Prompt: Shrink
Set: After Arlong
Summary: Careful what you wish for...
It's no secret that being small sucks.
Especially on a big pirate ship like this. The worst part is how useless I am like this! I can't do anything to help with the ship, like raise the sails, turn the rudder, or work the paddles. I just have to sit around on deck while the big strong humans run around and take care of the ship.
I guess the one advantage to being this small is being sneaky, but there's hardly ever a time to use that skill. I'm agile and fast, but so are the others. Well, at least they don't pick on me because of that; but for some reason, that makes it worse. It's like they know I can't do anything to help so they don't ask.
I'm snapped out of my thoughts as Luffy shouts out, "Island! I see an island!"
Everyone comes out and gathers on the front of the ship to see a decent sized island coming into view. It looks uninhabited and full of plant life, kinda like a mix between a jungle and a forest.
Nami pulls out a map and looks at the island, "It looks like this place is called Hope Island."
"Hope Island?" Usopp asks.
"Pika?"
Nami shrugs, "I've never heard of it either; but I remember hearing about a legend." That one word catches Luffy's attention right away. "If I remember correctly, there's a hidden lake on this island called Prayer Lake, which is said to be able to grant any wish or prayer." Nami explains.
"Really?! That's awesome!" Luffy exclaims.
"Sounds like a load of crap, if you ask me." Zoro remarks.
"I'm just telling you what I heard; I never said it was true." Nami responds, turning up her nose at the swordsman.
"Well, either way it sounds like a safe island." Usopp points out. "It actually sounds like it could be pretty nice; Hope Island, how does that not sound safe?"
Nami shrugs, "I guess it wouldn't hurt to check it out; who knows, maybe we'll find something."
"I'll follow you to the ends of the earth, Nami!" Sanji cheers. "Yes! Adventure, here we come!" Luffy cheers.
A little while later, we drop anchor. I'm looking forward to this; this is my first island to explore with these guys. I wonder what kind of-
"Pika-chan, you stay and guard the ship." I start and look up at Sanji in shock. What do you mean, stay on the ship?
"One of us needs to stay here and make sure nothing happens to the ship." Nami says. "I know you're small, but I'm sure you can handle it." Wait, what is that supposed to mean?!
"C'mon! Let's goooo!" Luffy yells. "Adventure!"
"We're coming!" Sanji and Nami disembark the ship before I can protest. "We'll be back soon!" Sanji calls, looking back at me.
I frown as I watch them deviate into separate paths. I can't believe this! My first island as a pirate, and I have to play guard duty? How is that fair? I slump on the railing as everything goes quiet. A few minutes later, and I'm already going stir crazy.
I finally sigh and leap off the ship; there are no ships nearby and my instincts are quiet; nothing's gonna attack the ship. So what's the harm in doing a little exploring of my own; I won't go far.
The island really has nothing special going for it. There are a lot of trees, bushes, normal forest animals, and that's about it. It is pretty, though. I wander around for a while until I stop at creek to rest. Not really much to write home about here; still better than staying on an empty ship that I can apparently handle watching despite my size. I don't know why that sentence is bugging me so much. Sanji and the others know that there's more to me than just my size, right?
I sigh and take a drink from the creek, the water tasty and clean. I just wish that they all knew what it was like to be the small ones! I lift my head, having finished my drink when a gust of wind blows over me. The trees shake madly and animals scurry about until it finally stops. That was weird.
I guess now I should find my way back to the ship before the others get back.
Sanji had no idea what the hell just happened. He was walking along looking for anything edible when there was a gust of wind and his vision suddenly went spotted. He blinked a few times to get his sight back and the wind completely stopped. "That was weird…" he commented. However, everything seemed...off. He wasn't sure why; he looked and felt normal.
Sanji shrugged and continued on his way when he heard something approaching in the distance. He turned around just in time to see…
"What the hell?!" Sanji stumbled to the side as a giant squirrel bolted right past him before climbing a nearby tree. "That squirrel was as big as a house!" Sanji exclaimed. A shadow then passed over him and he looked up to see a giant butterfly flying over head.
"What kind of island is this?" Sanji wondered out loud. "When did everything get so big?" A loud screech was then heard from above him, making the cook cringe; he looked up to see a bird flying towards him. It looked like a normal sized forest bird, but as it got closer, Sanji learned quickly that that wasn't the case.
