Chapter 1: the new girl
Hikiru opened her eyes sleepily. The boat was moving up and down. “Attention all passengers!” the radio repeated again. “We will be arriving at the island in about 1½ hours! Please prepare all personal hand-held luggage for departure! Any unattended bag WILL be…” the speaker went on and on. She groaned and turned over. When the constant chatter didn’t stop she sighed again and began to get ready. After a relaxing shower and a hearty breakfast, Hikiru stepped back from the mirror to examine herself.
She was slimly built, taller-than-your-average-girl but not-too-tall and pale but had well toned muscles. Her hair was long, about halfway down her back, and jet black. There was a solitary streak of hair that was dyed white. Her eyes were a kaleidoscope of green and blue hues. On her left arm, a dragon was tattooed coiled around it. For her first day of school, she decided to wear a black tank top, grey cargo-shorts and black soft leather boots that went up to her knees.
Hikiru stepped onto the island docks. Other students were milling around, chattering to each other and headed for their homerooms. A large wooden banner above the docks read ‘Welcome to One Sea High!’ hopefully she could find the offices easily. She pulled out the campus map from her black messenger bag and tried to figure out where she was.
About ten minutes later she walked into the office building. The doors opened and closed silently as she walked down the small short corridor. Hikiru walked up to the receptionist desk. There was a small golden name plate by the counter which had inscribed on it, “Kalifa: Awa-Awa no Mi fruit”. The receptionist was a no-nonsense blonde lady with a slim frame, black fish-net stockings, one piece black dress and shaded glasses. She had a gold name tag that read the same as the plaque on the desk.
“May I help you miss?” Kalifa said, pushing up her glasses with her palm “honestly, all the students should be in their first period class right now…” she trailed off as she got a good look at Hikiru. “Oh!” she said. “You must be the new student Hikiru Ito!” Hikiru nodded slightly nervous. She smiled warmly. “Well let me be the first to say welcome to One Sea High!” Kalifa pulled out a file folder from the file cabinet under the desk. She pulled out a pink sheet and placed it on the counter, handing Hikiru a pen. She said, “I need you to fill this sheet out. Hen you’re done, I can make several copies, file it and prepare your I.D card. Unfortunately, it won’t be ready for a while due to processing.”
In a few minute, Hikiru had completely filled out the form and handed it, along with the pen, back to Kalifa. Before filing it away, Kalifa quickly scanned the paper. Suddenly, a wall-mounted Den-Den Mushi went off with a ringing alarm. “That’s the school bell” Kalifa informed Hikiru. “You need to be in homeroom by 7:30. It only lasts 8 minutes then periods are 1 hour long with 5 minutes in between classes. There are 8 periods in a day, lunch & Rec. time is fourth period.” Hikiru nodded, processing all the information quickly. Pulling out another sheet from the same file, Kalifa slid another piece of paper to Hikiru. “This is your daily schedule.” Hikiru took the single sheet and read it slowly.
Name: Hikiru Ito
Period Class Teacher Floor Room Time
Homeroom Shanks 2nd 4th years 7:00-7:10
1 Capture, Escape & Rescue Largo 3rd Indoor Ocean 7:15-8:15
2 Hand-to-Hand Combat Lucci 1st Arena 8:20-9:20
3 Weapons Don Krieg School grounds Field 9:25-10:25
4 Lunch/ rec. time 4th Cafeteria 10:30-11:15
5 Obstacle Course Smoker School grounds Field 11:20-12:20
6 Free Period Shanks 2nd 4th years 12:25-1:25
7 Battle Arena Enru 1st Arena 1:30-2:30
8 Free Period Shanks 2nd 4th years 2:35-3:35
Grade: 4th year
“What is ‘Battle Arena’?” Hikiru asked. “’Battle Arena’ is where students can fight each other.” Kalifa began to explain. “The teacher is Enel, but he is more like a Referee than a teacher. Usually it’s last man standing.” Hikiru nodded slowly. “I see…”
Kalifa clapped her hands together and smiled. “Well I hope you become very happy here! Do you have any more questions?” “Yes, where am I staying?” Hikiru asked. “Well, right now we have you living in the student dorm, top floor, room 509. Actually, some one sent in a request that you would have that room; did you send it in?” Hikiru shook her head. “No it wasn’t me. It must have been my Grandfather…” Kalifa raised one eyebrow. “Your grandfather?” Hikiru nodded. “Yeah. He is paying for my tuition and everything. Actually he’s not my real grandfather. He was a friend of my dad’s and when he and my mom died he became my guardian. He always wanted me to come to this school.” Kalifa said, “Is your grandfather’s initials E.N by any chance...” Hikiru nodded again. “…Because those are the initials of the School Principle.” Hikiru shrugged. “That’s probably him.”
