Fanfiction

By: readerdreamer5625

It all begins with Chopper asking the question.

"Hey, Cross? Where did you get the idea of the Blind-Blind Fruit? From the sound of how you talked about it, it wasn't something you just made up on the spot."

They are in the kitchen, and it is a particularly quiet day for the Straw Hats, especially for the Grand Line. The sun is shining brightly, the wind is soothing and there is no trouble in sight. So of course, it is the time for some uncomfortable subjects to be dug up. The rest of the crew, suddenly curious, already starts to gather around Cross. Luffy has a small frown on his face, but a shake from Cross is enough to tell him the answer isn't a spoiler for once, just something to hear about.

Once Sanji enters the kitchen with food in hand, Cross finally begins to speak.

"Alright, I guess I should warn you guys first; this is a subject that is as world-shaking as what I told you back when we just left Drum. You have been warned."

The others trade glances, before nodding seriously. Soundbite, on the other hand, having already known the concept that is 'fanfiction', only grins in expectation.

"Alright, so first let me describe my world more for a bit. My world is called Earth, and it's in what you would call the era of information. Peace and democracy is common in most of its countries, and generally compared to this world of yours it is a haven of tolerance." Nami opens her mouth, probably to say something in indignation, but Cross cuts her off. "It is not a perfect world, not at all, as there is still schisms, crime and poverty all over the place, and the world as a whole is facing problems that can't be just aimed guns at like global warming or overpopulation. Still, compared to this world, it is a far better one, in some people's opinion."

Sanji is the next who speaks up, giving Cross a glare for daring to interrupt Nami in his presence. "So? How is this related to Chopper's question?"

"Well, as you can see from me, there are plenty of us in my world that find our world to be a boring place." Cross has to gulp at the glares sent over his direction. "To us, there is very little adventure in life, so we write and read stories to amuse ourselves whenever we manage to get time off the tedium that is called work. We invent things, games, toys, entire corporations exist for the simple purpose of us having some sense of escape from our lives. One of these stories had been the comic series I told you guys about this world."

The air is awkward. It had already been difficult, admitting the source of his information, but to say their world quite possibly existed for the sake of people's amusement? That was already world-shaking, with plenty of potential existential crises as a result. But then Luffy claps his fist over his open palm.

"Ah! So you guys just wanted some adventure? Why didn't you just say so? Nothing else about this matters then, right?"

That innocent line, the words of their captain that was both wise and stupid, is enough to break the others out of their brooding. Zoro starts to lean back on his chair, while Nami shakes her head in fond exasperation. Cross smiles, feeling some appreciation for his captain, before forging on.

"So, Nami, given that you've read a good story, no, an amazing story that is totally and utterly deserving of this crew, what would you do if you had time to spare? Understand: there are so many like me in my world, so many smart people looking for something to look forward to, something to strive to."

Nami, being the only other person in the crew who understood the concept of reading just for fun, places a finger on her chin. "Hmmm, I would... tell other people about it?"

"CLOSE, but no dice!" Soundbite answers for Cross, grinning sharkily over his shoulder. "Crooooosssss, just tell them ALREADY!"

"This is something that has to approached carefully, Soundbite." Cross grits back before turning to the rest of the crew. "Anyway, the snail is right. The story about this world? It's a world-famous one, with fans of all races and genders all over Earth, so if I'm to be honest Usopp that actually fulfills your dream in a sense, right Mr. Brave Warrior Of The Seas?"

Usopp jumps at the sudden turn of attention over him, but it only takes him a second to harrumph, fist clenched over his chest dramatically, "It doesn't count unless it's in this world!"

"I thought nothing less." Cross has to hide a smile. "Anyway, the fact that you guys are famous in my world, role models of children from all over, means that telling other people about the story of you guys makes little sense. And like I said, there are plenty who are like me who want to be in this world. But not everybody gets the attention of a bastard omnipotent being, so what's the next course of action?"

Sanji answers, drawing a cigarette before lighting it up. "Writing your own story."

