Out of the blue I found inspiration for this one. I'm sorry it's so short. But there's only two more chapters left after this one!

This is not edited, so if you find something really awful, please tell me!


In a world that's lost

So throwing Ruffled into the oak was a failure, and now they were back on square one. The pirates had rushed back to the Sunny and straight to Chopper's infirmary with the unconscious girl. Robin and Nami were helping the little reindeer pick grass, mint and sprouting oaks from her body. They had sailed out of the reefs and Nami was dead set against going back. She had managed to peel a few diamonds from the wall she'd hidden behind and was fairly satisfied.

Chopper was in a state of alarm. They had decidedly come to the conclusion the nameless girl had eaten a devil fruit, but it was different from anything Chopper had ever seen. The grass and oaks seemed to grow with her body as their soil and the roots were bloody when they picked them out. At first it had seemed like a good idea to leave the plants, but then they started to wither and the colour slowly drained from the girl's face along with the blood that seemed to have filled it up earlier, so now they were picking out the plants as fast and carefully as they could. Chopper tried not to breathe either. The girl smelled too much like blood and puss mixed with soil and something burnt.

When they finally removed the last sprouting oak from her big toe, taking the nail out with it, Chopper needed a moment to calm down and mentally prepare himself for the sight he knew awaited him underneath those strange cloths.

"Okay. We should remove her shirt first. Robin, will you hold her up for me?"

The historian grew hands under Ruffled's shoulders and lower back and pushed her up. She knew she would still have to feel the bones sticking out and the unnerving material of the cloths, but it felt a little better not to touch her with her real hands.

Chopper gulped, held his breath and removed the top.

Nami slapped a hand over her mouth and quickly turned away. "I'm sorry, I can't do this. I'm leaving."

Nobody stopped her. Robin actually had half a mind to follow her friend out. What Ruffled hid under her cloths was dried up skin, chapped and bloody from the sudden fill of water she'd gotten, puss rather than blood seeping out of the wounds. Right underneath the skin they could see the bones, and her abdomen was sunken in dangerously deep.

"She's not used drink and eat, her body can't handle it," Chopper sobbed. "We've given her too much water and then on the island I think she must have eaten everything she saw after she was thrown into the tree. She could have eaten herself to death."

"So what should we do?" Robin asked barely above a whisper.

"We must clean her first. I need warm water and the cleaning rags in the bottom drawer to the left in my desk. After that we must be careful with how much food we give her and increase the amount gradually."

Robin nodded and went to get the towels. Chopper's words made sense, and reminded her of a story she heard once; a man from a poor family became a famous actor, and to suddenly have food come to him at his whim he grew fatter and fatter until his stomach burst from the forced expansion because the man simply had no breaks and ate until there was no more food in his sight. If Luffy wasn't a rubber man Robin feared that would have been her captain's fate as well, considering his appetite…


Out on the deck Nami stood and glared at the mountain, fingers drumming against the railing as she tried to figure out what to do next and forget the sight of Ruffled's body. She had to admit; ever since she'd joined this mad crew with its eccentric captain she'd had moments when she hated it. Luffy and his whims would be their death one day and they all knew it… and accepted it. They were pirates after all with all it included. But even though she disagreed with the rubber man more than half of the time, following his orders was easy. They were always clear and straight to the point. Now Luffy was gone, and the responsibility to lead the crew now fell on Nami. Zoro might be the first mate, and normally Nami would at least hear his advice, but right now Zoro was as much at a lost as any of them.

The navigator inhaled deeply.

"Nami-san."

She turned to acknowledge Sanji, hoping he would give her something that would help her figure out what to do next. She let the air out as she looked back at the island. "The log is set, we don't need to refill our stocks now that Luffy isn't here, everyone's aboard and I don't know if it's worth waiting around or not."

"I think not, Nami-san," Sanji shared his thought and puffed out smoke away from the navigator's direction. "Whatever happened to Luffy I don't think it has anything to do with this island or that oak. The girl said she was 'pushed through wood' didn't she?"

"I still can't make sense of that," Nami admitted and swallowed as the glimpse of Ruffled's corpse-like body forced its way to her consciousness.

"Me neither, but Brook said Ruffled fell out of the main mast. We also thought that Luffy would come back that way if we threw Ruffled into the oak of that island. Whatever powers are at work here, don't you think it's logical to believe Luffy will come back to us via Sunny if wood is the actual answer?"

It was farfetched and roundabout, but it was also the only explanation they had for now. Nami bit her lip and sent a last glare at the mountain before she made up her mind.

"Okay. We'll rest here for tonight and leave first thing in the morning."

"Hai, Nami-san!"


The girl slept fitfully. She felt sick even in her feverish dreams. She saw shadows of memories mixed with words she forgot as soon as she heard them. She saw the Sea Devil wrapped around its newly laid egg as the corpses its body had consumed during the millennia of imprisonment under the sea wiggle under the scales, eventually coming lose and becoming Devil Droppings that haunted the dark caves of the world. The Shaman's voice told the story of how the Sea Devil had consumed corpses of sailors, fishes, whales and anything else that had been alive, drowned and fallen to the ocean floor.

