Chapter Two

Am I dead?

My breathing seemed even, and I was in a little bit of pain. Did people breathe when they moved on to the afterlife? If I was in pain, did that mean that I made it to Hell? It would make sense if that was the case, seeing as how I was a pirate when I was alive. It was only for two years, but I did accumulate quite a bounty.

My nose twitched—I could feel it—and I smelled something. It was delicious, and the aroma was coming over me like a warm embrace. What is this wonderful smell invading my senses?

My eye fluttered open a moment later, my brown orbs trying to focus on the darkness. Maybe I am in Hell...

Once my eyes adjusted to the dark, I realized that Hell was not where I was, but instead in a room with a wooden ceiling and wooden walls. Was the floor wooden as well? In any case, there was what seemed to be medical equipment sitting against the walls and close to the bed I was laying on. Looking at my arms—which were heavily bandaged—I saw that there were some IV's placed in the crook of my elbow. I looked at my legs and realized that I wrapped up like a mummy—

"Where the hell are my clothes?"

The prisoner uniform I had been wearing for however long I was in there was gone, and now I was wearing something that probably didn't even qualify as clothes. There was cloth wrapped around my breasts—only my breasts. Then there was cloth wrapped from my hips to about mid-thigh. Who the hell changed my clothes? It's cold...

As I examined myself, I heard laughter from outside the door across the room. Someone was laughing like there was no tomorrow, and I wondered who I was with. The room seemed to be swaying back and forth, and that was when I realized I was on a boat.

Everything was slowly coming back to me as I swung my legs over the side of the bed and started to take out the IV's. I remember being taken from my cell at the Prison and being dragged through the halls to my execution. Why am I alive then...?

"Sanji, I want meat!"

That voice... I know that voice...

Memories flooded in and I knew now what happened. Luffy and his crew saved me, and I remember some woman...Robin? And there was a skeleton! Wait...maybe I'm going crazy...

"Calm down, Luffy. You'll get your damn meat!" If that angry voice didn't confirm my suspicions, then I don't know what would.

I stood from the bed, wincing in pain as I grabbed the blanket and wrapped in around my body. If I was going to meet new people, I didn't want them to see me in something that wasn't even clothes. I wonder what they're like... They're probably crazy and unstable, since they're following someone like Luffy. I shuffle to the door and looked out the small window, seeing someone running around the deck and up some stairs and into another door.

There was no one else on the deck, so I carefully opened the door and closed it as quietly as I could behind me. The breeze nipped at my toes and face, but it wasn't that bad. I looked up to the door that the person went through and made my way to the stairs, making sure that I held the blanket tight around my body.

When I made it to the foot of the stairs, I sighed in exasperation. How in the world am I going to get up these without dying? As I debated on going back to that room and lying down, I smelled that wonderful aroma again. My stomach rumbled, and I decided that now was the time to eat. When was the last time I ate? I know that when I was in my cell, I hadn't eaten for about two days, and then they didn't even give me a last meal before my failed execution.

I started my voyage up the stairs, taking them slowly and carefully. My bandages were tight, and they pulled at my skin a little bit when I walked up the stairs, but I ignored it since I was about halfway up and I wasn't turning back now. As I made it up the last few steps, I did a victory fist-pump in the air, which resulted in me whimpering as something tore on my left side. When I pulled the blanket away to inspect, I saw blood running down, and that some stitches tore.

Damn...

Figuring there should be a doctor—or at least the person who stitched me in the first place—in there, I pressed forward and opened the door dramatically, leaning against it and spotting Luffy instantly. He was shoving food in his mouth like the glutton he was, and when he saw me, he laughed and raised a piece of meat in welcome. How charming...

I scanned the rest of the people, who happened to be a blonde guy, a green haired guy, a blue haired cyborg...guy, a skeleton guy, an orange haired girl, a black haired girl—Robin, that's her name—a long nosed guy, and a small creature who was cute and cuddly looking.

All their eyes were trained on me, every single one of the surprised with their mouths hanging open showing the food that they were in the process of chewing. Only Robin and Luffy looked calm, as they continued to eat their food after giving me a small wave, which in Luffy's case was with a piece of meat.

I cleared my throat, feeling my face turn red under the scrutiny. "I don't mean to be a burden, but whoever is the doctor around here needs to fix me up again." The cuddly blue nosed reindeer shot up and ran over. "I ripped open my stitches..."

"Let me see." I pulled the blanket to the side and showed him where the blood was, which was now reaching the cloth that covered my lower region. "I'll run down and grab the first aid kit. Sit down and don't move."

He ran out before I could even blink. When I looked back at the table, the only spot open was the one that the reindeer vacated, and that was beside the skeleton man and the blue haired man. Pulling the blanket back in place, I walked over—trying my hardest to ignore the fact that everyone was staring at me—and sat down as carefully as I could.

An awkward silence passed through the room, and I wasn't going to be the one to break it. Well, that was what I thought, but my stomach had different plans. It growled so loud that I thought it would cause an earthquake, and it made my face turn so red that I thought I would turn into a tomato. The skeleton looked down at me and seemed shocked, and everyone else looked at me like I was growing a second head.

"I'll get you some food, beautiful!" The blonde guy twirled out of his seat with hearts in his eyes and went to the soup that was sitting on the stove. He loaded up a bowl, and while he did that, the reindeer came back.

