An idea I got when I was in school. It's a bit OOC, so please bare with me.

Oh, by the way:

"Italics"= Thoughts

Italics= Flashbacks

.oOOo.

Complications

.oOOo.

It was just another normal day, and Luffy was fishing.

He stood by the edge of the ship, gripping one of Usopp's rods in his hands. Well, he wasn't really standing. Because of the intense heat beating down on him, he was drooped over the edge, panting slightly as he sat there; waiting, waiting, and waiting….

"Usopp!" Luffy whined, turning his head slightly so he could just make out his Sniper sitting on the deck a bit farther out. "I'm bored!"

Usopp looked up from whatever he was tinkering/messing with to answer. "How can you be bored? You're fishing, right?"

"But there's no fish!"

Usopp cringed a bit at the high-pitched tone of his Captain's whine, and tried to make it better. "Okay, how about this; if you don't catch a fish in the next five minutes, I'll fish while you can go bother Zoro. He's in the crow nest, sleeping, so it won't matter a lot to him anyway." Then he began to boast. "And besides that, the Great Usopp has never not caught a fish before!"

"Eh? Really?"

"Of course!" He exclaimed, now into it. "In fact, there was one time I hooked a HUGE Sea King, and when it started to attack me, I-"

"It's not true."

"Oi, Nami! Don't ruin it!" Now it was Usopp's turn to whine.

Ignoring Usopp, Nami set down her newspaper on the table in front of her, and directed her next sentence to Luffy. "You're going to stay where you are until you catch us dinner. If you do, Sanji will probably cook something really nice out of it. Right, Sanji?"

"Anything you say, Nami-swan~!" Came the coo from the kitchen.

The orange haired girl turned back to face the other two boys. "See? So keep doing what you're doing; but you could at least try to help him Usopp."

The boy in question muttered something under his breath, and continued to mess with the slingshot in his hands. Simply nodding at the once-again quiet scene, Nami went back to her reading. Robin, who had been sitting next to her the whole time, chuckled quietly at their antics before going back to her book.

And now Monkey D. Luffy was back to square one.

"Usopp and Nami are no fun…" He mumbled.

More bored then he was before, Luffy was about ready to go bother either Sanji or Zoro just for the fun of it. But just as he was getting ready to let go of the rod, it lurched forward in his hands, like something below was grabbing it.

"I caught something."

Luffy also shouted this thought aloud, though no one on the ship paid it any mind; it probably wasn't a big deal.

But it was to Luffy. He tugged, pulled, and practically wrestled with the stick. "This thing's heavy!" He pulled at one more time before an idea struck him.

"Gomu Gomu no…."

The whole crew (Save Zoro, who was asleep) looked up from their resting spots in horror. What was he doing? Was he going to use his Rocket-?

"FISHING ROD PULL!"

…..And thus the whole crew sweat dropped, going back to their tasks from before. Typical Luffy.

At the same time, Luffy had yanked the fishing rod up into the air – his arms going with it -, and the 'Fish' on the end went with it. It soared into the air, to the point it looked like it was one with the sun, before promptly falling to the ground at an impossible speed. It made a small squeak of terror before it hit the deck behind Luffy with a large 'THUD'; it was quiet after that, so the black haired teen assumed it was dead.

"Alright!" He cheered. "I got us food!" It was huge! It was almost the size of Nami!

"Good job Luffy." Usopp answered, not looking up.

But the boy didn't hear Usopp's 'praise'; he was too busy inspecting the thing that he caught.

"Hm?" He poked the side of it, and it twitched slightly. "It's not dead?"

He reared back his arm, ready to PUNCH it dead, until it rolled onto its side with a groan.

"Eh?" Luffy let his arm fall limply to his side, sitting down next to his catch.

Noticing a slight change in his Captain's behavior, Usopp looked up and called, "Oi, Luffy, what's wrong?"

"I…" He poked the thing again. "I think I caught a girl."

"….Eh?"

.oOOo.

"….So we can't eat it?"

"Of course we can't eat her! Do you want to be a cannibal?"

"I don't mind-"

"How can you say that? Look at this beauty! No one is eating her!"

"This is quite interesting; why was she in the water?"

"How would we know?" Nami turned to face Robin. "Luffy just happened to fish her out of the ocean."

