She had been awake for quite some time now, still she feigned to be asleep. Why you ask?
Well, she really wanted to know what they were talking about. The doctor and… some other guy with a familiar voice. Midori truly tried her best not to make a face while listening to them, even when her nose was itching like that!

"I haven't found any severe injuries that could have explained her breakdown, no infections, not even flu! Although there have been some old bruises, but they're barely visible anymore and seem to be at least a month old. "

"In other words you have no explanation for why she hadn't woken up in over two days?"

"I fear so, there has to be something more to this or I would have found a reason! Look at this."

She heard some shuffling. From a clipboard maybe?

"Her temperature rose about the average body-heat a normal human is able to reach without dying."

Silence crept over the room.
Yumiko's hands were fisted into the bed sheets. It was the only thing that restrained her from jumping up –which would be idiotic anyway- and screaming a very loud 'WHAT THE FUCK?' at the two men.

She listened to the retreating footsteps clenching her jaw. She was alone. The girl let out a shaky breath and opened her eyes.

'So I slept for two whole days?... and I apparently had a bad fever. Well, I feel not that bad for something like that...No, I feel fine even. The headache is gone and I am only a little sore, so.. I am in fact fine, I guess. So far, so good.'

Slowly Midori sat up and carefully stretched her sore muscles. Nothing happened. So she was indeed fine, well, as fine as you could be, when you had been sleeping for two days with a high fever. She could at least stand up again. She did so, sliding the covers from her body in the process and smiled, when her legs didn't give in under her own weight.
A shiver ran through her body and practically froze on the spot, as she looked down.

"HOLY CRAP!" The blonde girl had been stripped down to her underwear. To her underwear! How was she supposed to follow the two men to find out more about her situation, when her appearance screamed at every single man on this ship 'JUMP ME!' ?

Oh god, if somebody would come in right now…
she didn't want to think about it. Frantically she turned around to find something, anything decent she could use to cover herself. I'd be far too embarrassing for her to be seen only in a pair of frilly panties, though that still didn't mean that she'd wear a nurse uniform. No. Way. In. Hell.
Then she spotted some neaty folded clothes on a chair next to the bed. The girl actually threw herself at the clothes hugging them almost lovingly. She was saved!

The blonde rubbed her face against the fabric and sniffed. It smelled strange… but it intrigued her. The smell was salty and wild, like the sea, and… wait. It smelled like fire? Could something even smell like fire? It was strange and there also was a hint of… vanilla?
Yes, yes it definitely was vanilla.

'Whoever this belongs to, I have to thank him for saving me from those obnoxious uniforms.'

She smiled lightly at the thought, while getting dressed.
She now wore a white shirt with a green and blue checked patterns. She also wore a pair of dark brown trousers and the boots from her marine uniform, which somebody had wisely put next to her bed. Midori was absolutely content.
The clothes weren't showing off her curves, but fell loosely around her form making her look rather manly. Well, at least nobody would stare at her, the perfect condition to sneak around.

With still a small smile in place she slipped silently out the door. She turned from left to right making sure she was alone. Luck seemed to be on her side when she saw nobody.
Cautiously the girl made her way through the corridors trying to avoid the other inhabitants of the ship, while she searched for a way 'up'. You see, 'up' meant she was going to the main deck and where was Whitebeard most of the time? Right, on the main deck and if she was lucky then he and whoever else would be talking about her in some way. After all, the blonde needed the information to survive in this world and in this ruff times. Knowing about the manga and its storyline didn't really help at the time. So let's go spying~

Reaching a wooden door, she felt a salty breeze sweep over her forearms. So this was the last door separating her from the main deck. The she heard the voices.

"So you only found those symptoms, but nothing else?" Definitely Whitebeard's voice.

"Exactly! I have never seen something like this before, not in the whole time since I started my medical education!"

Silence. Obviously everybody was stunned speechless. Midori understood them, she really did. It didn't happen every day that a doctor who has served under the same pirate captain for (probably) two decades and that on the Grand line didn't know an illness. It almost was scary.

"Well…" Whitebeard's words cut through the heavy silence like butter and she could tell by the sound of it that he knew. Whatever it was, this man knew it. "…I've heard about these symptoms before. Somebody told me about an old story including those 'symptoms'."

Somehow the girl –and everybody else for that matter- knew that this was the only thing he'd be saying for now and probably was she, at most one of the commandants, the only one who registered what he was implying at. He meant Roger and that now really confused her. Wait. No, it unsettled her.

"It's a very rare ability."

"ABILITY?"

"Gurarara." The old man laughed at the shocked faces of his son. "Only one under a million is born with it."

"WHAT?"

He chuckled again.

"It's a special bond that is developed, when said person is born. The person normally gets something like an inner compass that leads him or her to the destined devil fruit and a little bit from its power, though that also means the person can't tolerance sea water anymore."

And again only silence remained. But who would judge them? The shock sat deep and Midori didn't doubt that she wasn't the only one who was completely thrown off by his words.
Although her reaction was far worse, like her blank face showed. It was more like this. Holy. Friggin'. Shit.
Her mind was empty, void of anything, well, almost anything.
Where the hell did this power come from? She wasn't born 'here'. She was in fact only here since… a month? She knew this world from mangas- damn it- and there wasn't more to it!

Still totally spaced out she nearly didn't hear the steps approaching the door. Just before it was opened the girl jumped to her feet and dashed all the way back to the cabin like a madman, pardon, madwoman.
She threw the door shut and fell coughing horribly on her bed.

