Every open door is a new adventure
Chapter one: the bed time stories
In this world there will always be darkness that blinds us and causes us to lose sight of the things that are important to us, but they say when one door closes another one opens when I was little I believed this because of something extraordinary that my sister says happened to her long before I was born, when she was only four years old. This is her story.
Amaya was very sad for a five year old girl; she had long brown hair and large round violet eyes that were very rarely seen without some clue to her sadness. She was small for her age she had a pale skin tone and could usually be seen wearing a white sundress and sandals to match, her and her family lived in the country side of japan in a big open area that you think a child would be happy about, but Amaya almost wished that she lived in a city, maybe then her parents would pay more attention to her. Amaya's parents were always busy with work it sometimes seemed like they had no time for her or even that sometimes they forgot her, Amaya only had one person who would make her happy in her life, her grandmother, and her grandmother would tell her stories of great places with magic and pirates, adventure and Friendship, where Nakama meant helping each other find their dreams. Amaya would love to hear her grandmother tell the stories sometimes she felt like they were so real. The stories always made Amaya happy and her grandmother made her feel like she wasn't alone.
That happiness that Amaya felt didn't last for very long, Amaya had lost her grandmother about a week before, her and her family were staying in the house and going over the will, Amaya found that almost everything had actually been left to her, probably because Amaya and her grandmother had, had similar problems, they both had felt alone and unloved. Amaya and her parents moved into the house which was still in the country and when things settled down for the rest of the family Amaya went right back to being forgotten, Amaya would often wonder her grandmother's house or could be found in her grandmother's room looking over some of her things. This particular day was different, Amaya was out in the field behind the house her grandmother had left a time capsule back there and Amaya had found the map, Amaya had decided that sense her grandmother couldn't dig it up, she would. Amaya was digging the hole in the back field she had been searching all day and the sun was beginning to set until she heard a loud thud when her shovel hit something, she smiled a little bit and quickly uncovered it finding her grandmother's name inscribed on a small box Amaya quickly hurried back to the house excited to show her parents but upon arrival she was met with shouting and scolding parents
"Where have you been?!" her mother yelled "I made dinner an hour ago your father and I were looking everywhere for you!" Amaya was a little surprised by her parent's reaction to her entering with the box but before she could get a word in to defend herself her father cut in
"And look at you! You're filthy you got dirt all over your nice dress your mother and I paid a lot of money for that." He lectured her
"I told you I was going out to find grandma's time capsule." Amaya said back to them this just seemed to make them angrier as they continued to shout about how worried they were, Amaya felt her eyes well up with tears she had told them, she had told them where she would be but yet they still said she didn't and acted like this was her fault.
"Go to your room this instant!"
"But-"
"Don't argue young lady just do it!" Amaya started to cry the tears spilling from her eyes
"I don't see why you're so upset." She said her tears spilling down her face "it isn't like you care about me anyway." She shouted before running up the stairs she went into her grandmother's room and began to sob into her pillow, Amaya wished that her grandmother was there, her grandmother would always back her up when her parents were mad at her, she would always be the one to comfort her. Amaya looked back at the small box still held tightly to her chest and tried to open it, but the box was locked, Amaya wiped her tears she remembered her grandmother having a silver key that she would wear around her neck she said it was good luck and reminded her that she always had some place to go. Amaya searched her grandmother's room until she found it in the jewelry cabinet she then hurried back to the box and tried to put the key in it, but it didn't fit. Amaya frowned a little and sighed it was a long shot any way, her grandmother probably lost the key years ago. She then heard footsteps coming up the stairs and knew it was her father she quickly went to the door and listened as he walked down the hall she knew he was going to her room to scold her. Amaya heard him open the door and heard him say a word she knew he wasn't supposed to
"AMAYA!" he yelled Amaya quickly took the key and put it in the keyhole on the door as she heard her father come and try to open it she turned the key in the lock so he couldn't get in.
"Amaya You open this door right now young lady!"
"No! You'll just yell at me for no reason again." Amaya shouted before she pulled the key out and hurried to the bed she put the pillow over her ears so that she couldn't hear her father yelling at her Amaya sighed it wasn't long after that she heard him walk away in frustration Amaya knew she was stuck in the room for a little bit, Amaya found herself slowly growing sleepier it usually happened when she cried a lot. Her eyes slowly began to drift shut as sleep slowly took over her.
Sunlight streamed through the window and into her eyes the next morning Amaya woke up and shivered a little it was cold which was odd for the summer Amaya sat up and rubbed her eyes looking around nothing in the room had changed but she just felt like the room was moving she hopped off of the bed and took the key she went to open the door but heard an unfamiliar voice outside of the door, it was a woman and she appeared to be talking to a man
"Zoro, how many times have I had to tell you not to go into the wine cabinet so early in the morning?" the woman yelled Amaya was quite confused she unlocked the door and slowly peeked out she saw that she was on a ship, how she had gotten there let alone how her grandmother's room got there was beyond her but it freaked her out!
"What do you expect? It wakes me up in the morning!" the one called Zoro shouted back to the woman Amaya saw the two a green haired man who must have been Zoro was yelling at a red headed woman who stood across from him, the green haired one carried three swords on his waist which terrified the little girl watching. The red head glared at Zoro and sighed just shaking her head giving up and walking away cursing about how much of an idiot he was when the swordsman began to turn she quickly ducked inside again but the odds didn't appear to be in her favor as it creaked she heard him stop in his movements to walk away and Amaya quickly hid under the bed it wasn't long after that he entered Amaya closed her eyes she heard his footsteps get closer to the bed she felt her heart racing
"Hey, how the hell did you get here?" Amaya jumped a little seeing he had found her easily she quickly crawled back so they were on opposite sides of the bed, Zoro came up too
"Alright kid come on I don't have time for stupid games" he said when he walked around the bed Amaya quickly climbed over the bed and ran out the door she wasn't sure what she was more scared of the fact that he was yelling at her as she ran or that she was running from a man with swords who probably knew how to use them. Amaya ended up running by a few other people too including the red head that had been yelling at Zoro earlier she heard him still chasing after her until she heard a door open behind him and a crashing sound
"YOU SHITTY MARIMO HEAD CAN'T YOU SEE YOU'RE SCARING HER?!"