In her dreams she ate grass that tasted so strongly she choked. Her body absorbed water and seeds that started to grow and sprout painfully, their roots digging into her veins to suck her blood out.

This world's earth and plants still knew about water and took it for granted. They didn't have to preserve every drop to last as long as possible.

It was with a need to vomit the girl opened her eyes to a blurred image of… well she wasn't sure what it was but she was laying in a twisted position with the lower half her body face up and her head face down over an edge. Unbeknownst to herself she'd been gagging in her sleep and Chopper had turned her over by the shoulder with one big hand and held a bucket with his other, holding it carefully under the girl's head. It was just that she couldn't throw up. Her body had since birth learnt how scarce food was so throwing up was not an option. She might gag and feel something come up, but she'd always swallow it back down.

She swallowed thickly and took a few deep breaths, calming her upset stomach. She thought she knew what had happened and why she felt like this, but she wasn't sure. Heck, the girl wasn't even sure where reality had ended and dream started.

"Are you okay?" a gentle voice asked, yet the volume still made the girl flinch in surprise.

"I… I'm… okay…" she breathed. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure," Chopper said as quietly as he could. It appeared that the quieter her surroundings were the calmer Ruffled felt. "Have you eaten a devil fruit?"

Ruffled took a moment to progress the question. She had never been asked the question before so it took a while to understand, but once she did she nodded. "The Earth fruit, Shaman told me. My body is Earth, a garden where the plants I've eaten grow, and so I am one with Nature."

That was a… rather poetic way to put it, Chopper thought. It did explain why those oak sprouts and grass rooted in her body… somewhat.

"You're not used to eat," the little doctor explained. "So when you… were on that island, didn't you eat pretty much everything you saw?"

The girl only nodded.

"How often do you normally eat?"

She thought for a moment. "One meal… every second day… sort of. And my ration of water."

"You get to drink water every day?" Chopper asked, relieved the girl had at least that much.

"Not really. The water ration has to last a week per person."

The reindeer's face fell. Meagre barely began to describe this girl's life. No wonder she was in such a state if she hadn't even been able to drink water every day.

"We'll increase your meals slowly to get your body used to food and more water."

"No," the girl protested. "I need to go back to my own world as soon as I can."

Chopper frowned sadly. This girl was too stubborn for her own good.

"A-anyway, we left that island an hour ago. The people there didn't know anything about what happened to Luffy, and because you… fell out of the mast, we don't think that tree has anything to do with the case."

The girl lay still and listened, thinking obviously with the way her eyebrows knitted together. "As long as there's wood," she said at length. "Because I was pushed through wood."

"How did that happen?" the reindeer asked curiously. "I mean, all you've really told us is that you were pushed."

Brown eyes opened and stared blankly at the ceiling. "When the shaman goes out to hunt, I sometimes go with her, even though Mayor says I can't. Sitting still in that place though, I slowly go mad. So that day, I begged shaman to take me out hunting."

She silenced for a moment. The shaman hadn't put up much of a fight. She never did against anyone but the mayor. Why would she? The hunts were just a means to keep her occupied, because in reality she had lost hope too. Mayor's daughter was the last child to be born, and despite the old guy's claims his daughter was their future she would stay the last child born in their world. The women couldn't carry children anymore and men couldn't produce seed. And really, Mayor's claims about his daughter were only so he could get his greedy hands on half of everything the villagers had to share. Nobody had the breath to fight back, and so that old monster was slowly eating out the village he claimed he protected.

The reality was the opposite. The girl wondered if the shaman had figured it out yet. Shaman was sharp, so the girl had little doubt that if the village's real protector hadn't found the Sea Devil yet she soon would.

So why try to survive when they were doomed ever since they moved into that hollow mountain?

"Ruffled?"

She opened her eyes and glanced at the furry animal beside her. Blushing slightly she realized she'd left him hanging. "Where was I?"

"The shaman took you out to hunt."

The girl shrugged. "Nothing was out of the ordinary. We went to the hill where there is a cave, went inside, found water and the plant that grew there. A Devil Dropping found us, but shaman killed and purified it without getting injured this time. We were lucky."

Chopper stared at his patient. "Devil dropping?" he asked slowly. He hoped that didn't mean what he thought it meant. Ruffled's people couldn't be so desperate they actually ate shit… right?

"During its years of imprisonment under the sea, the Sea Devil's body absorbed the corpses that reached it. Now, free from the prison, those corpses fall away from the main body and come alive. The shaman's magic is the only thing that can kill them and purify the meat to make it edible."

The doctor heaved a quiet sigh of relief. He didn't understand all the details, but at least the girl hadn't grown up eating… droppings.