Sanji ducked just in time as the bird swooped right over him, it's feet brushing against his jacket to get a hold of him. "Damn bird…" Sanji muttered, getting back to his feet. He was starting to get the feeling that everything hadn't grown. The bird turned around and went for another shot at Sanji, "Alright, you're asking for it!" Sanji growled.
He leapt into the air and spun, readying a kick, but the bird was too fast. The bird lashed out it's beak and Sanji cried out as a sharp pain stabbed his shoulder. He spun his other leg around and managed to kick the bird on the neck, but the bird shook it off like it was nothing, resulting in the cook getting another peck, this time to his leg.
Sanji fell to the ground and the bird zoomed towards when it was suddenly covered in electricity. The bird fell to the ground, burned to a crisp and Sanji turned around to see a familiar yellow mouse behind him. "P-Pika-chan?"
Pika-chan looked at him for the first time and its eyes widened, "Pika?" It asked. No doubt about it, that was definitely Pika-chan, but...why was it so big? Sanji was barely half its height! "So I really did shrink…" he muttered, looking at the burned bird.
This was already shaping up to be another hectic day.
I almost can't believe what I'm looking at. Sanji is...well, he's tiny! He shrunk! He's half my height, I just about tower over him!
Well, at least I got here in time to help, though I never expected that I'd have to save him from a bird of all things. "I guess you didn't shrink." Sanji comments, looking up at me. "I wonder if this happened to Nami and the others?"
My ears suddenly twitch and I look around abruptly. "What is it?" Sanji asks. I can hear lots of flapping and bird calls; that can't be good. We look up to see a bunch of those same birds fly down towards us. Oh crap!
I quickly get on all fours and slide my tail under Sanji. I gently fling him onto my back and I start running, the birds right behind us. "What the hell is wrong with these things?" Sanji exclaims on my back. They're either pissed that we roasted their buddy or this part of their attack formation; either way, they're trouble!
I look up as a handful of birds from the group fly right over us and fly ahead. They then swerve around flying right back towards us making me skid to a halt. Unfortunately, the sudden stop sends Sanji flying right over my head and the birds take full advantage.
My eyes widen as the birds start pecking and scratching at Sanji in a big pile and I make my tail iron. 'Get away from him!' I give my tail a hard swing, and the birds scatter. I then turn around, facing the whole horde and unleash a lightning attack, roasting all the birds in one fell swoop.
I turn back to Sanji, "Pika pi?" 'You okay?' I ask looking him over. I don't see anything particularly bad, just a few rips and tears on his clothes and I don't smell any blood.
"I'm fine," Sanji says, getting up and grasping his shoulder. "Thanks, buddy."
I smile and nod. We both look at the burned birds on the ground and I start to get uneasy; if Sanji couldn't defend himself from birds then who knows what trouble the others could be in if they've shrunken too!
"We need to find to others." Sanji says. I nod and crouch down. Sanji climbs on my back and I take off deeper into the forest.
"I can't believe this!" Nami hugged herself as she wandered through the now gigantic forest. "No one said anything about shrinking! Why does the crazy stuff always have to happen to us?!" She tried and failed to suppress a shiver as the smallest animal noises suddenly sounded threatening and dangerous. She just hoped that she could find the others soon so they could figure out how to reverse this mess.
"Where are those idiots? This is why I wanted us to stay in groups!" She climbed a hill only to stop short as it ended abruptly with a cliff. If she was normal height, it would've been easy to simply slid down it to the next level of the forest, but now, it looked like a good twenty foot drop.
"There's got to be a better way down…" Nami muttered. She looked around for some easy pathway when she heard something move behind her. Nami froze, pale from shock and slowly turned around to be face to face with a-
"SPIDER!"
The insect's head was the same height as her own, making it's multiple eyes and fangs much more apparent. Nami shrieked in terror as the spider stepped towards her, making her take a step back. Nami screamed as she fell backwards, forgetting about the cliff, the braced herself for the landing. Nami frowned as her fall was stopped rather abruptly by something...bouncy?