"Correctamundo, my dear chef!" Cross snaps a finger towards the blond cook, and he laughs as he ducks underneath the half-hearted kick Sanji sends him. "But if we're to be honest, not everyone has the creativity to match this world, not everyone can create something as complex and amazing as the Grand Line, something so beautiful yet so horrifying as all of the Blues. Not everyone is willing to put that much effort into writing a good story, so we cheat."

Cross's smile is just a little bit self-deprecating. "We write about this world too, about all the worlds that we read."

The reaction from the others is... to be honest, a little disappointing. Zoro just lifts an eyebrow. Nami shakes her head. Usopp, familiar with the thought of making up stories, doesn't even blink. Luffy doesn't even understand the importance of what Cross is saying. In the end, it's Vivi who carries the rest of the crew's lack of dramatic reactions with her own gasp. "Mr. Jeremiah, you must be kidding all of us, right!?"

Idly, Cross thought she did it just to make it easier for him. The way Carue was snickering was pretty telling.

"We call it 'fanfiction', where we basically take the stories we read and change them just so that it becomes something new, something interesting." Cross explains, and then the rest finally get their realizations. "Sadly, most of the time, fanfiction is not quite the same level as what they are based of, and really 90% of all fanfiction is crud, to quote a certain statistic. And really some of you don't want to know what kind of stories so many people are writing about you guys."

Zoro scoffs. "Like anything could be worse than being hunted down for being pirates."

"Pfffftttthahahahahahahahaha!" "HoohoohooHEEHEEHEEHEEhahahaha!"

The rest of the crew stared at Cross and Soundbite as both teenager and snail suddenly go bending over in laughter, with tears even escaping Soundbite's eyes by the looks of it. This goes on for several minutes, with every minute making Zoro go paler and paler at the implications. Nami shakes her head before walking up to the duo and giving them dual dope slaps to get them back to focus. "Alright, focus! What is it that you two find so funny!?"

"Ooooooh, Zoro, you don't even know the fangirls. Of how you and Sanji are under threat from the females that are overly invested with your relationship. From what I remember, this particular subject called 'ZoSan' managed to reach rank eleven in the fanfiction rankings." The way the two of the Monster Trio go green is pretty telling, and Zoro in particular suddenly digs out a bottle of sake before dunking it all down in one go. "I get it that you two realize what I'm implying and I am to never mention this subject again?"

"YES."

"HEEHEEHEEHEEhahahaha!"

Chopper raises his hand a little shyly, though not before sending a confused look at the way Sanji suddenly rushes out of the kitchen with a pale complexion. "Ummm, Cross, when are you going to go back to answering my question? About the Blind-Blind Fruit?"

The smile on Cross's face freezes. "Ah. That."

It had been different, back then when he was still in his home world. Luffy, though amusing he was and a little admirable to boot, had been a fictional character until Cross finally met his now-captain face to face. The same went with the rest of the crew. They were now friends of his, people that were close to his heart.

By the moment Cross is prepared to speak again, Sanji has already returned from his short trip outside to get some air.

"Let's just say that there is a niche in the fanfiction community for... dark themed stories. Tragedies, atrocities, that kind of thing." Cross's expression goes so dark that the others take a step back. "Let's suppose, there is this writer who was amazing at it. That in the process of saving Alabasta from Crocodile, Luffy died for a total of nine minutes." The horrified looks on the others' faces is to be expected, but Cross soothes them with his next words, "Ah, but in the original story, we're going to get through this fine! The future Pirate King isn't going to die so soon in his journey, so Vivi, don't be so worried and look at me, okay?"

Vivi, who had turned pale at the mention of the Warlord, gulps once before giving a nod. "I trust you on this Cross."

Satisfied, Cross turns to Luffy, who only gives a grim nod. What went unsaid was obvious: if it ever came to be necessary, Luffy was prepared to face death. But if Cross had his way about it, that would never happen.

"Anyway, let's just say that the Blind-Blind Fruit is a Devil Fruit that popped up in that particular story. I have no idea if it's a real fruit, if we're ever going to come across it or not, only that as far as I'm concerned it's not part of our story unless proven otherwise."

