"There is an old tadition,
A game we all can play!
You start by getting liquored up
And sharpening your blade!

You take a shot of whiskey,
You grab your knife and pray
And spread apart your fingers,
And that is what you say...!"

The distorted tune faultered from my lips for a moment and I took a shot before grinning wildly and raising up my knife as the men in the bar around me stared with wide eyes. I brought the knife down in the spaces between my fingers repeatedly.

"Oh!
I have all my fingers,
The knife goes chop! chop! chop!
If I miss the spaces in between
My fingers will come off!

And if I hit my fingers,
Blood will soon come out!
But all the same I play this game
Cause that's what it's all about!"

"Oh shit..." I heard someone breathe in my ear as I sped up the rate of the stabbing between my fingers.

"No, you can't use a pencil!
You can not use a pen!
The only way is with a knife,
When danger is your friend!

And some may call it stupid,
Some may call it dumb.
But all the same we play this game
Because it's so damn- AAHHH!!"

I cut myself off with a scream as the knife stabbed brutally into one of my fingers.

The men around me began to scream like little girls as a bright red spray completely coated those unfortunate enough to be directly around me.

"OH GOD!! OH GOD!!" I screamed, waving my spraying hand around in the air so as to get more people soaked.

Almost the entire bar was screaming now and I had to try as hard as I could to not break out in laughter.

The bar doors suddenly slammed open and in seconds a large hand clamped around my wrist and pulled the fake finger off of my own folded one.

"Alright, alright." A deep voice growled. "Playtime's over, Saskia."

I pouted at my right hand man as he strung the tube and fake blood packet out of my shirt sleeve.

"You're such a kill joy, Cabe." I mumbled as everyone in the bar began to calm down. "And I thought I told you to call me by my title!"

Cabe gave me an 'are you kidding me' look, and I shrugged. "I like to feel important."

My right hand man rolled his dark grey eyes and began pulling me out of the bar.

"Oh of course, Vice-Admiral Saskia ma'am." He said sarcastically.

All the noise in the bar stopped immediately and I could feel every eye on my body.

"VICE-ADMIRAL?!"

I grinned widely as we exited the bar and ruffled my short, red splattered white hair.

"Alright, this paint is uncomfortable." I muttered aloud, then promptly stripped off my blue and white shirt and used it to wipe the red paint off of my face.

Cabe sighed and rolled his eyes down at me. "Yes, there's the Stripping Admiral we all know and love. Thank god you have a bathing suit on this time..."

I shrugged at the title given to me by my crew and flung the shirt over my shoulder. "I'm young, it's allowed."

Cabe sighed again. "You're twenty nine, Saskia- ma'am. And a woman should not readily strip like you do, no matter how young you look."

I pouted and puffed out my cheeks up at him. "Well you're fifty! You better start living your life soon, old man! And you know very well the reason why I strip."

Again did his eyes roll. "Being in battle and just being out and about are two different scenarios entirely."

I shrugged again. "Eh, I've been in so many battles that it became a habit."

"A bad habit." Cabe grumbled as we reached the place where my ship and crew were docked.

"Vice-Admiral on deck!" I heard someone shout as we clambered onto the Marine vessel.

My 'Justice' coat was draped over my bare shoulders and I put my hands on my hips as I stared out over the marines that all stood at attention, awaiting my orders.

"At ease, gentlemen." I called out in a stern voice. Almost instantly the men relaxed their stances and I smirked.

On my own I may have been a childish goofball, but I demanded nothing less than perfection from my crew.

We all stayed like that for a minute before I sighed and slouched, pouting childishly and turning to go to my quarters.

"Set a course for the next island, Cabe. I'mma go take a shower." I called back, throwing my red stained shirt over my shoulder and stripping myself of my 'bloodied' white shorts. "Remember to wash those carefully- not too much bleach or the sea stone thread loses effect."

I could hear my right hand man sigh and begin to call out orders as I opened the door to my cabin and stepped in.

