So, I just thought I could start with a fan fiction myself...please don't eat me, this is my first ( at least the first that I will be publishing instead of just thinking about it at night xD) and English is NOT my mother language soo...I don't know if this is going to be good or horrendously bad, I will just try my best and I hope for comments and people correcting the thing everyone calls grammar~
I will try to upload at least twice a month but I'm not totally sure I will manage to hold up because right now, only the first chapter exists, the other ones are still only in my head, so I really don't know if I'm able to upload that much every month...please note, that I indeed HAVE something called a social life...AND sometimes writing problems as everyone has from time to time xD
Right, that's enough fore talk, let's just skip right to the story^^
A tremendous pain pounded through her head, it felt like someone tried to crack it open from within all the while ignoring her still subconscious mind.
Voices swept by and drew back, just like the ocean' s hungry waves crashing on the rocky shore.
"...she awake...?"
She felt like groaning. Or crying out loud. Neither one would be a very good idea with her condition.
"...must have crashed...the storm..."
Wait...what storm? There had been a storm?
Blurry images appeared in front of her still closed eyes.
Merciless waves, crushing everything in their cold embrace, shouting, crying, praying for every god humankind knew.
Finally, a groan escaped her lips.
She saw her ship burning, the pride mast shattered and broken, her father in the sea, coughing, crying her name.
The groan turned into a soft whimper.
What had happened? Where was she?
Something wet touched her forehead and she felt the urge to jump on her enemy but her numb limps didn't support her, not even the slightest movement seemed possible.
At least her eyes finally popped open...and she came face to face with a...something.
The hell was that?!
Her thoughts raced inside her head as she tried to connect the image in front of her eyes with any useful memory she could find inside her still damaged brain.
But even those efforts were in vain as the thing bending over her turned out to be exactly what she had seen from the start: a tanuki. With a blue hat.
A small yelp escaped her mouth and the tanuki nearly crushed into her, startled as it was itself.
"Oh, so you're awake! Thank god, I was really worried about you, your condition was pretty bad. Do you remember what happened? Was your ship damaged during the storm last night?"
Her jaw dropped.
"A talking tanuki?!" Her voice sounded shrill and weak even in her own ears.
"I'm no tanuki, I'm a reindeer!", her counterpart corrected her almost immediately (and somehow huffy).
"My name is Tony Tony Chopper and I am the ship's doctor."
She looked at him in utter disbelief.
A talking reindeer that claimed to be a doctor...she must have hit her head harder than she had thought. Still trying to overcome the trauma of having met such a strange creature bent over her, she failed to notice the "ship"-part in his last sentence.
Moaning, she tried to lift herself up only to be rewarded by an excruciating pain that exploded inside her head.
"Ah, no, you shouldn't move just now! You were pretty beat up when we found you...just take it easy for now!" Genuine concern in his voice, Chopper pushed her down gently.
"But...what about my nakama...my father? Were they..."
Her voice trailed off.
"You were the only one we found - "
She cut him off roughly.
"Then why didn't you search for them?! You found me, right?! There must have been a ship nearby, it's not like I was swimming the whole time..."
A painful sob escaped her clenched lips and her whole body quivered.
She felt a little hoof patting her lightly on her shoulder.
"We didn't find you on a ship or even nearby, you were floating in the water. It took our whole strength to fight the storm after we rescued her, so we weren't able to look out for other victims...I am very sorry."
His sad face made her almost choke on her tears. It took her some time to finally recall her good manners and she looked the queer animal once again in its eyes.
"Thank you for rescuing me, Doctor-san. I'm indebted to all of you..."
Chopper smiled, obviously pleased but strangely offended at the same time, since he started insulting her.
"You idiot! That won't make me happy..."
He surely looks happy, though...
The door creaked open and someone stuck his head inside, giving her a start.
"Nee, Chopper, is she awake? Sanji made something to eat for her and tries to stop Luffy eating everything, but I'm not so sure it will work..."
Chopper sighed, but couldn't fight a grin spreading across his face.
"I'm not sure if she's able to eat something right away..." He turned to her.
"Thank you for your kind offer, sir, but I think I'm- "
Her stomach growled, interrupting her and making her blush.
The man outside the door laughed.
