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rainsometimesInstead of making the Strawhats into Sailor Senshi, this time I'm making Usagi & her crew into pirates in the world of One Piece... or nearly so. More accurately it's the world of Moon Piece.
Art, comments and rambling behind the cut. Not meant to be taken seriously (though some elements, especially the Outers, turned more plot-oriented and earnest).
The Inners (The East Blue part of the crew)
TSUKI D. USAGI, the captain of the Moonlight Pirates who ate the Gum Gum Fruit.
Usagi's early childhood was spent in the peaceful Windmill Village on Dawn Island where she was born, the daughter of Ikuko the innkeeper and Kenji the fisherman/assistant innkeeper. The time when Redhair Kakyu used the village for a base was when Usagi was six and seven years old, ending on the day Kakyu saved Usagi's life, lost her arm, lent Usagi her brooch and sailed away, with little Usagi swearing she'd keep her promise to fulfill her dream.
The rest of Usagi's childhood and early youth was a lot tougher and wilder than in Sailor Moon canon, but still a lot gentler than Luffy's. [NOTE: the part below has implied, if mostly vague, spoilers for Luffy's childhood arc in One Piece, vol 59]
A few months later, Usagi seriously angered a nobleman from the city who thought she was a corrupting influence on his freedom-loving daughter Naru. Ikuko and Kenji felt it was best if Usagi slipped under the radar for a while, and with Ikuko's tough-as-nails Marine Grandma's approval, they sent her into the forest to live with a pack of bandits... led by a woman who's actually Kenji's mother and thus Usagi's other grandma! (Kenji's the mildmannered "white sheep" of the family, choosing a peaceful civilian life.)
Usagi wound up spending a whole year there, and for the rest of her childhood lived half the year at Windmill Village, half in the forest. Naru kept running away from home and became a very close friend of Usagi's... and maybe one more person. It seems like Usagi should have acquired a big sister-figure as well, but I can't think of who that might be. Maybe simply a loan from OP - a genderswapped Ace, i.e. Portgas D. Anne? But it would be harder to use Ace's parentage issues in this canon...
Naru's parents were strict and narrowminded, but happily for her and Usagi, still a lot less douchey than their canon counterparts. Still, at the age of 10 Naru was told that if she didn't break off all contacts with Usagi [and maybe someone else] and become a proper young noble girl, Ikuko's and Kenji's business would be destroyed. Naru decided to listen to her parents for the time being, until she was older, but made it clear to Usagi [and maybe someone else] their bond would never break or be forgotten. At the age of 13, her parents divorced and her mother took Naru and settled on another island. Usagi has no idea how she is now but hopes for the best.
Usagi had decided to leave her village and set sail to follow her dream after she had turned 16; but once she was at that point, she dragged her feet and took her time preparing, reluctant to leave all the people she loved behind even though her dreams also beckoned her. It took the sudden appearance of a talking black cat with a crescent-shaped bald spot on its forehead to startle her out of postponing and finally get her going. Luna said she'd seen Usagi in her dreams, that she knew Usagi needed to seek the Moon Piece and gather a crew, and she, Luna, would help her. Usagi thought a talking cat was really weird but it wasn't like she was saying anything she didn't already think. So she grabbed her under her arm, went home to take her pack and say her goodbyes, and then left in one of her father's spare boats - the smallest one, which she could most easily steer on her own.
AMI
Ami, shipdoctor and meteorologist but not navigator. This version of her grew up in a poor household, so she knows the value of money... but is she really only interested in loot for her own sake, or is there a bigger story going on here?
Note that while Ami accepts the crew position of shipdoctor as there's nobody better around, she knows perfectly well she has a good way to go yet before she can claim to be a real doctor, and calls herself a medic only.
tl; dr re Ami: ...Yep, Ami's backstory is similar to Nami's: she comes from Cocoyashi Village, was recruited by Arlong for her genius (more all-around genius than a map wonder kid, but she could draw good maps when she had to), and made a deal with him that she could buy back the village, all after Arlong had killed her mother. Ami's mother had been the village doctor, very dedicated and ambitious, often working hard late into the night studying books on medicine and making experiments in her home lab, expecting young Ami to be able to look after herself. But she showed no hesitation when it came to sacrificing herself for Ami's safety.
