Note:

Out of respect for the author, Isayama Hajime's choice not to define the gender of Hange, this character will be referred to by the gender non-specific "they". Enjoy!

...

Introduction

Levi had had a terrible day. Yet somehow he had the strangest sense of grim certainty that it was going to get worse. He'd lost sleep the previous night in trying to attack what he thought to be a stain on the ceiling of his quarters (but turned out to be a shadow cast by the low lamp light). Then during a trip into town to get his civilian clothes cleaned, some MPs took time out of their day to stir shit up and test his patience not to kick their teeth in. Finally, during the afternoon practice session with the new recruits, Eren Jaeger had fucked up a difficult maneuver and managed to nearly cut his own arm off.

"I...I'm sorry, sir..."

Jaeger stood there like a scolded puppy, shaking and holding a sickeningly severed forearm, now attached to his upper limb only by a flap of skin. Though because it had already begun to steam and heal, there was nothing technically wrong with him. Titan physiology was quite something, Levi thought. But his grudging concern for Eren made him scowl bitterly; Eren was unbelievably lucky. For anyone else, a mistake like that might be the end of their life, not just their career as a soldier.

"Eren, don't try to speak, just let yourself heal," said his friend. The talented one. Levi felt some affinity with her.

"Mikasa, we shouldn't be in here...only Eren was asked to report..." whispered the weak, clever one, sneaking behind his friends and looking toward the exit.

But Erwin replied with a diplomatic smile, "It's all right. I'm grateful to you two for getting him here so quickly."

Though of course the clever kid was right; this was a disciplinary meeting and only Eren was really needed. Well, him and the one whose responsibility he was. Levi, obviously.

"Oi. How's it look?" Levi asked the freak.

Hange had been waiting in the corner of the room to be called upon, clearly only just holding back the desire to squeal. Needing no further encouragement, they leapt into Eren's personal space and began examining his wound.

"Incredible!" they panted, badly attempting not to over-salivate. "I've never seen an exposed nerve before! Hey, does this hurt?"

"AGH!" Eren's face twisted in agony.

"Squad Leader Hange...!" cried the blond kid, caught between respect for his superior and care for his friend.

Levi scowled. "We just need to know if he'll die from this, crazy."

But Hange was in another world. "Such beautiful, cleanly severed muscle fibers!" they panted. Then another reverent poke.

"Ouch! Please stop that, sir!"

Erwin took notice of Levi's distemper at the farce and smiled softly before his commander mask took over and he looked sternly on Eren. "Cadet Jaeger."

Eren's face whipped up from his own steaming arm. "Sir!" he stumbled to reply. Hange reluctantly let Levi drag them out of Eren's personal space.

Erwin folded his hands, now showing his full poker face. The mere fact of being unable to perceive any emotion in his face, good or bad, provoked a special kind of subtle fear. It was especially effective on new recruits, but now and then it gave even Levi chance for pause.

"You're our most valuable asset right now," Erwin said evenly. "And we still don't know for sure how your healing works. You can't afford to be reckless. Do you understand the seriousness of what happened?"

Eren swallowed his childish panic and grim determination overtook his young face. "I do, sir!"

"And you'll make sure it doesn't happen again?"

"Of course, sir!"

"You were careless," his talented friend chided. "Apologize."

Though he normally seemed to balk at the strong one's intervention, perhaps the severity of the injury had humbled him somewhat. Eren clutched his arm to his body and meekly bowed his head. "I'm sorry, sir."

Erwin's hard look dissolved into a smile. "As long as you're careful from now on." He sighed and his eyes passed down to a form on his desk, though Levi could tell it was Erwin's way of showing disappointment. "Now, to the matter at hand. Thank you, cadets, you don't need to stay for this."

Eren blinked, obviously not the only person who looked at Erwin's poker face and expected bad things coming. "That's it?"

"Who did you think was in trouble here?" As he spoke, Levi pushed off the back wall where he'd been leaning.

As the cadets stared at Levi's approach, the blond one took in a breath in surprise. "Of course. I should have known," he said softly, gazing at Levi with the usual awe of the new recruits. "This disciplinary session wasn't for you, Eren."

