight at you with a machete. He swings for your head, nicking your cheek. You draw your sword as you hear the blade whizzing past you, cutting a deep gash into your attacker's left arm. As he winces in pain, you throw your weight at him just below his center of balance, knocking him overboard. Below deck your crewmates were struggling to patch holes and protect the cargo in the hold. More and more pirates boarded, and a mob quickly surrounds you.
As you attempt to cut down as many men as you could, you felt a big thud rumble through the deck. The marines had docked to the other side of your beaten up ship, their gangplank loudly dropping onto the old traders' railings. Hearing the ruckus, a large pirate pulls you by the ponytail, pressing a blade against your throat.
The Captain was the first to step aboard, his long white coat blowing in the breeze. It was Rear Admiral Koby, the quickly rising star of the marines. Behind him, his crew quickly loaded onto your ship, guns aimed at the pirates. Everyone freezes, hands raised in the air from both sides of the conflict.
You look with wide eyes at the pink haired young man in front of you. He was completely calm, and you could feel the haki flowing off of him. "Release her, and come quietly. Or things are going to get complicated." Koby states, shooting a steely glare at the pirate.
The thug doubles down and presses the blade harder into your throat. At that, Koby makes a move, hardly visible with how quickly he acted. In less than a second he'd grappled the blade out of the pirate's hand and put himself between you and the offender. Koby points the blade directly at his Adams' apple, holding the man by his shirt collar.
"Capture the rest of his crew and check hers for injuries." He orders, pulling handcuffs from his coat. He pins the perps' hands behind his back and locks the cuffs, passing the pirate off to one of his crew members.
Koby turns around to help you up from the floor, "A-are you alright miss?" He stutters, his soft blue eyes full of concern as he spots the trickle of blood starting on your cheek. "...You're hurt. Here... let me." He pulls out a clean cloth from his pocket, and dabs at the cut gently. The moment his eyes meet yours, a blush spreads across his lightly freckled cheeks.
"I'm fine. Seriously. I need to check on my crew and my ship. Thanks for the help but we really could've handled this on our own." You huff, heading below deck to take note of the casualties.
"B-but..." Koby sighs, looking over to his first mate, Helmeppo.
The blonde lets out a quiet snort. "You'll get em next time, tiger."