Ami had no Nojiko-like sister, though. Only a father who didn't get on too well with her mother and spent a lot of time away from the island as a small-time merchant (though his hobby is landscape painting). But he was at least fairly affectionate and involved with Ami when he was at home. (Ami grew up loving both parents, not wanting to blame either but anxious to please them both.) He was away from the island when the Fishman Pirates came and his wife was killed, and has never forgiven himself for it. Once rumours of the takeover reached him, he went straight home and shared in the seclusion of the rest of the island, becoming a fisherman again. But by then it was too late to stop Arlong getting Ami to work for him, or do much of anything for Ami except try to provide some kind of emotional comfort and stability, which he tried to do the best he could while also secretly involved in the slow, secretive underground resistance in the village. He likes butterflies.
Ami's new tattoo, after Usagi and the others had defeated Arlong and his crew, combines a butterfly with a snake and medical-style cross, the latter two symbolising her mother (snakes being symbols of wisdom and medicine whom Ami's mother had told her to respect).
This Ami actually has a fair bit of academic inferiority complex, as in the past she rarely had time for doing much studying and she has very little formal schooling.
She fights using her medical know-how - pressure points, blow darts with tranquilisers - as well as more general smarts and common sense (applying a hidden cosh/black jack as needed). Eventually I think she will acquire a small but highly efficent crossbow from somewhere/someone.
REI
Perhaps Rei having the Flame-Flame powers is a bit overkill, but it certainly suits her. To compensate she now has a lousy sense of direction. Also, she only ate the fruit a short time before encountering Usagi and Ami, so she hasn't grown too used to her Devil Fruit powers yet. Expect small outbursts of fires and various patches of charred wood on the ship for a while, much to Rei's mortification!
Rei grew up at a shrine tended by her mother's father on her home island, as her politician father had little interest in her after her mother's death. (He's a highly placed administrator in the kingdom and the World Government liaison to boot. The feeling is quite mutual.)
Demons do exist in the world of Moon Piece, unlike the one of One Piece: they are rare, but can wreak a lot of death when they appear - their very rarity means a lot of people, strong warriors included, have no idea of the proper way to fight them. Rei comes from a long line of demon-warders and demon-hunters on her mother's side, and her grandfather was badly wounded when a demon attacked the shrine when Rei was only seven years old. That was when Rei vowed to become the strongest demon hunter in the whole world. She knows that many dismiss or make fun of her ambition because she's a woman, and the really famous demon hunters have all been men; but she doesn't let that hold her back for one second.
Now, while defeating demons takes special aptitude and training, it's also essential to be a strong fighter in general. Since demons are so rare, Rei takes all opportunities she can to get stronger and has vowed to accept any challenge to do battle. Against demons she mainly uses archery, spiritual ward attacks and her new Devil Fruit powers; but with human opponents she prefers to attack with a sword instead, at least in one-on-one fights. (Though she certainly wouldn't turn down an archery competition!)
MINAKO
Minako and Makoto switch joining order here. Minako was actually the first of the East Blue crew to leave home and set out to sea. Just like with Usagi, she'd already planned to, but the advent of a small talking cat was the catalyst to stop dragging her feet. Minako was skeptical at first when Artemis went on about how he'd seen her in his dreams, he knew she could be a force for good in the world but she'd have to find and follow a young woman who wanted to be the Pirate Queen - and no, he didn't know her name or what she looked like, but she was out there somewhere, and a vital part of Minako's future. Minako was understandably skeptical. "I'm going to be a great pop idol of the sea, why should I risk tarnishing my reputation by getting mixed up with pirates? But sure, whatever, you can tag along with me if you like, weird bald-spot cat."