“Do you have a school map?” Hikiru nodded. “my grandfather sent it with the enrollment letters.” She pulled it out and laid it flat on the table. “Here,” she said tapping a building next to the big ‘X’ someone had scrawled “is the student dorm building.” Moving her finger to the build left of the dorms, Kalifa continued her explanation. “This is the Sorority building. The sorority is led by Boa Hancock,” Kalifa moved her finger to yet another building this time where the big ‘X’ had been drawn. “And this is the Fraternity. By the way, why did you draw a big ‘X’--” “that wasn’t me” Hikiru said quickly. “My grandfather wrote that there.” Kalifa contemplated this for a moment and then said. “Well, the Principle IS the fraternity leader…or from what I hear he lives there. He probably wants you to meet him after you settle down…” Hikiru was quite sure Kalifa wanted to pursue the subject but the receptionist didn’t say anything else on the topic. “Anyway,” Kalifa said, changing the subject. “Right now you should be in second period; that means…..you would be in ‘Hand-to-Hand Combat’ with Lucci, battle arena, 1st floor….hmm…there is only a little less than half an hour left in the period…it will tae you about 10 minutes to get there…I’ll have someone escort you.”
Before Hikiru could protest and convince her she could find her own way, Kalifa pressed a button on the Den-Den Mushi that was on her desk and then spoke into it. “Kaku: please come to the front desk, Office building.” A few minutes later a man with a particularly long, rectangular nose wearing an all black track suit and baseball cap entered the office. He, like Kalifa, also had a gold name tag on that said, “Kaku: Ushi-Ushi No mi, Giraffe” Kaku yawned “what do you need Kalifa?” Kalifa raised her glasses up again. “That’s sexual harassment.” Kaku sighed. “Everything is to you if it is a guy.” Kalifa ignored Kaku’s comment and said, “This is Hikiru Ito, the new transfer student. Please escort her to her second period class; ‘Hand-to-Hand Combat’ with Lucci, battle arena, 1st floor.” Kaku sighed again. “Okay Kalifa…” Kaku turned to Hikiru and held out a friendly hand. Hikiru took it and shook hands with him as he said, “I’m Kaku; hope you have a wonderful time here at One Sea High! Follow me!” as they left the building Hikiru could have sworn she heard Kalifa mutter something under her breath that sounded very much like ‘sexual harassment.’
“Where did you come from? Mid-term transfers are rare.” Kaku asked. “Well, my old school had to close; the marines moved out of the nearby base, taking all of the funding with them. My grandfather always wanted me to attend here so he enrolled first thing as soon as I told him.” Hikiru explained. Kaku laughed. “Sounds like my dad. He was so insistent for me to come here even though all I wanted was to become a shipwright.” Hikiru laughed a little. “Guess we all have one of them in our family.” “Hey, did you learn any Rokushiki at your old school?” Kaku inquired after the pair had stopped laughing. Hikiru nodded and said, “Yes. Actually I was ahead of my class.” Kaku’s eyebrows rose. “Oh? How so?” “Well,” Hikiru said slowly, trying to remember as her eyes drew toward the prominent grey build that was coming into view, “I learned Kami, Geppou, and Rankgaku. My class was still on Geppou and I’ve almost mastered Shigan” Kaku looked impressed. “Wow! 4th years are just starting Rankgaku.”
The pair entered the building. “Here we are.” Kaku said as they approached a pair of double doors. A sign on the doors said, “Battle Arena; Teacher Supervisor required while in use” Kaku put a hand on one of the doors. “Welcome to your fist class at One Seas High!” and pulled open the door.