He approached me and started to unload the stuff he needed. Thinking it would be nasty to be stitched up at the table; I stood from my seat and went to stand against the wall. The blonde turned and saw that I had moved, but I asked him politely to set the bowl on the table.

"How are you feeling?" The reindeer set to work on sewing me back up, and I shrugged. "Do you feel dizzy, nauseous? Are you in any pain anywhere?"

I winced as the needle pierced a particularly tender spot. "I feel a little bit dizzy and nauseous, but I think that's because I'm hungry. I'm in pain, like, everywhere."

The reindeer nodded, making small noises as he was now wiping the blood clean and wrapping new bandages around me. "Well, that's all understandable. You got some very serious injuries—I'm not even sure how you survived. You're hungry because you've been out for about eight days."

"Eight days...?" I looked down at him wide eyed, and he nodded solemnly. "Well damn... I haven't eaten in..." I counted on my fingers a moment before coming up with an answer. "I haven't eaten in eleven days..."

The people at the table showed their surprise with yells of outrage, and the blonde guy went on about how he would cook me the best meals in the world as soon as I was done getting treated.

Luffy swallowed some food before grinning. "What, no last meal?"

The orange haired girl slapped him on the back of his head, telling him to be more sensitive. I grinned back and shrugged. "Apparently, the really bad pirates don't get shit."

He laughed, slapping his hand down on the table to show his extensive amusement at my sentence. The rest of the crew looked back and forth between us as I walked back to the table and started to eat. "I could never go eleven days with no food." Luffy mused after a moment of collecting himself. "I would probably die of starvation."

I snorted and sipped some more soup. It was the best I had ever eaten in my life... "I didn't even know that you knew the word 'starvation'." I insulted his intelligence, but he didn't seem to mind. "Y'know Luff, this is a nice looking crew you have here."

He stood suddenly, and would have knocked my soup off the table had it not been for my fast reflexes. He pointed to the skeleton and blue haired man at the same time. "I have a skeleton and a cyborg!"

I looked between the two men that I was sitting between and gasped, covering my mouth dramatically and widening my eyes to the max. "Oh my God... I didn't even notice..." The sarcasm was evident in my voice, but I don't think Luffy caught on like everyone else did since he didn't laugh like the rest of them. "So," I started, finishing my soup and pushing the bowl away, resting my hands on the table. "Introduce me to everyone, Monkey."

Luffy swallowed some more food before using a bone that once had meat on it and pointing at everyone as he introduced them. "That's Zoro, and he's my swordsman." I looked to the green haired man and gave a wave, but he just nodded back and went back to his soup. "That's Nami, and she's the best navigator in the world!" The orange haired girl smiled warmly at me and waved a blush on her face from the compliment. "That's Usopp, and he's a liar."

The long-nosed man stood and pointed to himself. "I am not a liar! I am the Great Captain Usopp! I am a brave warrior of the sea and—"

"He's the sharp-shooter of the crew." Nami explained, cutting off the obvious lies that Usopp was telling. I nodded in understanding and smiled at the comic expression of a heart-broken Usopp.

Luffy put up a hand and whispered rather loudly across the table to me. "He's also Yasopp's son!" At this, I was genuinely shocked, but when I examined his face some more, I could see the obvious similarities. When Usopp was going to say more, Luffy cut him off to continue the introductions. "That's Sanji, the cook." The blonde haired guy grinned at me and winked with a cigarette in his mouth. "That's—"

I followed his pointed finger and already knew the name. "Nico Robin..." I stated, giving the older woman a smile. She smiled back before looking back down at the book she was reading.

Luffy nodded. "Yeah, she's our arches...something."

"She's the archeologist?" I asked, cocking a brow at the fact that he can't say words that are big.

"Yeah, that's what it is!" I rolled my eyes at his childishness. "That's Chopper, and he's the Doctor and a reindeer!" I smiled at the reindeer, and I didn't bother to ask why he could walk and talk, since I had a feeling it was something to do with a Devil Fruit. "That's Brook, and he's the musician." The skeleton, which had gotten up and was sitting against the wall with a violin in hand, waved at me. "And Franky is the shipwright." The cyborg man with blue hair stood up, and I saw that he was wearing a speedo and Hawaiian shirt that was completely unbuttoned. He did a pose and said 'Super', which made Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy look at him in awe.

"Well," Nami spoke up, resting her head on her hand and looking across the table at me. "You met all of us, but we haven't met you yet."

I looked at Nami with confusion. "Didn't Luffy bother to tell you my name or who I am?"

Robin closed her book and turned to me, getting in a position similar to how Nami was sitting. "Captain has told everyone, rather indirectly, that your name is Mara. I am afraid that is all we know about you."

I made a face that clearly showed that I was confused. "How can I be on this ship for eight days, and he never told you guys. How could he have been with you guys and not mentioned me at least once?" Everyone shrugged except for Luffy, who had left sometime after the introductions. Zoro, who was leaning against the wall and looking as if he were about to fall asleep, was even listening.

"So...who are you?" Usopp asked, getting everyone else to nod as if to encourage me to answer.

I rolled my eyes and put my chin in my palm. "I'm that idiot's sister..."

There was a rather pregnant pause. The only sound was the running water from the sink, where Sanji was doing the dishes. Mouths were hanging open, and there was a collective breath, and then...