Levi folded his arms before Erwin, waiting to hear the lecture he deserved.

"Captain Levi?" Eren murmured, gazing fretfully between the two men. He clearly admired them both so much, not to mention he likely felt reasonable guilt for what had happened. "Wait, sir, the captain did nothing wrong!"

"All that blood loss getting to your brain?" Levi grumbled, flicking his gaze up at the kid. "Don't forget, brat, I own your ass. If you fall down and crack your barely-working head open, I'm the one who has to answer for it."

"But it's not the captain's fault! Commander, it was an accident!"

The strong one put a hand on Eren's shoulder and started to urge him away. "Let's go, Eren."

The weak one nodded and joined in, taking Eren's good arm and softly urging him out.

"But...!"

As his friends pushed Eren toward the door, Levi sighed and turned his attention back to Erwin. Sitting at his desk, Erwin's hands were woven together and concealing his mouth. People like Levi, who knew him well, were familiar with Erwin's rare expressions of displeasure. Needless to say, he was not pleased. Still standing by, Hange glanced between them with understandable pity for Levi. No one wanted to be on the receiving end of Erwin's displeasure.

"So," Erwin said with a sigh. "Let's talk."

And that was how things stood on the day their world turned upside down.

No sooner had he said these words than every one of the six people still currently in Erwin's office felt a sickening jolt. The whole world felt squeezed, then the light seemed to dim and blur. The floor beneath them grew soft and then nonexistent, opening up to a black hole that yawned open like a titan's mouth. Everything in sight around them streaked away from them like psychedelic paint dripping. One more jolt, and all six landed on a slightly different floor in varying states of grace.

Hange, who had fallen flat on their face, struggled up, staring at the surface beneath them. "Grass?" they murmured, gazing at the soft green fronds with fascination.

Levi and Mikasa, who both managed to land kneeling, briefly caught each others' gaze. But their eyes were soon drawn up toward the overpowering light that was now above them. Levi shaded his eyes and blinked against them tearing up. Then they widened in spite of the discomfort, unable to account for what they saw. After suddenly leaving Erwin's dark office, all six of humanity's greatest hopes now found themselves under a sky none of them had ever even imagined: undarkened by clouds, unfettered by walls, uncrowded by houses, mountains, or even trees. It was a place most in their world had never even fully believed in, let alone seen for themselves. The open sea.

Armin was the first to realize. He slowly got to his feet. In disbelief that nearly stole the strength from his legs as soon as they were under him, he gazed out over the place he had only seen in his dreams. His eyes soon grew hot and red.

"Eren..." he whispered.

Eren, who had landed on his injured arm (still steaming with the last remnants of healing), got up snarling from the pain. "What the hell just happened?"

"Eren!" Armin barked, in a voice that broke.

"What?"

Eren eventually followed Armin's gaze. His lips parted. His heart flew to his throat. The two boys, who were soon joined in their reverie by Erwin, could find no words to describe what they felt upon seeing this expanse of blue before them. To their eyes, it stretched on forever. The soft sound of waves, the smell of the salt on the air, the sunlight glinting off the unending surface. It was all beyond their imagining.

Levi watched them, distantly wondering what it was to feel like they did. He also could not suppress a thought which rose for all the eyes he had known that used to glow with hope, none of whom would ever see this. And with that, for him, the wonder faded.

But the less emotionally inclined of the group had more immediate concerns. Mikasa's eyes narrowed. She drew her hand trigger and loaded a blade. Levi shifted his feet in the grass to make a more stable base, preparing himself to grab the knife in his boot if necessary.

"Before we get all misty-eyed," he muttered. "Let's see if our hosts here can tell us what the shit is going on."

The new arrivals to the sea known as the Grand Line now finally became fully aware of their surroundings. Though they were indeed on the ocean, more specifically they stood on the deck of a large and grandiose ship, painted with gay colors and accented with playful architecture. This in itself, to the occupants of Wall Rose, was difficult to understand. No one had much time or inspiration to decorate inside the walls. But it was dwarfed in their attention by the eclectic group of people sharing the deck with them.