Chopper heaves a sigh of relief.
Still, the air was heavy, so... "Anyway, would any of you believe me if I say that in that world, Vivi and Nami were in a love triangle with Luffy?" No need to mention Miss All-Sunday just yet, nope unless he wanted his head on a pike.

Success, because it triggered spectacular spittakes from the rest of the crew, with Sanji going red with rage. "WAIT, WHAT!?"

"Yeah, it happens." Cross grins, the situation feeling much easier to handle already. "Many fanfictions are like that, you know? Giving Luffy large harems, turning all of you guys into badasses, hell there is one that's pretty much spot-on about Zoro's sense of direction! Or his lack thereof, anyways!"

"I get paired off with the Marimo and the shitty rubber captain of ours gets a harem!?" "I don't get lost, the world moves on its own around me!"

The Going Merry's respective cook and swordsman, having yelled exactly at the same time, turn to each other with white faces before Sanji goes green once more and Zoro shakes as he takes another swig from another sake bottle. The girls, especially Nami, smile amusingly at them before the navigator turns to the princess with a curtsy.

"Vivi, you can have him. I like Luffy, but not that way. You really can't get romantically interested in someone who likes to take your food from your plate, or worse, while you were chewing on it, damn it Luffy I liked that steak!" Nami gives a moment to punch her captain on the back of the head before smiling back devilishly at Vivi. She pulls Luffy by the cheek, stretching the skin over to Vivi's direction. "Here, Vivi. You like him, don't you?"

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Vivi can only make a smile that looks so fake as Sanji starts to repeatedly slam his face on the kitchen floorboards. "Nami... No thank you."

"Oh, then that's good, adventure can have Luffy all to herself then." Nami lets go of the cheek that she is holding, causing Luffy to snap back towards a roll until he hits the kitchen wall. She then turns toward Cross, who is smiling maleficently at the chaos that was starting to brew. "Now enough on that. Cross, tell me more about this... 'turning us into badasses' thing that you just said. Because if we were badasses, then we must be rich badasses, am I right?"

"Oh Nami, never change." Cross chuckles as he shakes his head. Soundbite has all of teeth exposed to the air, nearly splitting his face in two, "ENDLESS GREED, WITCH!"

"Greedy or not, I'm the one who's guiding us here in the Grand Line, snail! So respect me, or believe me, I may just snap Sanji out of his percussive maintainance of his head, Kami knows how much he needs it, before making him turn you into escargot."

Soundbite snaps his mouth shut so quickly that his teeth shakes. Cross pats his snail on the head before turning a look at Nami. "Alright, that is enough. Nami, threaten the snail, you threaten me, capish? And alright, I'll tell you more about the subject. In fact, I think I'm going to mention a common cliche that is pretty popular!"

Cross grins toothily. "Everyone, have you ever wanted to go back in time and, you know, face- no, curbstomp the likes of Buggy, Kuro, Krieg, Arlong and Wapol all over again? To repeat your adventure from the top, to have the second chance that is called time travel?"

Usopp's mouth drops. "Y-You mean...?"

"Oh yes, I mean what I just said. Time travel, or Peggy Sue as we call it back home." Cross nods energetically. "One of the more popular fanfictions back there had been called 'New Game Plus', a reference in how some games in our world worked. Imagine getting deep into the Grand Line, getting stronger as you go, and then coming back with the same abilities in the past."

Nami eyes over at the sniper's direction. "You mean... even with the Clima Tact, like what Usopp is making for me?"

"Not just that, but better." Is Cross's reply, and Nami has such a bloodthirsty look in her eyes that Cross doesn't need to be a mindreader to know what she is imagining about doing to Arlong. "Luffy, how about you, what do you think about it?"

Their captain has a conflicted expression on his face. "Hmmmm... Beating up Arlong again for what he did for Nami would be cool, but repeating our adventure..."