"Well, looks like you're hungry after all! Do you want to come out or should I ask Sanji to bring some of his food to the cabin?"
"If you could help me out of bed, I would gladly come outside and eat with everyone, since I have to thank you all again for rescuing me, Mr..."
"It's 'the great and fiery Captain Usopp-sama'!", he grinned proudly and rubbed his extremely long nose.
She couldn't help but wonder...he didn't look THAT strong...was he even old enough to be a captain?
"Right...then...could you help me, Usopp?", she asked sweetly and gave him a suppliant look.
"Sure, right away!", he answered and grabbed her right arm, cautiously lifting her out of her bed.
She couldn't help herself but wince in pain – even if he was gentle, her head still thought it best for her to stay in bed.
"Aah, sorry...did I hurt you somewhere?" Usopp looked almost panicked.
"No! No, really I am fine, it's just...my head..." She groaned.
"Wheew...didn't Chopper give you something for the pain?"
She grabbed his arm and tried to hold her balance.
"I don't know...at least not while I was awake. Maybe I should ask him about that later but right now..." Her cheeks grew slightly pink, "Right now I'm really hungry..."
Usopp laughed.
"Alright, let's get you something to eat!"
He carefully helped her to conquer the door (at least that was how she felt when she could finally see the sun). As she stood there, marveling over her being alive and well enough to walk around – well, almost without any help at least – she finally noticed that she was standing on an insanely huge ship. The deck was covered with something green – it looked like grass and even felt like it but why would anyone have grass on a ship?
In the far distance she spotted something like a lion's head as a figurehead.
"Wow, that is one huge ship!", she exclaimed, unable to keep her surprise inside.
"Of course! Our Sunny is the best ship you could find to sail the Grand Line!", Usopp told her proudly. "She's made from a special treasure tree, named Adam, and therefor nearly unbreakable. Plus Franky, our shipwright, added all kinds of extras and weapons..." His eyes resembled sparkling stars.
She laughed. He really seemed to treasure his ship..something she hadn't seen in a while.
They stopped at the white reel, allowing her a few deep breaths. The air was salty from the sea and a nice breeze skimmed through her hair, blowing it all over her face.
Sighing, she closed her eyes.
Father...minna...where are you? Don't tell me, you're...
Someone snored and she nearly jumped into the ocean.
Next to her lay a young man, sleeping soundly. He wore a green coat with long sleeves and three swords – why would someone have three swords? - were by his side – they all seemed to be katana, she noticed with a little quiver.
"And I wondered where he was...", Usopp muttered.
"Oi, Zoro, wake up! Sanji said, food's ready! And you have to hurry...Luffy said he was as hungry as he could be and you know what that means..."
The man grunted something like 'Leave me alone' but at least opened his eyes...or his eye, since his left one was closed by a small scar.
"Huh? Who's that?" He eyed her suspiciously. His gaze left her quivering like a leaf in an autumn's breeze, cold and menacing, more like a beast's than a man's.
"You even forgot that? She was the one we rescued during the last storm!", Usopp shook his head.
The man just scratched his head. "Ah, well, whatever. You said something about food, Usopp?"
Usopp sighed. "I knew you would only notice that part...yeah, Sanji said it's almost done and I thought that maybe a certain swordsman could happen to be hungry...you can thank me later." He grinned.
Zoro, the swordsman let out a deep sigh before he picked himself up and stretched the muscular upper part of his body. A broad scar crossed it and shuddering she thought of the great wound inflicted by a surely formidable enemy. He noticed her look and smirked.
"What? Never seen a scar?"
She felt her cheeks growing pink.
"Of course I did!", she snapped, feeling like an idiot. "Just never one that big..." She swallowed hard.
"It must have hurt."
He watched her with a strange look in his eyes, then shrugged and began to walk towards a rather large cabin door and a really heavenly scent. She sniffed the air, suddenly nearly drooling from the scent alone. Usopp couldn't help himself but laugh.
"Looks like you're very hungry, too! Come on, Sanji can't hold back Luffy forever!"
And with those words, he helped her across the deck.
Wheew, that was the first chapter...I didn't expect it to go that smoothly – let's ignore the fact that I wrote it down completely different xD
I hope you like it and want to read some more of my cough art cough ...well, have fun!