Hello people! Thank you for stopping by. My name is TheEldritchWriter and I come back from the dead to tell you a new story (yay). I won't take too much of your precious time and go on with the smol disclaimer:
I do not own One piece.
The only character I have ungodly power over are my own OCs in this story.
English is not my first language, please be patient with the little french Canadian that I am.
Rated 'M' because I like to swear and apparently that's a bad thing (and also for later violence/horror once I figure out how to make a fight scene epic).
Good! Now that this is done, last notes; I'm doing this for shit'n giggles and my own entertainment, figured I'd share with y'all, but it's really not serious work. The updates should come every month at the latest (because I am a working 'grown-up' apparently) and I like to not stress out on fun stuff, so Imma take mah time. Finally, I'm totally open for critiques, especially if they are constructive, but for trolls, I say beware of my sarcasm powers!
And now, onto the show!
...
...
It was one of those rare days on the grand line where everything was at a stands-off-ish point. It was a peaceful morning, the temperature was agreeable and nothing was on its way to dent the somewhat nice atmosphere that reigned over marineford on this glorious day. It was peaceful enough that Sengoku had requested the presence of Garp, Tsuru, and all three of the admirals on a very early meeting.
Nothing too formal, contrary to what the names of the participants would have given most pirates of paradise white hair from fear and uneasiness. It was simply a small get-together Sengoku requested on the rare times all of them were in marineford at the same time. He even had requested some coffee and pastries to help with the early hour. Even though he still had to make sure Garp would stay mostly awake during the short meeting, it was well worth it on the account of the news he was currently gathering from his fellow marines.
"The mission in west blue ended earlier than expected on the account of a… misunderstanding of sort. Turns out the Donchellos really had no intention of fighting us in the first place and all the problems came from a single teenager thinking it was a good idea to stand against the marines to impress some local thugs. He is being thoroughly trained back into reality as we speak." Grumbled Admiral Akainu while reheating his coffee cup with his hands, his hat obscuring his eyes. The man never looked up from said cup and when he took a sip, the damn beverage was at a boiling temperature.
"Ehh, turns out there is nothing much to do around the Eastern base. Paradise has been pretty calm nowadays. Might go for a stroll today." Shrugged Admiral Aokiji, while lazily mixing his now very very cold latte.
Sengoku was fairly certain that there was no ice in the tray he asked but refrain from making a comment on the matter. Devil fruits were strange in themselves, but he was always amused, up to a point, on how most of the users ended up with a kirk of sort based on their fruit. Not that he had anything to argue on it, being a user himself.
"What about you Admiral Kizaru? Any news from your nephew?" Sengoku asked the tall and very flashy man seated between the two other Admirals.
"Hnn? Oh… Vegapunk is making progress… the pacifista project is well underway." Answered the defender of the wishi-washi justice, a bored look on his face while he was playing with a pastry.
Sengoku nodded at the Admirals and took a moment to take a sip of his very normal cup of coffee. The fleet admiral was pleased with the lack of movement on the seas. It meant that the marines were doing a good job and that peace was flourishing, even on the grand line. He had no hope for the new world, but only today, he would hope that nothing would destroy the peace. And almost chuckled at the thought when Garp decided to open his mouth.
"Eeeeeh, funny, there was some report recently about the Alvida pirates stirring some troubles in the East blue, and also some sort of revolt in the North blue. Guess the shenanigans left paradise to disturb the other blues." Said the old marine with his pinky finger lost deep in his nostril. Probably digging to find what was left of his brain decided Sengoku.
"Don't call on disturbance, Garp!" Tsked Sengoku while lowering his cup. "It won't serve any good to call back said shenanigans back to paradise! I'm pretty sure everyone on base will agree that a good day with nothing happening is a welcome day!" the fleet admiral shook his head. With his luck, the damn D would have called any 'shenanigans' back to base at the speed of light, just to spite him and have a good laugh at his rising blood pressure.
"Calm down Sengoku." Said the calm Tsuru on his right. "What could possibly go wrong on such a peaceful day?"
The fleet admiral went to agree with the vice-admiral, only to freeze as the words computed inside his brain. Those words were always a call for madness on the grand line and were never to be said lightly.
In. Any. Circumstances.
He went to refute the vice-admiral on his right when he spotted something at the edge of his vision. On the wall, the very solid exterior wall of the room they were in, on the fifth floor no less, a door had appeared. Everyone in the room tensed as the new door opened slowly. A young woman entered the room, clearly still half asleep and in her sleeping gears.
She wobbled slowly, trying to concentrate on something. She was a strange sight, with her long dark messy hair, old grey tank top, and green pants with what seemed to be red mushrooms on them? And the admiral wasn't even referring to her many tattoos. Without even a glance at the rest of the space, she beelined for the coffee set and poured herself a cup.
Black, no sugar, no milk, nothing.
As she turned away from the table and took a sip of the new coffee cup, her eyes landed on the rest of the room and she froze. Her face stilled and stayed blank, only blinking at the officers. The silence in the room was deafening, to say the least. Only to be broken by the fleet admiral, resuming the overall feeling in the room.