"Oh, don't you worry about that, because the you in that story found his own way of making his adventures interesting again. I won't be saying as to what that way had been, just in case you might end up getting angry at me for it, but trust me generally there is a good reason for Peggy Sues to happen." Cross explained and Luffy nodded once before grinning widely again.

"Then it's cool. But no spoilers if we're ever gonna get back in time, alright Cross?"

Thinking of the Rainbow Mist anime episodes, Cross only smiles back before nodding once. "Roger, captain."

"One would think that people would use the ability to go back in time to fix mistakes, instead of doing it to feel powerful, beating up enemies we already know to be weaker than us." Zoro grunts loudly, gripping Wado Ichimonji tightly on his side. "If I could go back in time and fix that mistake..."

The others, namely Sanji, Nami, and Chopper twitch at once, undoubtedly thinking back to their own respective loved ones. The only reason Usopp doesn't is because he understood that Banchina would die without a doctor at Chopper's level, time-travel or no, and Luffy... If there was anyone who understood and knew how to accept death, it was Luffy.

Cross turns to Zoro with unrepressed sympathy. "If anything, there are several stories I've read where she lives...? And there is this one story, where you all get a chance to go back in time and save your loved ones, or at least one alternate version of them anyway..."

Zoro only turns away, eyes tightly shut. "No, forget it. Unless I can do it myself, it doesn't matter."

The atmosphere once again turns awkward, until Usopp breaks it by giving a loud cough. "A-Ah, alright Cross, so is there anything else you could tell us about these... 'fanfictions'?"

Cross jumps to take the offer like the opening to change the awkward subject that it is. "Well, there is this thing called 'For Want Of A Nail' fics - basically, imagine one thing, usually something small or innocuous, that changes from the usual course of events, causing a domino effect of changes down the line. For example, what if you manage to escape a jail by one hour earlier, what if Captain Kuro died of an accident, what if Luffy manages to eat a different Devil Fruit?"

Vivi blinks at him. "You say them like you've read about them as well, Cross."

"Yes to the first, a glimpse of the second, and lastly there are plenty of the third. Paramecia, Zoan, Logia - all of these tend to be explored in alternate timelines, for the possibility of Luffy eating them." Cross waves a hand lackadaisically. "Most of them aren't really good examples of writing - once again, I repeat, 90% of all fanfictions are crud, and there are thousands of them - but there are some that are, and then there are the ones where some parts or all of the crew change gender or things like that."

Sanji freezes. "C-Change gender...? You mean-?"

Cross grins evilly at the cook. "Yes, Sanji, there had been at least one fic out there where you were flirting with a female Zoro, and there are plenty where you do the same with a female Luffy. Imagine that, Sanji."

Sanji doesn't even hear the tactician's last words, as he starts to bang his head on the closest wall anew. Soundbite cackles over at Cross's shoulder, threat over his life forgotten once more, while Nami only shakes her head in a reluctantly fond sort of way at their antics. She then turns to the reinforced Log Pose on her wrist before saying, "Alright, Cross. It's been an interesting talk having this with you, but I think we should get back to navigating outside. It might be peaceful right now, but this is the Grand Line, so..."

"WAIT!"

The crew, which had been just about to disperse, turns as one towards Soundbite, who is giving Cross a look. "Cross FORGOT TO MENTION something. Observe."

Cross regards Soundbite with what can only be called exasperation. "You can't have me not expanding on that particular subject, can you?"

"IT'S YOUR STORY, DIPSHIT. They deserve to know."

"What are you two talking about, Cross?" Chopper asks curiously, sitting again once more by the tactician's side. "What is it about your story?"

"It's... about my kind of situation." Cross closes his eyes as he admits. "This? This situation where a person from my world falls into your world and becomes part of the crew? It's far more common than I would like to admit. The fact is, I'm not even sure if this journey of ours, our crew, our story, is not just another fanfiction that everyone back in my world can read the moment they turn on their computer. I may be an invention by someone back home, a self-insert original character, and I can't even say I would know about it. Hell, it could be me back home who is writing about this story now!"

The crew exchange looks, before they nod as one. They turn to Luffy, who smiles at them as if understanding what they mean before walking up to Cross.