And so he did, of course, as she left her home island in a small fishing boat, looking for elusive singer gigs but often getting drawn into adventure on the way. Still wary of hurting her singing career, Minako used a costumed alias for such purposes, especially when tangling with less-than-upright Marines. She then called herself "Lady V", for "victory" and "vigilante". She got into lots of scraps, but her native agility and burgeoning sense of strategy plus Artemis' assistance and sheer luck made them pull through. It was still lonely at times, though.
After meeting and fighting alongside Usagi, Ami, and Rei, Minako finally felt it would be more fun to join them and be a proud pirate out in the open. Her current, amended dream is to be a popular idol and a well-known pirate at the same time... somehow.
Minako likes to fight with lassoes and chains, but she'd picked up the basics of sword-fighting earlier and when she found this one really cool sword on one of her first adventures as a pirate, she knew she had to had it. Despite its strength, it's surprisingly light and easy for her to wield, too.
Yeah, like the others are going to listen to that...
MAKOTO
Makoto was underappreciated on her home island, where she often got into fights and was both constantly taken to task for her "tomboyishness" and not expected to be anything else. Except to some extent her hard-eyed matronly boss at the small-time eatery where Makoto did get some use of her cooking skills (though she mainly worked as a waitress) and had some regular friendly customers she was fond of. She felt loyal to her boss and those guys and never really took any step of getting away from there, just daydreaming at times of starting her own restaurant or flower shop.
So after she'd met the others and got their help in defending her place of employment and the whole island, those vague wishes seemed so mundane to Makoto compared to her new friends' dreams. But Ami turns out to be right above, as Makoto realises her new dream in Loguetown - to learn at least one new recipe from every inhabited island they make a stop at, and then someday publish a wonderful cookbook out of that.
The Outers, Mamoru & Chibs (The Grand Line part!)
MAMORU is the only child of the King of Alabasta and has infiltrated the criminal organisation Baroque Dark that his retainer believes threatens their country. However, when he first meets the Moonlight Pirates under his cover name Mr Wednesday, he's temporarily amnesiac and thinks himself a model Baroque Dark employee. Later his memories return and they help him topple the evil Shichibukai Beryl. Regretfully stayed back to help his recovering country.
(Maybe Motoki is the leader of the Rebel Army and Mamoru's childhood friend.)
Note: Both Michiru and Haruka are eight years older than Usagi and the rest of the East Blue crowd in this world, putting them at 25 when the story starts.
MICHIRU first encountered the crew as said Beryl's leading henchwoman, mysterious and unflappable. She played her own game and on several occasions secretly aided the confused Moonlight Pirates. Doesn't actually know how to read poneglyphs, but made Beryl think she could. When Beryl realised Michiru had no intention to help her find the ancient weapon Metallia, she dismissed her with lethal prejudice, and Michiru would have died but for Usagi's intervention.
Michiru's past is shrouded in mystery [i.e. I don't really know], but I think her true purpose is to find the legendary "Lost Melody" said to be able to brin beauty and healing to the world. It might just be tied to the Lost Century, so Michiru wants to find the suppressed history to that end.
She first met Haruka when they were both fifteen years old, while visiting Water 7 for some business I don't know. (She wasn't with Beryl yet.) It was just a brief meeting, and they didn't learn each other's names, but neither of them forgot it either - see more on that in Haruka's entry. They wouldn't meet again until ten years later, when Michiru was part of the Moonlight Pirates (at which point she yelled at Haruka for getting in the way of Michiru's pursuit of Hotaru's kidnappers).
Michiru is a skilled martial artist and weapons wielder as well as a strong swimmer who often does fishing-up-DF-users duty. However, her biggest asset in a fight is her mastery of hypnosis through art (à la Miss Goldenweek) and music (à la Brook, pre-timeskip level).
CHIBI-USAGI: Right as some in the crew explore the great galleon that just fell from the sky after they left Alabasta, something else falls from the sky as well: a small, pink-haired child. Unfortunately, she's forgotten who she is and what she's doing there, only remembering her name, Usagi, and vague details of her life when triggered. They think she comes from the "Sky island" the log pose might be pointing to, but once they make it up there nobody knows her either, and she joins the crew properly. Chibi-Usagi spontaneously develops the Power of Observation Haki (just like Coby).