A skinny boy with a straw hat sat flabbergasted not too far from Hange. Behind him cowered a muscular man of similar age with a long nose, as well as some kind of strange, small, furry animal, badly hiding himself behind the one in the hat. Erwin was facing a man almost half again his own height, with a wild blue mane of hair in a huge pompadour, who inexplicably seemed to have cannons for arms. Across from Armin were too women, also towering over him in height, one barely wearing any clothing and causing him to blush. Two men faced Levi and Mikasa, one apparently ready to draw one of the three katanas on his waist, the other appearing to be casually smoking, dressed in a fine, black suit, though his eyes betrayed his shock. Lastly, Eren was staring at what could only be described as an eight-foot skeleton. If it was some kind of decoration, Levi thought absently, it was in bad taste.

One of the women, with dark hair and a look of least surprise, glanced around the new arrivals to another person standing behind them. "Torao-kun. Did you mean to do this?"

The Survey Corps whirled around, in particular Levi and Mikasa, who did not like or expect to be surprised. Behind them, a tall young man with a snow leopard hat and dark rings under his eyes stared back at them, one hand awkwardly held out before him as if bouncing an invisible ball. For an instant, though most thought they imagined it, a veil of blue light in a perfect circle surrounded that hand. As they watched it petered out and vanished.

"I was...tired from fighting Vergo," the man murmured. He had a voice strangely similar in timber to Levi's. He lowered his hand and briefly squinted as if fighting off a headache. "I thought I would need more power so I dipped into my reserve strength. I...didn't mean to do this..."

Levi cast his gaze around in silence for a moment at the sea of dumbfounded faces. He sighed, then merely flicked a demanding glance at Erwin. Erwin blinked down at him for a moment before realizing what was called for. Finally, he cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"Good afternoon," he said anticlimactically.

At that moment, the skeleton leaned over and merrily chimed in, "And good day to you! Who might you all be?"

Eren and Armin both shouted in surprise and fell back onto the grass. Mikasa glanced to make sure they were all right then flashed her blade at the creature. "Stay back," she murmured, with a soft voice but eyes that burned with imminent danger.

The skeleton recoiled. Levi could not help staring at it; what sort of effect was that?

As this happened, the man in the hat swayed, his eyes fluttering. The closest crew member, the huge, half-metal man, reached out to steady him. "Whoa there!"

"Tora-law!" said the blond man in the suit.

"Torao-kun!"

"Torao!" cried a view members of the crew.

The metal man got him back on his feet and glanced down in concern. "Hey, Torao. You all right?" he asked in a thick, gangster dialect.

The man nodded. He placing a hand against his own forehead, stepping away toward the railing to steady himself. He breathed heavily there for a moment, sweating slightly and looking ill.

"You all right, Torao?" the kid in the straw hat asked seriously.

The man in the hat caught his gaze, noted the concern and eventually nodded again.

"All right. Good. So where's my sea king?!"

The area he pointed to, underneath the feet of Levi and Mikasa, was moist as if something huge and wet had been sitting on it only moments before. Most of the Survey Corps took a moment, while contemplating the size of what could have been there, to wonder what a "sea king" was.

The skeleton hesitantly stepped forward, though showing some reticence about coming any closer to Mikasa. "Well...everything's a bit confusing..." He stepped forward with a flourish. "So let's all sit down to lunch!"

"You don't get to decide that!" chorused several members of the crew.

"Sanji!" the straw-hat kid complained, holding a growling stomach.

"All right, keeps your pants on," said the man in the suit, starting to cross the deck toward a door to one of the inside cabins. He stopped, removed his cigarette and addressed the man with the swords as he exhaled a puff of smoke. "Hey, Marimo. You got this if these guys try anything funny, right?"

The samurai picked his ear, refusing to meet the other man's gaze. "I don't take orders from you," he said softly. His eyes finally flicked toward the man in the suit. He added maliciously, "Eyebrows."

A vein popped in the blond man's forehead. "Say that again!"