He then gives his third mate a knuckle sandwich and a half.

"OW! L-Luffy, what had that punch been for!"

Luffy has a defiant grin on his face as he stands firmly in front of Cross, his voice as serious as a funeral. "Cross. I know you're smarter than me, I know you understand these things more than I ever could, but never forget this. It doesn't matter. The chance that we are living in just another story by somebody in your mystery world? I don't care about that, and neither should you!"

Cross can only stutter at the complete focus Luffy has on him. "B-B-But, Luffy! If I'm right, if I'm really the one who was writing this adventure of ours, then that would mean-!"

"Cross." Nami is the one who speaks. "We've been talking to you for thirty minutes now, and what have been our reactions? Sure, we got a little dark there when you mentioned the chance of Luffy dying, but everything else? To us it doesn't really matter, and neither should you."

Sanji coolly lights up another cigarette, before taking one sip of the cancer stick. "If this adventure of ours is just another story, then who cares? It's still our adventure, our dreams, our world, and nothing else matters. The gods up there can be playing with our lives, but the fact is as far as all of us are concerned, it's always been our choice to become a Straw Hat Pirate."

"B-But-!"

"It's been pretty fun hearing all the possibilities, even if some of them were scary, but right now all I've seen since I left the Doctorine had been amazing Cross!" Chopper adds in his two cents, interrupting the third mate once again. "And although you said I would have joined this crew even without you, you were the one who calmed my fears, helped me not feel like a complete monster that the rest of the crew would hate! That had been huge for me, Cross!"

Usopp gives the reindeer a fond scruff of the head before turning to Cross. "Cross, I've told more tall tales than I would like to count, but even I know to not think much about them later on. And really, if I get this multiverse theory right, it's not that the you back home is writing our story and thus creating our world, but you writing a story that is conveniently similar to our world, right?"

In face of the once-again universal acceptance of the crew, their welcome of his situation without a blink of the eye... Cross starts to feel moisture film his vision.

"Y-You guys..." Cross will not cry. He will not cry! "Y-You guys really are the best, you know?"

Zoro snorts. "Alright, enough of this sobfest. Come on, Cross, let's go outside before the witch gets us into a whirlpool or something equally stupid to die from."

Nami megaton-punches the swordsman at once, and then suddenly everything is back to normal. The crew disperses to go outside one-by-one, Sanji mentioning something about making drinks for Nami-swan and Vivi-chwan as he rushes deeper into the kitchen, and soon all that is left sitting by the dining table is Cross, Soundbite, Vivi, and Carue.

The princess gives Cross a comforting pat on the shoulder. "Come on, Cross, don't make Nami wait before she starts ripping our heads off."

"Just give me a minute, alright?" Cross tries, still calming himself down. "Really, I've been pushing this talk off for too long, and the way they just accept it all like it's nothing-!"

Vivi gives him a dull look. "These are the people who would go and fight Crocodile, someone who could very possibly kill them, just for the sake of a friend who for just hours ago had been a bitch of a bounty hunter, promising to save her country for nothing in return. This is nothing special for them. Cross, you should know this better than me."

Cross turns to Vivi with a studying glance... before forming a smile once again. "Point. Alright, fine, fine, I'll get my head out of my ass okay?"

"CRYBABY, CRYBABY!" "Bite me, you-" CHOMP! "ARGH, GET HIM OFF ME, GET HIM OFF ME!"

The three of them start to leave the kitchen, together at once to rejoin their friends and return to their adventure. Because while calm days were nice and all, by the end of the day the Straw Hats were a crew that thrived on chaos - they couldn't stay calm for long if their lives depended on it. Thus, the only true way to be a Straw Hat was to enjoy the craziness of the Grand Line, all of its problems and chaos included.

By the time they leave, that is when someone finally gets a chance to say a line.

"Uhm, GUYSH! I wash being quiet to let you guysh tawk, but don't weave me awwone heere!"

Oh right, shouldn't have forgotten the duck.

END (Sorry Carue, but your accent sucks~! )