"… What."
-oOo-
12h before marineford
Kasey was grumbling under her breath. There were too many people in her line of sight. Sure, it was her idea to do a special event today and the Boss had been more than interested in the theme, but it was turning out to be a real problem. See, Kasey was a normal 25 years old woman that worked at a bar to pay for bills and school.
The usual, you know.
She liked a good story, she even like telling said good stories if the crowd was receptive to it, but most of all, Kasey was an introvert. Sure, there are the usual labels that come with loving good stories and not liking too many human contacts, like 'geek', 'weirdo' and such, but really, who care about those? It's a prideful thing to be different than the rest of the crowd! At least, that's what Kasey liked to tell herself.
So when her Boss had asked if she had any good idea for the special Friday of the week, of course, she had to open her damn mouth. There was a convention she always had to attend every year, because of how awesome it was, and the bar was pretty close to the place it was being held. So, in good measure, she had told the Boss about it and made the recommendation that the bar held a special karaoke night, with one free drink if the customers came in cosplays or costumes. Not only had the Boss been elated at the idea, but it was also working a little too well.
The bar was completely crowded, and one of the bouncers had told Kasey that the line was also huge at the door. All good and well, she would have a lot of extra cash, but the looming headache she would be getting at the end of the night was something to be reckoned with and not something she was ready to face. Not that she would drink on the job, mind you, her liver was bad already no need to make it worst. No, it was all coming from the main event, karaoke. The loud noise was sure to make her head feel like she was hangover afterward, she was certain of it.
Shrugging the ominous feeling she tended to her customers. The job was nice, paid well and most of the time Kasey was even having fun, on good days, the bad ones she made sure to be on inventory duty and stayed in the back as much as she could.
Her mood was lifted a bit when a decent signer wearing a sailor costume started to sing a very well-known piece. Finishing the whiskey sour she was mixing with a smile to the client in front of her she turned to face the next in line, only to realize that most had their drinks or were turned to face the stage. Shrugging, she started to clean her shaker while listening to the song.
"Quite the costume you have there." Said a voice on her left.
Turning to face the possible customer she let a professional smile slide on her face.
"Not bad yourself sir." She said after taking a look at the man.
He was wearing an open vest, puffing black pants, and a very large cross-like sword on his back. If the cross was not a tell-tale of his character, the dark goatee and the yellow contact made a striking resemblance to the character he was cosplaying.
"Mihawk, right?" She said with an ironic smile.
"Well yes! Quite the character don't you think?" He paused to look at her own attire. " But nothing compares to yours! I don't think there is a tattooed marine, or am I wrong?" said the man with a smirk.
Kasey's smile became more real. She was indeed in a typical white and blue uniform. She had chosen the costume thinking about work, it was simple, recognizable, and easy to work into. It was also the easiest they ended up choosing so all the staff was in marine attire, the bartenders were in simple mooks uniform and the bouncers had the coats of captains to differentiate them. It worked pretty well and even if not all of the staff knew about the reference, a lot of the guests really liked the touch, going as far as to ask to take pictures once in a while.
"I'm afraid the tattoos came with me, but an ordinary mook I am indeed milord." Said Kasey, returning the man's smirk. " Can I get you something?"
The man seemed to think then ordered a simple vodka and tonic before taking a free stool at the bar to sit down. He eyed Kasey as she made his drink with all the knowledge of a seasoned bartender.
"Not bad, is it a normal thing to spin the bottle like that, or is it special for tonight?" he said, impressed.
Kasey snorted, finishing the drink and passing it to the customer.
"Don't tell the boss, I'm not supposed to do too much of those little tricks since I have a bad habit of breaking the bottles. Clumsiness is a skill and a disease, I'll have you know!" getting prideful over that was probably not a good thing, but her clumsiness was so present that it had quickly become a full part of her persona. Kasey's friends affectionately referred to her as the 'broken clutz' to summarize the mix of clumsiness, unusual luck, and the utter lack of a decent navigational capacity that she had.
"Heheheheeeee, you seem like an interesting young lady!"
Her smirk grew a little. " 25 and still going strong! Would you like anything else?"
The man shaded his eyes with his hat, thinking, as his head slightly tilts to the side in contemplation. Probably an 'in character' play, as some people would do.
"A question for you my dear. If you could go in any story, any world or legend, of your choice of course, which would it be? And why?"
Kasey chuckled at that. What kind of cliché was this? Probably a writer of some sort, or maybe he was just trying to make the conversation last. Wouldn't be the first time, she was a magnet for strange, but usually, it was because of her tattoos, not because she liked a good story. Cleaning up the counter she took a moment before answering.
"Hard to say really." She started with a shrug. "I'm the kind of reader, or listener, that is completely devoted to the current piece I'm onto at the moment. Of course, I have favorites, the ones I read or listen to at least once a year, but if you ask me today it's going to be one answer and next week might be another."
"And what would be today's answer?" The man pressed on.
Pointing at her white uniform, Kasey gave a small grin to the man.