"Sanji!" the kid in the hat complained.

"Shut your face, rubber man! I'm doing it!" The man in the suit cursed under his breath and puffed smoke angrily as he walked straight past Erwin toward what was likely the kitchen. "You people all right with fried rice? Cause that's about all I can make in the next few minutes. Losing a main ingredient does limit one's choices."

"Meat, Sanji!"

"I'll put some chicken in the rice so shut up for two seconds!"

Several minutes later, both groups were sitting on the deck in an awkward silence as the one called Sanji dolled out food to everyone.

Hange bobbed their head slightly in thanks as they accepted a plate from Sanji. They gazed down at the warm, delicious-smelling rice for a moment. "Erwin," Hange said softly out of the corner of their mouth. "I don't suppose you have any idea what's going on?"

Erwin, however, seemed more lost than anyone. He stared at the plate of rice in his hands with an uncharacteristically blank look of confusion. "No. Why are they feeding us?"

"Eren. Don't eat anything until you see them eat it first," Mikasa whispered. Levi rolled his eyes. He never got used to her obsessive concern. Though he had to admit, he wasn't in any hurry to take them up on this offer.

Armin smiled hesitantly as Sanji handed him a plate. "Oh...thank you! How kind."

"Not at all," Sanji replied, grinning around his cigarette.

Levi sat without comment for the moment, arms folded with a deepening sense of unease. When Sanji came to him with plate of food in hand, he merely cast his irritation toward the blond chef. He eyes the plate dubiously for a moment, then sighed as his irritation reached its peak.

"All right," Levi said, having made his decision.

Levi got to his feet and glared up at Sanji, who may have been a good foot and a half taller, who to his credit merely returned the look with a cold stare. Levi shot an accusing glance around all present before he addressed everyone.

"I've got no interest in sitting down to have a friendly tete-a-tete with a bunch of costumed freaks I don't know, when we just got dragged out of reality. Someone explain what the fuck is going on."

Sanji's brows twitched together slightly. "You should know I don't take kindly to people who don't appreciate what they're given. You want to make an enemy of a cook on the sea?"

"First tell me who the fuck you are, face fungus."

Sanji's cigarette, framed by his rough goatee, burned down to the filter as his rage ticked up a notch. "F-...face...f-... I see. So that's your attitude to someone that feeds you, hamster man?"

Levi frowned. "What the fuck is a hamster?"

"Okay." The orange-haired woman sighed and got to her feet with an air of authority. "We're all at a loss, but probably no one more than our new friends. And spinning our wheels arguing won't get us anywhere. I think the only person who can answer anyone's questions is Torao-kun. So, are you all right to talk now?"

The man in the hat, who until now had been sitting on the sidelines with legs tucked to his chest and a sword folded in in his arms, finally looked up. "Yeah," he said grimly. But then, he seemed like a pretty grim person.

"I thought so," Levi said, eyes narrowing at him. "You're the one that brought us here. Am I right? Fine. I don't need a long explanation, just get us back where we came from and let's be done with this."

"Wait, Levi!" Hange cried. "I want to get back as much as anyone. I have some experiments in motion that Moblit can't handle on his own-"

"And a Survey Corps and an entire race of people that can't function without us," Levi cut in viciously.

"-but this kind of event is unprecedented!" Hange went on, unhindered. "If we leave before we know what happened, how will you be able to sleep at night?!"

"Whether you want to leave or not is irrelevant," the man in the hat said in a low, soft voice. "The fact is, I've only done this once before, and never on purpose. I'm not really sure how it happens. More than that, I don't think I'll have the strength to try again for a while."

He held his hand out, palm facing toward the deck. "Room," he murmured. His eyes were tightly clenched with unease, as he were just as lost and out of his depth as they were. For a moment, a veil of blue struggled to form around his hand. Seconds later, it fizzled out. With a twitch of his brows that showed this action likely hurt him, the man lowered his head and folded his arms again.

"I can't use my powers at all right now."

"Powers...?" Armin murmured, eyes widening.