HOTARU has pretty much the same background as Robin, excpet in her case not only does the World Government want her for her ability to read poneglyphs, but there's a fearful prophecy around her as well. Hotaru runs into the crew on Skypiea (though I don't know how she got there) and takes her time starting to trust them, except for Chibi-Usagi. On Water 7 she sacrifices herself for their safety and at Enies Lobby she's brainwashed to turn on them - but they all fight hard and save her, and she realises she does want to live after all.
The prophecy still weighs heavily on Hotaru, and she's not sure she wants to help Michiru find the true history of the world. But she does want to sock it to the World Government. What she mostly want is just to keep sailing with Usagi, Chibi-Usagi and the others for as long as she can.
HARUKA was born in South Blue but came to Water 7 at an early age when her father, a well-to-do merchant, settled there for a while. But Haruka was a problem child, always running wild on streets and canals, getting into bull races and street fights, talking about becoming a mechanic or a carpenter of some sorts; and when her parents left Water 7 for a nearby island they didn't bring her along. They just left her a bank account to do the best she could at the age of 13. There were various ups-and-downs after that where Haruka ran in with bad crowds, got a rudimentary gang of sorts, then did a relly stupid dare which nearly got her killed through a scrape with the Puffing Tom on one of its earliest journeys. Haruka woke up with a metal right arm, torso, left arm, and some more reconstructed parts like her throat - an extremely good shipwright had saved her this way. (Might even have been Iceburg, but I'm none too sure of this.)
Whoever it was, Haruka now felt indebted to that shipwright and did unpaid chores for him (or her??) until she succeeded into becoming an apprentice there. By now she'd figured out what her dream was - to build the fastest ship in the whole world and then go around the world in it - but she was determined to stay and help out her benefactor with the business, not just learn for her own sake. (So maybe it wasn't Iceburg but someone with a smaller company, needing more help.) But while she worked hard, she still got into street fights quite often as her old reputation hanged around. She also felt somewhat responsible for the proto-gang she had assembled, a small group of motley people who didn't have anyone else to turn to. (Haruka's leader style was way more aloof than Franky's, though, and not just because she tried to keep a low profile.)
Haruka has modified some of her new body parts herself into useful weapons à la Franky, but in a less goofy and less extensive way. She'd hate look uncool, after all!
When she was fifteen, shortly before her accident, she met a beautiful girl her own age who played an enchanting melody on the violin. They got to talking, even sharing their dreams with each other. Haruka hoped to meet that lady again one day: the memory inspired her to keep aiming higher, even if she still prioritised helping the "old man" who saved her life. Until she met the Moonlight Pirates and her life changed! WHOA THIS GOT LONG orz.
PLUTO, finally! (Going with Pluto rather than Setsuna, as Setsuna was only a cover identity in SM canon, not a name she was born with.) No Laboon for her, alas, since I couldn't think of a way to make her not age for fifty years. Instead she lost her crew five years ago in an ambush by the Shichibukai Nehellenia (who ate the Shadow-Shadow Fruit), and had her own shadow stolen by Nehellenia at the same time. Pluto tried hard to win her shadow back but even with her own Door-Door Fruit power she couldn't make it alone.
Pluto's true goal is to find the portal she once saw in a dream that she's convinced was a real vision. She thinks it protects something very precious and must only be opened at the absolute right time. Having roamed the world looking for it, she now believes it's in the most inaccessible place of them all - Raftel. After Usagi et al help her regain her shadow, she joins up with them since that's where they're going, too.
Chibi-Usagi feels they must have met before, but Pluto has no recollection of that. She does nevertheless grow quite fond both of her and of Hotaru, however.
Pluto fights wielding a long staff and using her Door-Door powers. In addition, she's trained hard and mastered more of her fruit's abilities than Blueno did in canon, which means she can let it reach further and take shortcuts among larger spaces than he did; though not enough to island-hop that way.
We still don't know who the mysterious figure was who showed up at Loguetown in just the right moment to save Usagi first from execution and then Smoker. (Smoker still exists here, and so might Buggy - or maybe just Alvida.) But it's just possible that it was Pluto-in-the-future travelling back in time.