Most of the crew, besides Zoro (Who was STILL asleep, even after all the commotion), were crowded in a circle around the mysterious girl.

She had wild reddish-brown hair that went down to mid-shoulder blade, and had insanely pale skin. Had she ever been out in the sunlight at all?

She looked about seventeen; maybe even Luffy's age*.

"What a beautiful lady she is." Brook commented, and started to laugh. "But wait, I can't see her because-"

"You don't have any eyes."

"Chopper…."

"So she's not dead right?" Usopp asked, interrupting them.

"I checked her vitals." Chopper pitched in helpfully; he ignored Brook, who was sobbing quietly in the background. "Her breathing's normal, so she's fine for now. She may catch a cold later due to the freezing temperatures of the water. Sanji, you should probably go get some blankets."

"Sure thing." Sanji ran to find some towels, singing about how, 'He was helping the beautiful lady'.

Nami smiled. "Thanks Chopper."

"What are you saying; don't praise me, you bastard! Hahahaha…."

Usopp sweat dropped as Chopper sheepishly began to dance around. "So should we wake her up?"

"I've already tried shaking her awake." Franky said from the back. "No good."

"So we can't eat this?" Luffy pressed on.

His reply was Nami whacking him over the head. "You stupid, or what? I said we can't eat her."

"What's all the commotion about?" A new voice sounded.

The crew turned to see a yawning Zoro climbing down from the crow's nest. Robin decided to give him the short version of it. "Luffy was fishing and caught this girl," she pointed at the drenched figure on the ground. "And we can't wake her up."

"Oh, is that it? I can do this." Zoro pulled out one of his swords, Shusui*.

He brought it up in the air behind him, and just as he was getting ready to bring it down on the semi-conscious girl… someone kicked him in the face. He was sent crashing into the ground, and managed to see a flash of blonde with his right eye.

"Oi, Curly Brow!" He shouted angrily. "What the hell do you think-"

"My darling Angel, are you alright?" Sanji was holding the half-asleep girl in his arms; she had stirred a bit from all of the yelling. "Did that idiot marimo try to hurt you? Fear not, Sanji-sama* is here!"

"You shitty chef…."

"EH? REPEAT THAT!"

"Hey guys," Nami interrupted. "I think she's coming to."

The two males briefly paused their bickering to look down at the girl in Sanji's arm. Her eyes fluttered slightly as she struggled to open them.

When the girl's vision cleared, and her eyes became focused again, she just stared. And then began to stutter uncontrollably at the sight of the people in front of her.

"You're," she gasped. "You guys are-"

She didn't even get to finish her sentence before she fainted again.

The crew stared at her with mixed emotions.

"Do you want me to wake her up with my sword NOW-?"

"NO!"

.oOOo.

Why was it so dark?

And flipping cold?

Where the heck was she?

A brunette girl was floating in the middle of blackness, trying to grasp her situation.

"Oh, that's right; I was going to the library." She thought.

But it was sunny outside. So why was she cold? She had to remember what had happened….

"Hey, Donna!" Her sister had called from the living room. "Come here for a minute!"

The girl, Donna, sighed as she sat up from her bed. Taking out her head phones, Donna walked over into the biggest room in their house; only to see her 22 year old sister lounging on the couch, with millions of JUMP shounen mangas surrounding her.

"Becca…?"

"Ah, little sis!" Becca exclaimed, motioning her forward; Donna complied. "I know your twentieth birthday's next week, which makes you the 'Special Girl' and all, but I need you to do me a favor right now."

"And that is…?"

She held out the manga in her hands, which she had probably just finished. "Can you return this to the library for me?"

The brunette sighed, staring at the latest One Piece Volume in Becca's hand. "Your obsession with Japanese things has gone on long enough. You're an adult sis."

Her sister jutted out her chin, her straight black hair swaying in the process. "It doesn't matter how old I am! You can read this stuff at any age! Plus," she added offhandedly. "It's not like I'm going to get married any time soon; so it's okay for me to take things nice and slow. You, of course, still have college."

"You have college too." Donna pointed out. Anything to get off of the topic of the library.

"Yeah, but all I really have to do is read." She smirked. "Which is what I'm doing right now. And how could I ever continue my good work, if my own sister won't go return this book for me and get me another?"

