Hello! I've had this idea running around in my head for a while now, so thought I'd finally get around to typing it up… Plus I wanted to get back into the habit of writing, so here you go!
I don't own One Piece or Gintama, or any of their characters! Those belong to Oda-sensei and Sorachi-sensei respectively~
Anyway…. Chapter 1! "If The Stars Are Dancing, You're Probably Drunk".
It was with worried eyes that Nami stared up at the night sky, pondering the spectacle above her. The stars, shining brightly without a cloud in the sky to block them, were twinkling and moving in strange, unsettling manners. Was this just another strange weather occurrence of the new world, or should she be concerned? Arms crossed, a glare was set across the navigator's face as the crew's resident swordsman climbed down from the crow's nest, approaching her.
"Are you planning to keep standing there all night?" asked Zoro, his arms folded into his kimono and the usual scowl on his face. "You'll get wrinkles." His gaze followed hers skyward and he observed the sky's strange dance for a few moments: were stars supposed to do that? He didn't even drink that much at dinner… "Should we be worried about this?" the swordsman asked, his frown deepening.
"I don't know," answered the navigator, placing a hand on her hip and lightly tapping her foot in thought. She'd hadn't learned about anything like this in her time studying over the last two years, and it made her wonder: what was going on up there?
"This is… ridiculous…! I am not… a pilot…!"
Gritting his teeth, hair a mess and bleeding from various small burns and cuts, Kamui wrestled with the controls of his small spacecraft: most of which were refusing to work. The real pilot was lying dead, his corpse kicked aside after the shrapnel from some part of the control console exploding had killed him. That left him, craft smoking and quickly being drawn towards the planet below, trying to take some sort of action to keep himself from being shot down or otherwise dying a death unworthy of a warrior like himself.
Unfortunately, it was then that he heard the ear-wrenching sound of metal shrieking and snapping from the engine, followed by another explosion that violently shook the craft and knocked the yato off his feet and against the wall of the cabin. Using the wall as a support Kamui pushed himself up, struggling to keep his balance despite the tremors rocking the ship, and looked up to see the bright blue planet that had been below them filling his vision. The craft had been caught by its gravitational field: he was going to crash! Even worse, the majority of the planet was covered in ocean… He'd be damned if his life would end from drowning!
There wasn't much he could do about it, however, and a string of uncharacteristic curses left Kamui: he had been expecting to board the enemy's main ship and have a glorious battle, not to crash on some alien planet…! The ship quickly began to heat up as it plummeted through the atmosphere, and the yato could only watch with a mixture of feelings as the ocean below grew closer and closer.
"Hey look, a shooting star~!" the duo heard Chopper yell out in glee, coming out and pointing back up at the sky. Glancing at each other for a moment, Zoro and Nami looked upwards once again to find that sure enough, a bright light was streaking slowly across the sky.
Excited, Luffy came out as well, jumping around in excitement. "A shooting star~! So we get to make a wish, right!?" the captain asked, earning an excited nod from Chopper and a chuckle from Nami. "I wish for a lot of meat to eat, then~!"
Zoro rolled his eyes, though he was grinning as well: typical Luffy. "How about a strong opponent? I could use a good workout," he added with a yawn. The others booed him out, Luffy chanting something about meat, but Nami was preoccupied by something important.
"That star… is it getting bigger?" A small pause passed through the group after she pointed this out, and as one the other three turned their heads to the sky. Sure enough, the 'star' was rapidly growing bigger and bigger as it approached, streaking a bright trail across the blackness of the night, and while both Zoro and Chopper yelled out in alarm, Luffy was laughing loudly in excitement. The other Strawhat pirates could now be heard stirring about; Robin, Sanji and Brook joining the others on the deck as the comet's screeching tore through the air, the great ball of fire flying close over them, barely missing the top of their mast and passing them, crashing into the ocean barely a few miles away. The splash was clearly visible even from their distance and the burning light was extinguished almost immediately, leaving the crew in wonder.
It was Luffy who finally broke the finally broke the silence, jumping up onto Sunny's figurehead and yelling out "Nami! Turn the ship that way, we're gonna go find that mystery star!" The crew snapped out of their awestruck daze, but any protests were quickly decided against: once Luffy set his mind on something, there was no convincing him otherwise, after all.
The crash as the ship hit the water was deafening, and the force of the impact knocked Kamui across the room, his head colliding painfully with the wall and causing him to see stars. The craft was taken deep under the surface within moments, propelled by the speed of its fall, and as the yato managed to push himself off the ground, shaking him head, he realized water was starting to puddle into the room. Listening closely, he could hear it pouring in from somewhere else in the ship- most likely the engine room- and kicked the cockpit's door open, water quickly flooding into the room. Cursing again, he waded through the water towards the emergency hatch, the ship creaking as it sunk deeper into the sea.
The moment that hatch opened seawater would come pouring in, so Kamui secured his cloak and made sure his umbrella was secure in its holster before sucking in a deep breath, kicking the whole door straight off its hinges. He held onto a handle on the wall, the force of the water trying to pull him back into the depths of the craft, and once the initial rush passed Kamui pulled himself into the open ocean, squinting his eyes open to look upwards.
He could barely see the light of the surface…! Had he really sunk that far? Shaking his head, refusing to die in such a pathetic way, he began swimming upward as fast as he could manage; though that wasn't fast enough. It wasn't long before his lungs began to burn for fresh air, yet he was still deep beneath the water: Yato may be superior to humans in a number of ways, but holding their breath wasn't one of them. He was struggling in his movements, now, and it wasn't long before he couldn't bear it any longer, the oxygen escaping him at once and floating upward, while he was left with seawater filling his lungs and a fading consciousness.
'Not… Not like this…' he thought, the edges of his vision going black as he gazed up at the glimmering surface, limbs refusing to obey him. 'It's right there… just a little bit…' Kamui willed himself to swim, mentally yelling at himself to move, but it was no good. Just as his eyes were closing, however, he thought he saw a large shadow in the water above.
"Looks like it's already sunk…" Nami mused, leaning over the railing and into the dark waters below: it must have been too heavy for anything other than ash to float to the surface… Luffy, however, looked like he was about ready to jump in himself and investigate, and it took promises from the other to go look for it in his place to sate him. So, while Franky and the others readied the shark submarine, Zoro stripped his swords from his belt and set them against the mast before glancing over the railing opposite of the navigator.
It took him a moment, however, to notice something: bubbles were floating to the surface from the depths below, at a slow but steady rate. "Hey, I think it sunk over here," he called to the others, squinting slightly in an attempt to see better below the light waves and ashes. There was some sort of form down there… Not very big, either. It was only when Franky came over with a light that he caught a good view of what it was, and before Franky had even yelled to the others that they found a person, the swordsman had dived over the railing.
Swimming down, Zoro grabbed the figure's cloak at soon as it fluttered into reach, grabbing his arm in a tight grip and pulling him to the air above. As soon as he breached the surface, Zoro called out "Chopper!" The man wasn't breathing, and if he hadn't detected the faint beat of a heart, the swordsman would've thought him to be dead. Luffy stretched out a hand to pull them both to the deck, and Chopper was at their side in an instant.
Wringing out his kimono and leaving the man to the doctor, Zoro wandered over to the captain and huffed. Didn't look like much of a star to him.
Heheh, not the best beginning, but not bad~ I've never written for One Piece before, after all…
Anyway, please review! The second chapter should be up before too long!