Art, comments and rambling behind the cut. Not meant to be taken seriously (though some elements, especially the Outers, turned more plot-oriented and earnest).
The Inners (The East Blue part of the crew)
TSUKI D. USAGI, the captain of the Moonlight Pirates who ate the Gum Gum Fruit.
Usagi's early childhood was spent in the peaceful Windmill Village on Dawn Island where she was born, the daughter of Ikuko the innkeeper and Kenji the fisherman/assistant innkeeper. The time when Redhair Kakyu used the village for a base was when Usagi was six and seven years old, ending on the day Kakyu saved Usagi's life, lost her arm, lent Usagi her brooch and sailed away, with little Usagi swearing she'd keep her promise to fulfill her dream.
The rest of Usagi's childhood and early youth was a lot tougher and wilder than in Sailor Moon canon, but still a lot gentler than Luffy's. [NOTE: the part below has implied, if mostly vague, spoilers for Luffy's childhood arc in One Piece, vol 59]
A few months later, Usagi seriously angered a nobleman from the city who thought she was a corrupting influence on his freedom-loving daughter Naru. Ikuko and Kenji felt it was best if Usagi slipped under the radar for a while, and with Ikuko's tough-as-nails Marine Grandma's approval, they sent her into the forest to live with a pack of bandits... led by a woman who's actually Kenji's mother and thus Usagi's other grandma! (Kenji's the mildmannered "white sheep" of the family, choosing a peaceful civilian life.)
Usagi wound up spending a whole year there, and for the rest of her childhood lived half the year at Windmill Village, half in the forest. Naru kept running away from home and became a very close friend of Usagi's... and maybe one more person. It seems like Usagi should have acquired a big sister-figure as well, but I can't think of who that might be. Maybe simply a loan from OP - a genderswapped Ace, i.e. Portgas D. Anne? But it would be harder to use Ace's parentage issues in this canon...
Naru's parents were strict and narrowminded, but happily for her and Usagi, still a lot less douchey than their canon counterparts. Still, at the age of 10 Naru was told that if she didn't break off all contacts with Usagi [and maybe someone else] and become a proper young noble girl, Ikuko's and Kenji's business would be destroyed. Naru decided to listen to her parents for the time being, until she was older, but made it clear to Usagi [and maybe someone else] their bond would never break or be forgotten. At the age of 13, her parents divorced and her mother took Naru and settled on another island. Usagi has no idea how she is now but hopes for the best.
Usagi had decided to leave her village and set sail to follow her dream after she had turned 16; but once she was at that point, she dragged her feet and took her time preparing, reluctant to leave all the people she loved behind even though her dreams also beckoned her. It took the sudden appearance of a talking black cat with a crescent-shaped bald spot on its forehead to startle her out of postponing and finally get her going. Luna said she'd seen Usagi in her dreams, that she knew Usagi needed to seek the Moon Piece and gather a crew, and she, Luna, would help her. Usagi thought a talking cat was really weird but it wasn't like she was saying anything she didn't already think. So she grabbed her under her arm, went home to take her pack and say her goodbyes, and then left in one of her father's spare boats - the smallest one, which she could most easily steer on her own.
AMI
Ami, shipdoctor and meteorologist but not navigator. This version of her grew up in a poor household, so she knows the value of money... but is she really only interested in loot for her own sake, or is there a bigger story going on here?
Note that while Ami accepts the crew position of shipdoctor as there's nobody better around, she knows perfectly well she has a good way to go yet before she can claim to be a real doctor, and calls herself a medic only.
tl; dr re Ami: ...Yep, Ami's backstory is similar to Nami's: she comes from Cocoyashi Village, was recruited by Arlong for her genius (more all-around genius than a map wonder kid, but she could draw good maps when she had to), and made a deal with him that she could buy back the village, all after Arlong had killed her mother. Ami's mother had been the village doctor, very dedicated and ambitious, often working hard late into the night studying books on medicine and making experiments in her home lab, expecting young Ami to be able to look after herself. But she showed no hesitation when it came to sacrificing herself for Ami's safety.