Nami opened her eyes to find that she couldn't move, and it didn't take her long to notice the long sticky strands she was lying on. She was in a web. "Oh no...no no no, not this! Anything but this!" Nami cried as she struggled to get up from the sticky web. The spider from before quickly appeared on the opposite end of the web, making Nami realize that she was still a good distance off the ground, enough to injure her if she fell wrong.
She paled as the spider slowly crawled towards its new victim, "No no no!" She yelled. "Stay away from me! I hate spiders! No!" Nami squeezed her eyes shut as the spider hovered over her when she felt a sudden rush of air as something yellow brushed the spider away. She opened her eyes to see that the spider was gone.
"Pika!"
She started at the familiar cry. The web then suddenly shook and then she was falling only to be caught by something yellow. She looked up at the familiar face, "Pika-chan?"
The mouse smiled down at her, "Pikachu!" Nami slumped in relief in the mouse's arms; that was too close!
"Nami!"
Nami looked down as Sanji appeared beside Pika-chan, "Sanji!"
Pika-chan gently put Nami down and Sanji went up to her, "Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?" Sanji asked, helping her get the leftover web off her clothes.
"I...I think so…" Nami answered, shivering at what had nearly occurred. She was never looking at a spider again!
"So you shrunk too, huh?" Sanji said, holding out his hand to help her up.
Nami took it and she stood up, "Looks like it; but Pika-chan looks normal."
"I know; but if we've shrunk, that probably means the others have too."
Nami sighed, "What I don't get is why a place called Hope Island made us shrink like this!"
"Hopefully we'll figure it out once we find the others; I'm exactly looking forward to being stuck like this."
"Pika." Pika-chan said with a nod and crouched down, allowing the cook and navigator to climb on.
"Let's go , Pika-chan!" Sanji said, and the mouse took off.
Zoro had to admit, this was a new one. He could've sworn that these animals were normal sized a moment ago. But to make matters worse… "Where the hell is my sword?!"
He glanced around and found it but it were huge! Wado was lying on the ground, the size of a fallen tree. "What the hell is going on?!" He never took off his sword once since arriving here! How did it fall off and how did it get so big?!
Just then, a shadow loomed over him. Judging by its shape it was something big and furry. He turned slightly to see a red fox leering down at him, its fangs bared. "What do you want?" Zoro growled.
The fox bent its ears back and swiped at him without warning. Zoro barely managed to jump and avoid it, but the fox was faster than it looked. The minute he landed, the fox pounced, pinning him to the ground on his stomach. He looked behind him as the fox's mouth drew nearer, but once its nose was in range, Zoro gave it a hard punch.
The fox flinched and loosened its hold on Zoro, allowing him to get up and run. That punch hardly did anything! If he was normal size, that fox would've been sent flying! He looked behind him to see that the fox had recovered and was now giving chase. He hated running from a fight, but in this situation, he had no choice.
We ran for a while, but with no sign of Luffy, Zoro, or Usopp. After a while, I slowed to a walk and we looked and listened for any signs of them. Sanji and Nami called out to them but there was no answer. Man, where could these guys be?
Just then, I spy something in the distance. It looks like...a white sheath. "Pika!" I exclaim and move quickly towards the object. Just as I thought.
"Isn't that Zoro's?" Sanji asks.
"No doubt about it." Nami says with a nod as she and Sanji slide off me. "This is Zoro's alright; so he must be close by."
I glance around, listening for any sign of him; he couldn't have gone far, that is, if he hasn't gotten lost yet. I point up to the tree, "Pika pika." 'I'm gonna look up there.' I say.
Sanji follows my gesture, "Are you saying you want to look from up there?" He asks. I nod. "Alright, we'll keep an eye out on the ground." I nod again and scale the tree. I move into the branches, looking from every angle, but still no sign of him. C'mon, where are you, Zoro?!
After a while, I give up and jump down from the tree only to freeze in fear. Sanji and Nami are gone! Don't tell me they wandered off without me?! Crap, I've got to find them and fast! I jog down the path for a while, keeping an ear out when I hear a familiar scream. That's Nami!
I quickly run towards the sound and find myself in a clearing. A fox is standing near the base of a tree, growling, and it looks like it's cornering something. Oh no! I pick up my speed and white energy surrounds me as I slam right into the fox making it skid on its side.