Amaya looked up to see a blonde man with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth he had kicked the one called Zoro or "marimo" as he was now being called, down onto the deck of the ship. Zoro stood up and glared
"Hey crap cook stay out of this!"
"I think you should both stop yelling you appear to be scaring our little guest." Amaya jumped and turned around to face a tall black haired woman with pretty blue eyes. Amaya quickly hid behind the door shyly
"Don't worry we won't hurt you." She assured her Amaya still stayed put and glanced at Zoro was glaring at her Amaya pushed herself further behind the open door, the cook followed her gaze to Zoro's swords and smiled a little bit.
"Don't worry about him; if he tries to hurt you I'll kick his ass." Sanji assured her the entire crew had gathered around now they were a strange bunch but somehow seemed oddly familiar to the girl she just couldn't place it. Amaya slowly came out from where she was and stood before the crew with her hands behind her back she rocked back on her heels nervously as she watched them all stare at her.
"What's your name?" The red head asked her kneeling down so the two were eye level Amaya was about to answer but remembered what she was taught, she wasn't supposed to talk to strangers so Amaya looked at her feet again nervously playing with her hands behind her back
"M-my grandma said not to talk to strangers."
"Yet you'll stow away on their ship." Zoro said Amaya glared at him in a cute childish way
"I didn't stow away! I don't know how I got here I fell asleep in my grandma's room and woke up on this ship." Amaya said the crew looked surprised a little the red head looked at Zoro
"Where was she?"
"The kid was in Karin's room." Zoro replied simply Amaya was a little surprised that was her grandmothers name, did they know her somehow? No they couldn't have her grandmother would never hang out with such a scary looking man would she? But with what Zoro had said the red head seemed to think about it like she believed what happened. After a pause the black haired woman smiled at her.
"I'm Robin; these are Nami, Zoro, Luffy, Brook, Usopp, Chopper, Franky and Sanji."
"But you may call me Mr. Prince." Sanji told her this made Amaya giggle a little bit at the way he said it Sanji smiled at her a little bit she was a cute kid. Amaya brushed some hair behind her ear
"I'm Amaya."
"Nice to meet you Amaya! We're the Straw hat pirates!" Luffy shouted excitedly with a grin this caught Amaya's attention though as she finally figured it out a little.
"You're the pirates my grandma would tell me about!" she said happily "My grandma would talk about all of you all the time battling with the fish peoples to save the navigator, the stupid guy with the big red nose, and the creepy guy in the coffin who beat the Bushido."
"Only Vivi can call me Bushido." Zoro said quickly after she had said this, but this just confirmed Amaya's point even further. Amaya sat down she tried to think for a minute how could this be possible? The pirates that Amaya had been hearing about sense she was a baby were suddenly real. But how could her grandmother have known? Amaya then thought back to what they had said a moment before about the room.
"You had a friend Karin right?" Amaya asked Nami nodded them all appeared to be just as puzzled as she was and also trying to figure out the story behind all of this.
"I think your Karin might be my grandma." Amaya said they all looked confused
"That can't be possible, Karin was just here a couple of months ago and she was way too young to be a grandmother." Robin said thoughtfully Amaya looked confused then she remembered the box she hurried back to the room puzzling the crew she went to the room and grabbed the box quickly coming back with it.
"My key didn't fit in this but I know its grandma's maybe this can help." Amaya said Nami seemed more puzzled than anyone she went into her pocket and pulled out a small iron key.
"Karin gave this to me before she left last time; she said she might not be coming back too." Nami said a little sadly Amaya frowned she remembered that the last time she had seen her grandmother was when her grandmother had gone to visit them and had said something very similar to her. Nami took the box and stuck the key inside, it fit, she then turned the key slowly and there was the soft click of the lock Nami opened the lid and the first thing there was a photograph of the crew all together and there with her arms around both Nami and Robin was a younger version of Amaya's grandmother.
"So it is the same person." Usopp said wide eyed "She always said that time passed differently between the worlds I just never assumed it was so long in her time" he added looking at the rest of his Nakama
"So why were you in her room? How come she wasn't there too?" Zoro asked Amaya looked away from them she didn't want to be the one to tell them all this she was still mourning her grandmother's loss, but Amaya didn't have to say anything just by the look on her face Luffy understood right away and the shadow of his hat covered his eyes.
"She's gone isn't she?" he asked which startled the crew, before anyone could react Amaya's eyes filled with tears and she slowly nodded all were silent for a minute mourning their loss
"She died in her sleep if that makes it any better" Amaya said sadly "My aunt said she didn't feel anything."
"You should probably go then" Usopp said to Amaya "If time travels that quickly in your world compared to here then who knows how long it's been already your parents have to be worried about you."
Amaya shook her head she didn't want to go back clearly she didn't' have to think of an excuse to stay though as Sanji kind of realized it himself
"Usopp how do we send her back if she doesn't know how she got here?" Sanji asked him so they all had a bit of an issue here Amaya was stuck there until they could figure out how to get her home, and who knew how long it would take to get her home. They were all stuck for now, stuck with a kid in the middle of the ocean.