Ami had no Nojiko-like sister, though. Only a father who didn't get on too well with her mother and spent a lot of time away from the island as a small-time merchant (though his hobby is landscape painting). But he was at least fairly affectionate and involved with Ami when he was at home. (Ami grew up loving both parents, not wanting to blame either but anxious to please them both.) He was away from the island when the Fishman Pirates came and his wife was killed, and has never forgiven himself for it. Once rumours of the takeover reached him, he went straight home and shared in the seclusion of the rest of the island, becoming a fisherman again. But by then it was too late to stop Arlong getting Ami to work for him, or do much of anything for Ami except try to provide some kind of emotional comfort and stability, which he tried to do the best he could while also secretly involved in the slow, secretive underground resistance in the village. He likes butterflies.
Ami's new tattoo, after Usagi and the others had defeated Arlong and his crew, combines a butterfly with a snake and medical-style cross, the latter two symbolising her mother (snakes being symbols of wisdom and medicine whom Ami's mother had told her to respect).
This Ami actually has a fair bit of academic inferiority complex, as in the past she rarely had time for doing much studying and she has very little formal schooling.
She fights using her medical know-how - pressure points, blow darts with tranquilisers - as well as more general smarts and common sense (applying a hidden cosh/black jack as needed). Eventually I think she will acquire a small but highly efficent crossbow from somewhere/someone.
REI
Perhaps Rei having the Flame-Flame powers is a bit overkill, but it certainly suits her. To compensate she now has a lousy sense of direction. Also, she only ate the fruit a short time before encountering Usagi and Ami, so she hasn't grown too used to her Devil Fruit powers yet. Expect small outbursts of fires and various patches of charred wood on the ship for a while, much to Rei's mortification!
Rei grew up at a shrine tended by her mother's father on her home island, as her politician father had little interest in her after her mother's death. (He's a highly placed administrator in the kingdom and the World Government liaison to boot. The feeling is quite mutual.)
Demons do exist in the world of Moon Piece, unlike the one of One Piece: they are rare, but can wreak a lot of death when they appear - their very rarity means a lot of people, strong warriors included, have no idea of the proper way to fight them. Rei comes from a long line of demon-warders and demon-hunters on her mother's side, and her grandfather was badly wounded when a demon attacked the shrine when Rei was only seven years old. That was when Rei vowed to become the strongest demon hunter in the whole world. She knows that many dismiss or make fun of her ambition because she's a woman, and the really famous demon hunters have all been men; but she doesn't let that hold her back for one second.
Now, while defeating demons takes special aptitude and training, it's also essential to be a strong fighter in general. Since demons are so rare, Rei takes all opportunities she can to get stronger and has vowed to accept any challenge to do battle. Against demons she mainly uses archery, spiritual ward attacks and her new Devil Fruit powers; but with human opponents she prefers to attack with a sword instead, at least in one-on-one fights. (Though she certainly wouldn't turn down an archery competition!)
MINAKO
Minako and Makoto switch joining order here. Minako was actually the first of the East Blue crew to leave home and set out to sea. Just like with Usagi, she'd already planned to, but the advent of a small talking cat was the catalyst to stop dragging her feet. Minako was skeptical at first when Artemis went on about how he'd seen her in his dreams, he knew she could be a force for good in the world but she'd have to find and follow a young woman who wanted to be the Pirate Queen - and no, he didn't know her name or what she looked like, but she was out there somewhere, and a vital part of Minako's future. Minako was understandably skeptical. "I'm going to be a great pop idol of the sea, why should I risk tarnishing my reputation by getting mixed up with pirates? But sure, whatever, you can tag along with me if you like, weird bald-spot cat."
And so he did, of course, as she left her home island in a small fishing boat, looking for elusive singer gigs but often getting drawn into adventure on the way. Still wary of hurting her singing career, Minako used a costumed alias for such purposes, especially when tangling with less-than-upright Marines. She then called herself "Lady V", for "victory" and "vigilante". She got into lots of scraps, but her native agility and burgeoning sense of strategy plus Artemis' assistance and sheer luck made them pull through. It was still lonely at times, though.