Dang her sister. She turned it right around on her.

"Return it yourself." She huffed.

"No way!" The black-haired girl exclaimed. "That hag of a librarian hates me! It's always, 'Miss Bright this, Miss Bright that.' She's always nagging on me."

"Sis…" Irritation seeped into her voice.

"Soooo," Becca drawled, and shoved the book closer to her face. "Here ya go, Birthday Girl."

Feeling defeated and frustrated, Donna snatched the book out of her hands. "Fine!" she snapped. "But I still don't care about this kind of stuff!"

"Mhmm." Her sibling nodded. "Now go on, and come back as fast as possible so you can make dinner."

"Lazy arse…" she muttered, marching out the door.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" The brunette called back. She ran over to her car, strapped herself in, and began to drive.

It was quiet in her car for a long time, before Donna decided she couldn't take it anymore; when she turned on the radio, it was only classical music, so she turned it off again.

Now totally bored out of her mind, she turned her attention to the book sitting in her passenger's seat.

The cover was intriguing, with all its bright colors and words. Just a bit curious, Donna picked up the book and turned it to the back so she could read the summary.

'The Straw Hats Pirates', the main pirate crew, had just reunited after their two years of training in the last volume. The volume in her hand was about a place called 'Fishman Island', and how they saved it. "Hmm." She mused, and flipped through a few pages. "Interesting."

It was indeed, Interesting, but it was because of the book she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. She was passing right by her city's local lake when it happened.

She hadn't seen the other car turning the corner, but right when she did, she dropped the book and gripped her hands on the steering wheel. Pulling it to the right as far as she could, Donna managed to just dodge the oncoming car. But her tires began to spin and even after she let go of the wheel her car kept going. It went right over the edge of the bridge, right into the water.

Her windows broke, and the water flooded in. Accidentally swallowing water when she tried to breathe in, Donna frantically worked at getting her seatbelt off. It was jammed.

"At a time like this!" she cried, and inhaled more water, coughing. Completely under water now, the brunette squeezed her eyes shut.

"I'm going to die, I'm going to die…" she chanted in her head. Donna had always hated water. It always made her feel vulnerable and scared; take the situation, for instance.

Suddenly, as if an alarm clock rang inside of her head, the college girl's eyes shot open.

"The book!" she mentally panicked. "Becca's gonna kill me!"

And in this deadly situation, Donna didn't even know why the heck she cared about the stupid thing. But she found it anyway, on the floor of her car. The thing was sopping wet, and most of the pages had already dissolved. Only a few were left; the ones around the end. She grasped it in her arms and hugged it to her chest.

By then, she was out of oxygen and giving into darkness.

"Stupid book…." She thought. "Must be nice to not live in a world like this. Wish I was there."

Then the water surged around her, and the sunlight from above the water disappeared in an instant.

Oh, right….. She was dead.

"I guess this is okay." She made some sort of swimming motion from where she was hovering. "It's not half bad."

But just as she thought those words, a blinding light filled the void, and she had to close her eyes to prevent losing her eye sight. She sensed that the light had died down, and she opened her eyes to now be surrounded in blue. "Am I in the water again?"

Her question was answered when a fish swam right by her face. She yelped, jumping (as best as she could in water) away a bit. Then something dawned on her, and she slowly touched her throat.

"I can breathe."

That was certainly… different. She couldn't talk, but it was better than nothing. Donna figured she could get used to it. She swam around a bit, kicking her feet in the water. After deciding it was safe enough, she began to freely move around in the water, gliding along with the fish. Needless to say, the brunette was having the best time in her life.

"This was better than when I went to Six Flags when I was eight."

The sea creatures (as she now assumed she was in an ocean) around her were vibrant and beautiful and brilliant. Coral and all types of seaweed were scattered across the ocean's floor. And she could enjoy it without the fear of drowning; because she could BREATHE.

If where she was, was Heaven, then she never wanted to leave.

Of course, God had a limit to the nice things he did for people like her.

She swam a bit farther, before she came across something in the water.

It sort of shone in the water, and on the end was a metal loop with a hunk of meat on it.

"Ah." She observed it quietly. "It's a fishing rod." But who used meat as bait to catch FISH?