The man in the hat's gaze flicked up at that. He glanced at Levi, who still glowered at him like a demon. The man seemed to consider things from their perspective for another moment before he lowered his head in resignation.

"If it will make you feel any better, I'll tell you what I think I understand. I'm a devil-fruit eater. I ate the ope-ope no mi. My name is Trafalgar Law, and the marines call me the 'Surgeon of Death'."

Whether by way of demonstration or out of habit, he placed a soft touch on the hilt of the sword cradled in his arms. "I have the power to cut anything inside my sphere, my operating room, without harming it. Just now I was trying to cut a poisonous organ out of a fish caught by the captain of this ship, using that power. I intended to pull the organ out without damaging the fish. Instead..."

His dark eyes glanced around the group of newcomers. "I pulled you from your own dimension. And likely replaced your presence with the fish, although I'm not sure." He gritted his teeth. "I can't believe I did this for such a foolish reason. I've been on this ship too long."

"What...? You..." Looking almost in shock, Eren slowly let the plate in his hands rest on the grass beneath him. Of anyone, he was likely the most desperate to return, thought Levi. The absurdity would likely be the least amusing to him.

"We didn't ask to come here!" Eren cried. "You call this absurd?! It's not just our lives, there are people relying on us back inside the walls! You may have jeopardized our whole race! How are you going to get us home?!"

The man with the hat clenched his jaw. Either he was actually in pain or this whole incident was a serious blow to his pride. Or both. "For now...all I can say is you'll have to wait."

"Hm. So that's all you've got?" Levi asked.

The man glared up at him, eyes burning with insolence, and a tightness of his mouth that said that others had tried to beat it out of him before and failed. "Yes."

Levi gauged that expression for a moment. He had to admit, he didn't hate tenacity like that. Albeit it was coming from someone he considered an obstacle at this point. He considered.

"All right," Levi said. Then he merely sat down beside Erwin.

Mikasa's gaze landed on Levi with a hint of accusation. "You quieted down quickly. Nothing else to say, Captain?" she asked with her characteristic softness. It took nothing away from the impertinence in her undertone.

Levi sensed she was picking a fight but chose not to take it up. "We got our answer. Getting angry about it doesn't seem likely to yield any results."

"Agreed! And given that's the case, we might as well try to get along, hm?" Hange said merrily. "My name's Hange Zoe, by the way. I'm a Squad Leader of the Survey Corps, that's a branch of the military where we come from."

"Military. So they're basically marines," the robot man commented softly to the samurai.

"Nh," the samurai answered, his eyes narrowing at Levi. Levi frowned back at him; what was that reaction? Did these people have something against the military?

Hange turned their gaze to Armin, who sat nearest them. They nodded at the crew. Armin swallowed a bite of rice. "Uh...sorry!"

Armin hastily put down his plate and got to his feet with a salute, slamming his fist over his heart. "Armin Arlert, private of the Survey Corps!" In the process of sitting back down, he bumped his funny bone against the rail behind him and sank into a quivering ball of pain.

Mikasa, who happened to be sitting beside him, did not seem likely to join in his gesture. She considered for a few moments of tense silence, the eyes of the other members of the Survey Corps on her, before she eventually said, "Mikasa Ackerman, Private."

"Eren Jaeger. Also...a private in the Survey Corps," Eren said softly, a polite kid in spite of his tendency to anger. He seemed torn between whether to salute or not, but in the end merely nodded in a half bow. "Hello."

"My name is Erwin Smith, Commander of the Survey Corps. Nice to meet all of you," Erwin said with a smile. "Thank you for the food. I'm sure this will all work out, but we appreciate your hospitality in the mean time."

All gazes then turned to Levi, who sat beside Erwin absently bobbing one foot like a cat flicking its tail in annoyance. At length, he capitulated to the pressure of more than a dozen gazes, all expecting him to do something.

"Levi," he said simply.

