In this first snippet, Damon is playing cards with Nami, Usopp, and Lucy aboard the Going Merry... and he learns the pirate way to win!
Playing Cards
How to Win at Spit, Lucy Style!
It was a normal day at sea. Well, as normal as any day could get, when you're stuck in the One Piece world on a quest you know nothing about. And that was my life exactly.
You see, a few days ago, I'd just been your average Christian delinquent. I was still Christian, but no longer a street kid living in New York City. Why? Well, the other night I was chased by a weirdo named Aeso with bat wings, a cap and a scythe, who claimed to be the god of the sea. He said I had to save the world, and then he gave me an enormous headache and sent me here. To the world of One Piece.
Well... not quite the world of One Piece. There was one difference.
Luffy was a girl named Lucy.
At the moment I was at the Baratie with my new friends. (I hadn't actually joined the Straw Hats yet, but I was thinking about it.) Lucy was stuck working at the Baratie because... well, that's a story for another day. Anyway, she'd been allowed some time off and was on the Going Merry's upper deck with us, sitting in front of her "captain's seat" (the figurehead) with her red vest and black hair fluttering cutely in the slight breeze, which carried the salty stench of the ocean. I still hadn't gotten used to the ocean's smell yet, though it was becoming less noticeable and I wasn't tasting it anymore. Nami, Usopp, Lucy, and I were playing "spit."
Wait... did I just call Lucy 'cute?'
I must be losing my mind.
"Yappari!" Nami cried, which I somehow understood was 'I did it!' "I lost all my cards! Ha! I beat you losers!"
"Dammit," I complained. "You're too good at cards!" I was just about to win, too - - I only had 3 cards left, and you had to have no cards if you wanted to win.
"You don't win," said Lucy, tilting her head, confused. She was holding an enormous stack of cards. "I have the most, so I win."
I sweatdropped. "Eh... that's not exactly how you play, Luce."
"Yeah, you win by having no cards, not by having the most," Usopp commented in a deadpan tone.
The straw hatted captain pouted. "Eh? But I like my way better. Yosha! I'll just change the rules!"
"YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE RULES!"
"I call it 'Monkey!'" she announced, completely ignoring Usopp, who was shouting at her and looking shark-like. "It's almost the same rules as 'spit,' but you have to get the most cards to win!"
"And when do we stop playing?" I asked, smiling at Lucy's antics.
"Uh..."
Nami burst into peals of laughter, and it was infectious. Something about the look on the future pirate queen's face was just so priceless I couldn't help but to erupt into snickers. Usopp and Lucy exchanged looks and started laughing too.
My sides had just started hurting from my laughter and I was wheezing when Zoro poked his head over the floor of the upper deck. He'd been sleeping on the lower deck and we must have awoken him "Oi!" he grumbled, tic-pulsing. "Can you turn the volume down? I'm trying to sleep." He dropped out of sight again.
We all glanced at each other and were reduced to giggles again.