"We made it out of the cave… There was a tree, dead like the rest of our world, like a piece of bone from the time our old world still had life."

The girl's voice was rapidly growing hoarse and Chopper picked up a glass of water with a straw to let the girl drink. She sucked in a mouthful, grimaced in pain as she swallowed too much and the water almost logged in her throat. The small doctor stroked the girl's throat, massaging the muscles and stimulating the reflex to swallow.

"You must be careful. Because of the small amount of food your body is adapted to survive on your stomach will burst open and kill you if you eat too much. Your instincts though will tell you to eat everything you can because survival is dependent on food."

"I… only understood the careful part," Ruffled coughed.

"I said if you ever eat everything you see again you'll die," Chopper deadpanned.

The girl stared at the ceiling for a long time, trying to absorb the information. At long last she turned back to the animal. "Why will I die?"

Chopper crossed his arms and closed his eyes, considering the problem he appeared to have come across. It soon occurred to him though that the term "leftovers from dinner" had probably long since vanished from any language of Ruffled's world. So of course any knowledge about food other than the fact they needed it to survive should also have perished.

In the end Chopper nodded to himself and held up a hoof. "The stomach in your body where all your food goes to is this big," he explained. "And just like your hand it can only hold so much. So if you keep stuffing food into your stomach…" Chopper opened his hoof with a comical sound effect of something blowing up.

The girl stared with wide eyes that were now a rich, earthly brown.

Right then Chopper heard the way too familiar explosion of cannons seconds before the ship rocked violently as the shot just barely missed them. "Warning shots" Robin called them.

The girl had jumped and pressed herself against the wall, eyes wide with a panic.

Chopper had to remember this girl was from a world where conflicts between two opposing sides were a thing of history, and he was about to try to explain what was going on when Ruffled pinched her eyes closed and melted into the wood of the wall.

The girl's one and only thought was that the Sea Devil was attacking, and that was her fight and hers alone. So when she jumped out of the wood into open air she expected to see the hideous creature of nightmares.

She didn't.

"Oi, Ruffled! What are you doing up here?!" the man with the blue eyes yelled from somewhere beside her.

Black balls were flying over their heads and eruptions of water surrounded the vessel. The air smelled of wind and salt and water and wood and fire and something the girl was only vaguely familiar with.

"Damn those marines!" The giant with the blue hair growled. "Hold on and prepare to bust!"

The girl rushed forward, in the opposite direction of where the vessel was headed, and stared at the objects that were making the noises and that spat the black balls at them.

Balls made of something she recognized.

"Franky, wait! Ruffled is in the alt!" someone screamed behind her.

She grew her feet into the wood of the vessel to keep steady. She wasn't thinking anymore, only acting on instincts that said "protect" and listened to the voice of her inhuman power that tickled through her veins. It felt almost like fear, only it wasn't. The girl just wasn't familiar with the emotion, and either way she didn't have the spare thought to think about it.

Both her arms became branches of wood that she grew out to touch the black balls.

It was metal.

She immediately copied the material and her arms changed from wood into metal, catching the black metal balls and absorbing them, forged the metal at will. More and more balls she caught until she felt like her arms would come off, so she connected the long fingers of metal over her head, supporting her shoulders with the hardened material.

Sunny's crew watched with widening eyes. No one was sure how to explain what they saw, but the girl they had instead of Luffy was in a loose sense of the word collecting cannonballs, picking them right out of the air and melding with them, robbing them of their round shape and instead made them look like thick threads, one for each arm, that split in two at the ends to act like fingers.

Those fingers eventually connected to the opposite finger, creating a gigantic, fan-like circle over Ruffled's head. A circle that grew wider as the marines' last shots fired. It seemed they had realized something really odd was happening.

The weight of Ruffled and the collected cannonballs had pushed Sunny's rear deeper into the ocean, slowing them down and the marines were quickly catching up.

And it turned out that was exactly what Ruffled had waited for. The circle she had created grew wider still, and thinner, and Zoro was the first to realize what she was doing.

"It's a blade!" he gasped.

And it was. A giant, double circle blade that probably weighted at least a ton.

The marines were much closer now, and Ruffled's round blade started to fall over the three battleships.

The inner circle hit the bow and alt of the nearest ship while the outer caught the sides of the other two, and loaded with explosives as marine battleships tend to be, all three suffered great explosions.

Sanji desperately patted his pockets for his cigs and Zoro suddenly felt he needed alcohol. Nami too. Robin felt like applauding the girl because that was one hell of a show. Usopp was hiding behind Zoro's legs and Franky… Franky was in La-La-Land of engineering possibilities.

Brook sipped his tea. "The sea is full of mysteries," he said sagely.

Then Chopper ran through the door. "Guys! Did you see Ruffled?! She just disappeared!"

Nami turned to the panicking doctor. "She just saved us. Come on guys! Let's get out of here before reinforcements arrive!"

She was answered with a rather distracted sounding "Aye."