After meeting and fighting alongside Usagi, Ami, and Rei, Minako finally felt it would be more fun to join them and be a proud pirate out in the open. Her current, amended dream is to be a popular idol and a well-known pirate at the same time... somehow.
Minako likes to fight with lassoes and chains, but she'd picked up the basics of sword-fighting earlier and when she found this one really cool sword on one of her first adventures as a pirate, she knew she had to had it. Despite its strength, it's surprisingly light and easy for her to wield, too.
Yeah, like the others are going to listen to that...
MAKOTO
Makoto was underappreciated on her home island, where she often got into fights and was both constantly taken to task for her "tomboyishness" and not expected to be anything else. Except to some extent her hard-eyed matronly boss at the small-time eatery where Makoto did get some use of her cooking skills (though she mainly worked as a waitress) and had some regular friendly customers she was fond of. She felt loyal to her boss and those guys and never really took any step of getting away from there, just daydreaming at times of starting her own restaurant or flower shop.
So after she'd met the others and got their help in defending her place of employment and the whole island, those vague wishes seemed so mundane to Makoto compared to her new friends' dreams. But Ami turns out to be right above, as Makoto realises her new dream in Loguetown - to learn at least one new recipe from every inhabited island they make a stop at, and then someday publish a wonderful cookbook out of that.
The Outers, Mamoru & Chibs (The Grand Line part!)
MAMORU is the only child of the King of Alabasta and has infiltrated the criminal organisation Baroque Dark that his retainer believes threatens their country. However, when he first meets the Moonlight Pirates under his cover name Mr Wednesday, he's temporarily amnesiac and thinks himself a model Baroque Dark employee. Later his memories return and they help him topple the evil Shichibukai Beryl. Regretfully stayed back to help his recovering country.
(Maybe Motoki is the leader of the Rebel Army and Mamoru's childhood friend.)
Note: Both Michiru and Haruka are eight years older than Usagi and the rest of the East Blue crowd in this world, putting them at 25 when the story starts.
MICHIRU first encountered the crew as said Beryl's leading henchwoman, mysterious and unflappable. She played her own game and on several occasions secretly aided the confused Moonlight Pirates. Doesn't actually know how to read poneglyphs, but made Beryl think she could. When Beryl realised Michiru had no intention to help her find the ancient weapon Metallia, she dismissed her with lethal prejudice, and Michiru would have died but for Usagi's intervention.
Michiru's past is shrouded in mystery [i.e. I don't really know], but I think her true purpose is to find the legendary "Lost Melody" said to be able to brin beauty and healing to the world. It might just be tied to the Lost Century, so Michiru wants to find the suppressed history to that end.
She first met Haruka when they were both fifteen years old, while visiting Water 7 for some business I don't know. (She wasn't with Beryl yet.) It was just a brief meeting, and they didn't learn each other's names, but neither of them forgot it either - see more on that in Haruka's entry. They wouldn't meet again until ten years later, when Michiru was part of the Moonlight Pirates (at which point she yelled at Haruka for getting in the way of Michiru's pursuit of Hotaru's kidnappers).
Michiru is a skilled martial artist and weapons wielder as well as a strong swimmer who often does fishing-up-DF-users duty. However, her biggest asset in a fight is her mastery of hypnosis through art (à la Miss Goldenweek) and music (à la Brook, pre-timeskip level).
CHIBI-USAGI: Right as some in the crew explore the great galleon that just fell from the sky after they left Alabasta, something else falls from the sky as well: a small, pink-haired child. Unfortunately, she's forgotten who she is and what she's doing there, only remembering her name, Usagi, and vague details of her life when triggered. They think she comes from the "Sky island" the log pose might be pointing to, but once they make it up there nobody knows her either, and she joins the crew properly. Chibi-Usagi spontaneously develops the Power of Observation Haki (just like Coby).