The crew of the ship seemed pleased by the fact that they introduced themselves, and with more or less friendliness, reciprocated. The metal man was called Franky and referred to himself as a cyborg, part man and part machine. It didn't take long for Hange to get curious and start poking around his various attachments. The skeleton, the existence of whom none of the newcomers was quite willing to acknowledge yet due to shock, was Brook. The little animal, who still wouldn't completely show itself, was Chopper, and was also apparently (somehow) the ship's doctor. The man with the long nose, who seemed equally cautious about getting anywhere near them, was Usopp. The dark-haired, elegant woman was Robin, the samurai was Zoro, the cook was Sanji, the orange-haired woman was Nami, and the kid with the straw hat was Luffy. And also, apparently, the captain.

"And I'm the man who's going to be the pirate king!" he concluded, grinning.

After which followed a long pause.

" 'Pirate'...?" Erwin wondered politely.

"Yep."

After which followed a similarly long pause.

The so-called Mugiwara ("straw hat") crew looked around at each other, unable to account for the Survey Corps's apparent confusion. Eventually, it was Nami who realized the problem. "Is it possible...you all don't know what a pirate is?" she asked.

The Survey Corps exchanged glances before most shook their heads or shrugged.

Luffy burst into excitement at that. "Pirates are the greatest!" he said, and began to talk animatedly. "We have adventures, we sing, we eat! We eat meat every day! Meat is the best! My sea king..." he sighed ruefully.

"Adventures? I see. So you're explorers," Erwin replied. "Not too different from what we do, charting the world outside for the benefit of mankind."

Another awkward moment of silence fell over the pirate crew, as they looked at each other with hesitation.

"Well, no," said Nami, casting her gaze away, unable to look Erwin in the eye. "We're explorers of a kind, but...not by profession. Explorers are paid, usually by governments, to do their work and the products of that work are scientific knowledge. We...have a different revenue stream, and the benefits of our labor...we keep. That's all. But essentially, yes, explorers!" she said, laughing awkwardly.

"You're not paid by the taxes of the people?" Armin asked, perfectly innocently.

"You mean like the marines?" Luffy demanded. "Hell no! We don't answer to anyone! Pirates are the most free people in the world!"

"The most free?" Eren murmured, eyes brightening. Mikasa glanced at him and blushed at the childlike expression of cuteness on his face.

"So you're paid by a philanthropic individual?" Erwin asked.

"Not exactly..." said the man with the long nose, scratching the back of his neck.

"So then you're private contractors, paid by merchants or something similar?" Hange inquired.

"Ah...no," said Sanji. He seemed one of the least embarrassed though, and merely lit up another cigarette.

"May I ask how you do maintain your lifestyle?" Erwin asked.

The crew exchanged glances again as they struggled to search for the right word.

"Well.."

"We basically..."

"Pillage," Zoro said abruptly.

The Survey Corps didn't know quite what to make of this, so no one said anything for a long few moments. The one who finally gathered himself was the one with the most experience at doing so under difficult circumstances.

"Pillage," Erwin repeated.

"Yeah," Zoro said.

"So," Erwin said, with every attempt to be polite. "To put it simply, you're criminals."

"Yep."

"Yeah."

"Super!" Clang.

"I see." While trying not to be obvious about the fact, Erwin set his food down on the deck. He made every attempt to hide his discomfort, but Levi noticed he was looking a bit pale. People didn't really fight inside the walls, after all. Rebellions represented a threat to the entire human race, the main reason for the military police's mercilessness when dealing with them.

"Interesting," Hange said, seeming sincere. "Ah, and you must be Torao-kun," they said, indicating the man in the hat, who had not volunteered to introduce himself.

He glanced up, boiling with barely concealed rage. "That's not my name."

"Oh sorry, no we just call him that," Nami said brightly, apparently relieved by the change in topic "His real name is...what was is, Traffy Law?"

"No, Nami. It was Trafillager," Robin said, whether genuinely trying to be helpful or intentionally trying to rankle the man with the hat it wasn't clear.

"I hate this ship," the man in the hat grumbled to himself. "It's Trafalgar Law."

"Nice to meet you, Trafalgar Law. So with that, we'll be intruding on your ship for the time being," Hange said at last.

Levi took another look around their new hosts and sighed. His intuition about these things was right after all. A day could always get worse.