"Pika-chan!" I turn to see Nami, Sanji, and Zoro at the base of the tree, all of them unharmed. I smile and turn back to the fox who's sluggishly getting to its feet. I stand protectively in front of my three friends and growl at the fox, sparks flying from my cheeks.
Luckily, the fox knows it's in a fight it can't win and runs away with a yelp. I turn back to my friends with a smile and walk towards them. "Nice one, partner." Sanji says.
"Pika." I say with a nod before looking back at where the fox ran off. If even Zoro was in danger, I'm getting even more worried about Luffy and Usopp.
"Huh, this is weird." Luffy said, looking around as he stood on a tree branch. "I could've sworn this tree wasn't this big." He stretched his arm and pulled himself up to the next branch. "I bet the view at the top is gonna be great!"
He ran along the branch, using is as a bridge to another tree and managed to stretch a good distance up the tree. However, as he landed on another branch he was greeted by a bunch of monkeys.
The animals all stared at him blankly and Luffy broke into a grin, "Awesome! The monkeys are huge too!" His grin faded and one of the monkeys approached him. The monkey stared at him, unblinking, and Luffy did the same.
This went on for a good few minutes, until the silence was finally broken by the monkey grabbing Luffy.
Finding Luffy was easier than I thought it would be; however, helping him was going to be something entirely different. We heard him yelling at something and followed it to see him, also shrunken, and being manhandled by a horde of monkeys, all of them seeing how far his rubber body can stretch.
Man, is it just me, or is everything on this island out to get my friends?
"Luffy!"
"Pika!"
"Let go of me! Stupid monkeys, I'm gonna kick your asses!" Luffy yells as he struggles to break free. Oh boy…
I use my tail to gently nudge Sanji, Zoro, and Nami off my back and leap into action. I climb the tree, jump towards the fray and make my tail iron. I give a few hard swings and the monkeys scatter, dropping Luffy. I quickly grab the back of his vest in my mouth and land safely, putting him on the ground.
"Hey! Pika-chan!" Luffy greets.
"Pika pika!" I respond.
"Whoa, look at you! When did you get so huge?!" Luffy says with wide excited eyes. I sweatdrop as he starts climbing all over me. "Everything on this island is huge! This is awesome!"
"Luffy!" We turn to see the others running towards us.
"Hey guys, when did you get here?" Luffy greets with a wave.
"We've been looking for you, dumbass." Zoro answers.
"Hey, have you seen all the cool big animals on this island?" Luffy asks.
"Of course we have, you idiot!" Nami snaps. "In fact we've been busy running from most of them!"
"And they're not big, we somehow shrunk," Sanji adds. "If everything on this island was naturally big, then Pika-chan wouldn't be this big compared to us."
Luffy stares at him before nodding, "So it's a Mystery Island." We all sigh in defeat; better than nothing. "Oh, where's Usopp?" Luffy asks.
"We're still looking for him." Zoro answers.
"Once we do, we're going back to the ship to figure out what happened to us." Nami adds.
Punctuating her sentence, a loud scream rang through the air. That can only belong to one person. "That was Usopp!" Luffy exclaims.
"Let's go!" Sanji urges. I crouch down and everyone clambers onto my back before I run through the forest, faster than ever.
The forest ends after a while and we find ourselves in a grassy plain overlooking a cliff; this must be the edge of the island. I can still hear Usopp but I can't see him...oh crap. I carefully make my way to the edge of the cliff and let the others down before peeking down.
Sure enough, Usopp is down there, sitting on a piece of stone, a good distance from the ocean below. "Usopp!" Nami yells frantically.
"Hold on!" Luffy rears his arm back and stretches towards Usopp; however, thanks to his small size, he can't reach him, causing his hand to fly back and smack him.
"Guys, get me up! Please, hurry!" Usopp pleads.
I look down the cliff and realize that there are a lot of rocks jutting out along the face. I can easily use those. I carefully slide down the edge of the cliff onto one and go from there, hopping from rock to rock. I carefully make my way down towards Usopp, but I have to hurry because the rock he's on is beginning to crumble. I take a flying leap, latch onto the cliff face and swing my tail down just as the rock holding Usopp completely crumbles.
Usopp clings to my tail, wrapping all four of his limbs around it, tears of fright pouring from his eyes. "Hope Island scary...Hope Island scary...Hope Island scary…" Oh man, I hope he's not too broken.