Throwing my white 'Justice' coat onto the bed, I stripped off the bikini I wore under my clothes and let the pieces of fabric fall to the floor, leaving me completely nude.

I sighed in relief as the energy draining feeling of the sea prism stone entwined in my clothing dissipated, then I stepped into the shower.

"Captain Cabe, sir..." I heard a man say through the thin walls of the bathroom. His voice was slightly muffled as he spoke. "Why does Vice-Admiral Saskia ma'am wear sea stone clothing?"

He must be new...

I closed my eyes and tuned out the rest of the world and focused on their voices as I ran shampoo through my whitened hair.

"Saskia..." I heard Cabe hesitate. "The Vice-Admiral has a very unstable devil fruit; one that gives her power over the wind and air. She cannot be without the sea stone at any time other than battle."

As they spoke I turned the water off, grabbed towel and wrapped it around my neck, then slipped on a clean bikini bottom- infused with the harmful sea stone, of course- and made my way out of the room.

"That's also why I strip." I said simply, rounding the corner where Cabe and the newbie were talking.

The young private's face flushed an alarming shade of crimson as he took in my half naked form. Cabe just rolled his eyes.

"Might I add that this woman is also a pervert?" My right hand man said with an exasperated voice.

I gasped and put a fake offended hand to my bare white chest. "Me? A pervert? I take offense to that claim, sir!"

With that, I took the towel from my shoulders and smacked Cabe with it.

The private's face flushed even redder if possible at the sight of my medium sized bare breasts.

I turned to him and frowned. "What? You're the one that signed on to be on the crew of the 'Stripping Admiral'. If you react this badly to just boobs, I cannot confirm that you will stay on my crew. Look around," I gestured to the rest of my crew as they busied themselves on deck. Not one of them had blushes on their face even when they turned to greet me. I turned back to the new recruit. "Get over it, or I will have you transfered."

The boy nodded all too egerly and I turned to look out over the sea.

It was time for a session of deep thinking and reflection.

I moved to sit on the railing of the Marine issued ship and hardly noticed when Cabe draped my coat over my shoulders and secured it throughly. He's such a mother... I thought, ruffling my whitened hair.

Once upon a time my hair used to be brown, but that was nearly fifteen years ago- before I was issued an experimental logia type devil fruit by the World Government.

My commanding officer at the time- an extremely clumsy man named Rocinante- had been adamant in his refusal of my accepting the fruit, but I ate it anyway.

The change around me was almost instant.

I was taken from my unit and placed in a special one designed to develop the powers of logia types. It was there that I learned hand-to-hand combat and was trained every day in how to cope with the effects of sea stone.

There had been an issue with the experimental devil fruit I had been given and if I stayed without sea stone for any extended period of time, my body would vanish- blown into nothing by even the slightest of breezes and carried off on the wind. I could re form, but it took a lot of energy that I sometimes didn't have.

My once brown hair had turned white from the constant stress put on my body by the combination of the devil fruit and the sea stone.

"Saskia ma'am!" I heard one of my men- the navigator- shout. "Please get down from there. We've hit a rough current and you might-"

The man's voice was drowned out as my ship breached a particularly large wave and I was thrown off the edge.

"SASKIA!" I heard Cabe shout as the ocean came rushing towards me.

I tried to remove my bikini bottoms and my 'Justice' coat, but there wasn't time.

My body sank almost immediately, the already draining feeling of the sea stone infused in my clothing increased tenfold.

I felt my long coat get caught up in something and drag me along swiftly through the water, pulling me far from the shadow of my ship. This must have been the rough current my navigator had talked about...

Even though my lungs were burning and my vision was blackening I calmly closed my eyes and let the water take me.

If it was my time then hey, I was ready, but a nagging voice in the back of my head (that sounded suspiciously like Cabe) told me different.

I wasn't going to die. Hell no.

Not in the first fucking chapter I wasn't.