She wanted to ignore the hook, and just keep swimming. But something inside her nagged at her, as if saying, 'What are you waiting for? Grab it, come on!'

And being the 'good', 'obedient' girl she was, she listened to her conscience before shrugging; a bit hesitant, she grabbed hold of the metal. She noticed that no blood was pouring out of her hand; that was probably a good sign. She floated there for awhile, still gripping the hook; nothing happened.

So curiosity got the better of her; she tugged the string.

And was suddenly thrown forward.

"Whoa! Is whoever's fishing trying to kill me?"

She tried to let go, but the hook was snagged onto her purple sweater; and she couldn't break free. Donna struggled desperately as the tugging and pulling became stronger by the minute. The brunette was about to seriously start fighting it back, when the pulling suddenly stopped.

She began to breathe a sigh of relief, but it was immediately torn from her throat as she was lurched upward, out of the water, and into the sky.

Below her was a ship, where a boy with a strawhat was holding a fishing rod; the one that was connected to the hook she was holding.

"Well, that's nice." She thought sarcastically, and suddenly the ground got a lot closer. She managed a small squeak of terror before she hit the deck of the ship with enough impact to break her bones. And she swore she heard something snap in her leg. The breath had gotten knocked out of her, so she wasn't able to say anything. Her foggy mind managed to process the voices sounding around her, even if they were a bit muffled.

"Alright! I got us food!"

"Good for you, Luffy."

"Eh?" She twitched as she felt something poke her in the side. "It's not dead?"

She groaned, turning onto her side. "Please, just stop poking me."

As she did this, her dripping wet hair slid off of her face, and she could hear the boy with the strawhat make a noise of confusion. A small 'THUD' sounded next to her as he sat down. Another voice called out to him.

"Oi, Luffy, what's wrong?"

"I…." He poked her in the side again, and she gave the same response; she twitched. "I think I caught a girl."

"…Eh?"

Soon shouts of 'Luffy' catching a girl spread through the ship like wildfire. Before long, a small crowd had surrounded her, and she felt a cold hoof on her throat. She twitched again, squeezing her eyes shut tighter.

The group continued to talk, but by then she couldn't make out the words. Something about 'eating' her.

"I'm not a fish." Is what she wanted to say, but couldn't find the energy to do so.

After a while, she finally managed to hear one thing.

"Sanji, you should probably go get some blankets."

"Heh, that's funny." She thought, bemused, ignoring it when she felt someone shake her. "One of the guys in that manga was named Sanji. And now that I think about it, Luffy was a name too… and he wore a strawhat…."

If she could have, she would have frowned. "Wait a minute… Didn't I-"

But before she could finish her thought, someone was lifting her up in their arms, calling her 'Angel', or something.

Finally deciding she needed to put some effort into it, Donna tried to open her eyes.

She was met with a bright light again, and she had to blink a few times to get used to it. When the light settled down, she could see clearly in front of her.

Nine people were gathered in front of her; except the one who was still holding her in his arms. He had blonde, shaggy hair, and wore a black suit. With him was a black haired woman, a young lady with long orange hair, a man with blue hair that looked a bit like a robot, a boy with a strawhat, a dude with green hair that looked strangely like grass, a man with a long nose, a reindeer…. A skeleton…. Wait…..

She stared at them; she had SEEN these guys before. But where?

And just like the flash of light she had seen in the void, a picture of the One Piece manga she had been holding popped into her mind.

"NO WAY."

She couldn't stop staring at them; they were fictional characters. They weren't SUPPOSED to be real.

"You're," Donna finally managed to stutter. "You guys are-"

The nineteen year old didn't know if it was out of exhaustion or pure shock, but a wave of nausea overtook her before she could finish her sentence. And just before the darkness over took her again, she thought:

"Wonder what happened to the book."

.oOOo.

I'm aiming to make this at least a four or five-shot. And it would be wonderful if you could send me your feedback about what you think of the story so far. R and R!

Oh, and for the stars:

The First *: It's saying that Donna could be about age seventeen to Luffy's age, which in this story, is nineteen.

The Second *: I looked up that one of Zoro's current swords is called, 'Shusui'. Not sure if that's right.

The Third *: I'm not sure if Sanji actually uses '-Sama', so I just put it there. Hope that's right.

See you in the next chapter!

~MM