I easily climb back to the top of the cliff and it takes quite a bit of persuading to pry Usopp off my tail. "Land! Sweet land!" Usopp cries, kneeling and kissing the ground.
"So, it looks like everyone except Pika-chan shrunk." Sanji says.
Usopp looks up and realizes just how big I am compared to them, "Holy crap! We're no bigger than insects if Pika-chan is this big compared to us!"
"Do you think someone caused it deliberately?" Zoro asks.
"I think I might have something in my room," Nami says. "We should get back to the ship as soon as possible."
I nod and crouch down once again. Once all my friends are safely on my back, it's easy to find our way back to the Merry. We go down to Nami's room (me carrying everyone all the way) and I find the map of Hope Island.
We all gather around the map and Nami scans it over and over. "Nothing here says anything about shrinking; just the same stuff about Prayer Lake!" She says after a while.
"Wait...what if that's what caused it?" Usopp suggests. "You said that Prayer Lake can grant any wish or prayer; so what if we shrunk because someone wished us to be small?"
"But who would even make a wish like that?" Nami asks.
My eyes widen and my ears perk up as I remember when I was drinking from the creek; I thought that was in my head! Did the island really grant my wish? But how did it know when I didn't even say it out loud? My mind goes to the creek; I was drinking the water. Creeks come from a source of larger water; maybe that creek was actually made of water from Prayer Lake!
"Pika-chan!" I'm snapped out of my thoughts as Sanji calls me. Everyone's looking at me. "Do you have an idea of who did this?"
Oh man...time to face the music. I lower my head and let my ears droop, making the answer pretty clear.
"Wait...you made that wish?" Usopp exclaims. "You wished for us all to be small?" I nod, still looking at the ground.
"But why would you wish for that?" Nami asks.
"Wait." Sanji says. "Pika-chan...was it an accident?" I look at Sanji and nod; if I had known that the magic of Prayer Lake was real I wouldn't have left the ship in the first place.
"Even so, it was on your mind which is why we're like this." Zoro points out.
"It's because you're small." Luffy suddenly says. He's looking directly at me. "I bet you wanted to know what it as like to be big for a change, is that right?" I shrug but nod anyway; that's the closest answer they're gonna get.
"Wait, but if Pika-chan made a wish, that means you must've found Prayer Lake!" Nami points out. I shake my head in response; I didn't exactly find the lake, but I have an idea of where we can find it.
"Can you at least take us to where you made your wish?" Sanji asks.
I nod and gesture for them to get on my back. A few minutes later, we're running through the forest once again. I easily find the creek and point to it. Luckily, Nami, being the smartest one here, gets what happened. "I see, this creek must be from Prayer Lake."
"So we just follow the creek, and we'll find the lake." Sanji continues.
"Exactly!"
"So let's go! To Prayer Lake!" Luffy yells.
I follow the creek upstream until we finally reach what looks like a big cavern with a small hole where the water is leaking out. Everyone gets off my back and we walk through the hole one by one. Once we're through, we're greeted to a beautiful sight.
A giant lake sitting in the middle of a stone clearing, sparkling in the sun which is shining down from a hole right above it in the middle of the stone dome covering it. It looks almost heavenly; I can see why they called this place Prayer Lake.
I nod to the others and step up to the lake. I lean down and sip the water, closing my eyes, and saying my wish in my head. 'I wish my friends were back to normal.' The sun shining on the lake seems to grow brighter as I hear the wind blow sharply outside. After a few moments, the wind stops and I turn around to see my friends back to their normal heights.
"Alright! We're big again!" Luffy cheers.
"What a relief!" Nami agrees.
"I can't complain; being tall is awesome!" Usopp cheers.
I smile and walk towards them. "Whoa," Luffy breathes. "It's so weird; I was used to seeing you big and now you're small again."
"Don't be so blunt!" Usopp comments.
Sanji kneels down to my level, "Like that matters to us," He gives me a pat. "Big or small, you're still our Pika-chan."
I beam at him, "Pikachu!" I'll admit, it was fun being the big one for a change. And because of it, I actually feel a little bigger inside.
You gotta admit, with the main story being called 'The Smallest Straw Hat' how could this idea NOT come to my head? XD