HOTARU has pretty much the same background as Robin, excpet in her case not only does the World Government want her for her ability to read poneglyphs, but there's a fearful prophecy around her as well. Hotaru runs into the crew on Skypiea (though I don't know how she got there) and takes her time starting to trust them, except for Chibi-Usagi. On Water 7 she sacrifices herself for their safety and at Enies Lobby she's brainwashed to turn on them - but they all fight hard and save her, and she realises she does want to live after all.
The prophecy still weighs heavily on Hotaru, and she's not sure she wants to help Michiru find the true history of the world. But she does want to sock it to the World Government. What she mostly want is just to keep sailing with Usagi, Chibi-Usagi and the others for as long as she can.
HARUKA was born in South Blue but came to Water 7 at an early age when her father, a well-to-do merchant, settled there for a while. But Haruka was a problem child, always running wild on streets and canals, getting into bull races and street fights, talking about becoming a mechanic or a carpenter of some sorts; and when her parents left Water 7 for a nearby island they didn't bring her along. They just left her a bank account to do the best she could at the age of 13. There were various ups-and-downs after that where Haruka ran in with bad crowds, got a rudimentary gang of sorts, then did a relly stupid dare which nearly got her killed through a scrape with the Puffing Tom on one of its earliest journeys. Haruka woke up with a metal right arm, torso, left arm, and some more reconstructed parts like her throat - an extremely good shipwright had saved her this way. (Might even have been Iceburg, but I'm none too sure of this.)
Whoever it was, Haruka now felt indebted to that shipwright and did unpaid chores for him (or her??) until she succeeded into becoming an apprentice there. By now she'd figured out what her dream was - to build the fastest ship in the whole world and then go around the world in it - but she was determined to stay and help out her benefactor with the business, not just learn for her own sake. (So maybe it wasn't Iceburg but someone with a smaller company, needing more help.) But while she worked hard, she still got into street fights quite often as her old reputation hanged around. She also felt somewhat responsible for the proto-gang she had assembled, a small group of motley people who didn't have anyone else to turn to. (Haruka's leader style was way more aloof than Franky's, though, and not just because she tried to keep a low profile.)
Haruka has modified some of her new body parts herself into useful weapons à la Franky, but in a less goofy and less extensive way. She'd hate look uncool, after all!
When she was fifteen, shortly before her accident, she met a beautiful girl her own age who played an enchanting melody on the violin. They got to talking, even sharing their dreams with each other. Haruka hoped to meet that lady again one day: the memory inspired her to keep aiming higher, even if she still prioritised helping the "old man" who saved her life. Until she met the Moonlight Pirates and her life changed! WHOA THIS GOT LONG orz.
PLUTO, finally! (Going with Pluto rather than Setsuna, as Setsuna was only a cover identity in SM canon, not a name she was born with.) No Laboon for her, alas, since I couldn't think of a way to make her not age for fifty years. Instead she lost her crew five years ago in an ambush by the Shichibukai Nehellenia (who ate the Shadow-Shadow Fruit), and had her own shadow stolen by Nehellenia at the same time. Pluto tried hard to win her shadow back but even with her own Door-Door Fruit power she couldn't make it alone.
Pluto's true goal is to find the portal she once saw in a dream that she's convinced was a real vision. She thinks it protects something very precious and must only be opened at the absolute right time. Having roamed the world looking for it, she now believes it's in the most inaccessible place of them all - Raftel. After Usagi et al help her regain her shadow, she joins up with them since that's where they're going, too.
Chibi-Usagi feels they must have met before, but Pluto has no recollection of that. She does nevertheless grow quite fond both of her and of Hotaru, however.
Pluto fights wielding a long staff and using her Door-Door powers. In addition, she's trained hard and mastered more of her fruit's abilities than Blueno did in canon, which means she can let it reach further and take shortcuts among larger spaces than he did; though not enough to island-hop that way.
We still don't know who the mysterious figure was who showed up at Loguetown in just the right moment to save Usagi first from execution and then Smoker. (Smoker still exists here, and so might Buggy - or maybe just Alvida.) But it's just possible that it was Pluto-in-the-future travelling back in time.