'I can't be that special!... No, I..I just can't…' Sighing she closed her eyes and rolled on her back. 'Damn… when they think, I am special they will not let me go any time soon. I wish they would just leave me alone. I have to go. I have to find out what happened with the others…'

Silently the blonde wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. She didn't want to be weak, not right now. It would be stupid and awkward to be found now, sobbing like a little girl. No, she didn't need it at all…
That realization though didn't change the fact that she was stuck on this ship for an unknown amount of time which meant that she could not search for her friends or the reason why she was here in the first place. Oh, and if you were wondering why she was so worried about her friends, although Garp had told her that there had been no one else. He just had to be wrong… He had to…

"They can't be dead!"

'Are you sure?'

Midori ignored the strange voice in the back of her mind. She was not going to stop believing that now. It would only make everything worse.

However, she doubted it would change anything. Marco would supposedly stick to her like glue for the next days, weeks, months? She was forced to put her plans on ice. For the moment at least. Yeah, for the moment sounded good, but if she wanted this 'for the moment' to be as short as possible then she had to find a way out. Lying in this bed trying to not cry, on the other hand, wouldn't help to make any progress.
Drying the last stubborn tears she sat back up again. Good, now she needed a plan. Maybe she should start with collecting information to build the plan up from…
That really looked like a good idea!

A word and a blow.

Grinning slightly she got to her feet and searched for something to cover her hair, the greatest giveaway that she was indeed female. For sneaking around and spying at the crew it would be disadvantage to walk around showing off whom she was, but what could she use to change that?

Looking around she finally spotted a blue headscarf. The perfect solution.
Happily she covered her hair with it letting only her fringe fall into her faces. She still looked feminine- you can't change the form of your face that easily-, but probably no one would take a closer look anyway. Not when the person in front of them looked like a teenage boy.

Being content with her disguise she slipped out of the room again. Since she already knew the way to the main deck, she chose said way- to get lost now wouldn't be the best idea- and felt herself getting more careless, when she was simply ignored by the pirates crossing her way. The first part of her 'plan' was successful. Good….

Now the only thing to do was to blend in with the crew and get some information out of them. Hopefully that wouldn't go wrong, which was definitely going to happen, if she walked into one of the commandants…
Better not think about the worst case scenarios…

Shaking the unwanted thoughts out of her head the blonde looked around and spotted a perfect target.
A group of men was sitting in a more secluded away from the crowd playing poker. If that wasn't the gold mine of information, then she didn't know. Perhaps, Midori was a little more enthusiastic than she should have been, but… hey, she liked playing poker!

Fortunately- she was unbelievable lucky today- they were just starting a new round.

"Can I join?" She even managed to deepen her voice.

"Yes…" The guys gave her a curious look. "Are ya new?"

"Yes." It was actually the truth. They rewarded her with a nod and the girl sat down. "Oh by the way could you answer me some questions? I haven't had the time yet to get accustomed to everyone."

"Hmm…okay, but only under one condition…"

"And that would be?"

"You have to win the game."

A wolfish smirk lit up her face. "That's all?"

The narrowed their eyes at the blonde. "Don't be so full of yourself, brat."

"I'll try ma best, but let's start."

XxXx

Thirty minutes and two games later the blonde haired girl was sitting between a bunch of frustrated and cash-strapped men. She had won every single game. Oh, how she loved playing cards!

"How's that possible?"

"It isn't fair! It's simply not fair!"

"Come on guys! I was only lucky!" She said encouragingly. "Would you answer my questions now?"
Nodding in defeat they listened up.

"Hmm…" Where should she start best? "…can you tell me something about the commandants… Marco for example?"

"Commandant Marco… Oh well, he's very reliable and cares for everybody here, but he's also the biggest philanderer, you can find…" The blonde raised an eyebrow at this. The man speaking saw her reaction. "Don't get me wrong! He still is a great fighter and good friend, but when he wants a girl, he gets her. That's an unwritten rule."

"As much as they fight him, in the end they all fall for him anyway and he just dumps them, when he had enough. With the new chick it'll be just the same." Another man said.

Okay, that's new and…Wait. WHAT? Marco…wanted to screw her…?
Oh. Fuck.
Midori couldn't help, but stare at them in utter horror. That hadn't been part of the plan. She hadn't even considered it to be part of the plan! This was not the way she had expected her life to be in the One Piece world.

Absorbed in her thoughts- they were going haywire right now- she didn't notice the person walking up behind her until it was too late. Someone blew against the shell of her ear making her shriek. Loud.
Her shock was mirrored on the faces of the men around her.

"It's not nice to runaway." A voice softly whispered in her ear. She didn't need to turn around to find out whom this voice belonged to. Oh no, she already knew.
Without hesitation Marco pushed the headscarf off Midori's head. Blonde curls danced in the wind, as they were freed from the headscarf. The men, she had been playing with before, gaped at her a slight pink hue staining their cheeks. Understandable, since they didn't recognize that the person in front of them was a girl…

Marco on the other side blatantly ignored them. He rather busied himself by throwing the girl over his shoulder. Midori didn't even try to fight back. First, she was weaker than him and second she was to caught up in her own thoughts to care.

'I may be doomed, but I am not going down with a fight!'

Oh yeah and that's the story how Marco, the phoenix, and Midori started a challenge of resisting and giving of which the Whitebeard pirates had never seen like this before.

Here is the new chapter and I hope you liked it and will review!

And thanks in advance for my betareader Shiary :D
(I hope you don't mind that I uploaded the chapter before you could edit it again… Sorry…)

Ps.: the 100th reviewer gets a OS of his choice (hopefully about a manga I know xD) written by me 3