"I just started to read One Piece again, so my answer would be this and the reason would be freedom and adventure of course!"
"Haaaaa-, freedom! Good answer indeed! What would it be to sail on the endless blues and have all kinds of adventures, a dream come true isn't it?" The man smiled and took on a conspirational pose while leaning closer to the barmaid. "Would it be to become a pirate? Or a marine?"
"HA! A pirate of course! Don't get me wrong, there are decent marines in that world, of course! But to get there and experience the freedom at its best, you would need to be a part of the other side of the law, even better! To be a straw hat!"
Kasey was smiling at the customer, her current obsession with the comic had been an endless source of teasing from her friends. She didn't mind really, everyone had different tastes after all, but it was nice to geek out with someone else once in a while. Unfortunately, the karaoke group was taking a break and slowly making its way to the bar, meaning that the conversation would have to be cut short soon.
"I'm sorry sir-"
"Call me Rob" the man cut her.
"Right, I'm sorry Rob, but it would seem that duty is calling me, not that I wouldn't like to continue this conversation of course! Is there anything else you would like before the mob gets too close?"
Rob smiled at Kasey, putting down his finished drink on the counter and standing up.
"I'll tell you what, you seem like an interesting person enough to make a deal with. Once the clock resets on a new day, just open a door and let your adventure take off! My only condition is that you make it interesting. Don't disappoint! See you, Kaz!"
He left after this strange statement. Kasey frowned at the use of her nickname, she hadn't told the man her name, no? And she then promptly remembered that her name tag was in plain sight, a new addition to the uniform the boss had been keen on for some reason. Kasey didn't agree, the amount of information you could get on a person just by knowing their first name and appearance was enough to open a pandora box to stalkers and other fiends.
Looks like she was getting home with her roommate, just to be sure. Her attention was soon diverted to the gathering of people asking for their poison of choice to be served, and she soon forgot about that strange encounter.
-oOo-
A few hours later found her walking the distance between her school and the small apartment she was sharing with her friend. Said friend was preparing for her mid-term exams, not that Kasey didn't have those, but her digital art degree was a little more forgiving than the medical one. A friendly smile bloomed across Kasey's face when the memory of how she met her friend came to her mind. Stacey needed extra credit and took a drawing class, while Kasey had to take one to make up for the one she had skipped.
They had been assigned seats next to one another and became close friends in a matter of minutes, the teacher actually wondering what to do with those two. Litteral night and day, Stacey was a very conservative-looking blond with glasses. Pale skinned because of the hours she had to put in her studies, and there was nothing more that she liked than a good party to recharge her batteries. A textbook extrovert with sarcastic humor, needed when you wanted to become a good surgeon and needed to worm out information from a patient.
Kasey on the other hand was a brunette covered in ink. She was easily considered to be the 'naughty kid' every parent warn their precious child of, but on top of her asthma, her love for the darkest corners of a library, and her hate for crowds, there was just no way she was going down that road. The only really scary thing about her was the strength she ended up with due to good genes and working with boxes full of beer and maybe her love for horror stories. She really shouldn't have read 'Le Chien du Docteur Chenevert' when she was 10.
Kasey lifted her head from her phone when the door opened. Stacey came out of the building, mile-long dark circles under her eyes. It was really a strange thing, Kasey thought, that in order to save lives, you had to go through nine layers of hell and say goodbye to sleep for a few years. Taking her friend's backpack onto her own back, years of carrying heavy books before the invention of proper reading tablet, Kasey handed a hot tea to the woman.
"Give, I'll take care of the heavy, take the doors." She declared to her fatigue friend.
"Argh, thanks, you are an angel. God, can't wait for the mids to be over so that I can sleep for a week straight." Moaned the blond sipping on the tea.
Walking home was always a breeze, the school being a small 20 min walk away. It was getting colder, fall being close, and god knows that a Canadian fall could be cold. Arriving at the flat, Stacey opened the door to let her friend in, opening the lights and all. She soon flopped belly first on the sofa with a gargled moan.
"Remind me again why I decided to become a shrink?"
"Masochism?"
"…Sounds about right"
Kasey snickered while putting down their bags, it was too late for a movie and both of them were completely beat. Time for a tactical retreat and a good night's sleep.
"Dibs on the shower, I'll deal with you in the morning. Good night Cici"
"G'night"
And that was that Kasey got through the broken door of their bathroom to use as much hot water as she could. Damn thing broke a few weeks ago and the caretaker of the building still hadn't come up with a new lock, no way to close the thing without getting stuck in or out, Stacey had had to go get a neighbor last time when Kasey got stuck in the bathroom. Luckily, it was only them two and since Stacey wasn't really the shy type, no one paid real mind to the situation.
Finishing up, Kasey put on an old tank top and her beloved Mario Bros pants before closing the door to her room behind her. A tired snicker passed her lips at it, remembering the stranger at the bar.
"As if..."
She ironically hadn't had to open a single door since she finished working, and it was way past midnight. She fell into her bed, feeling silly at the thought, and the night flipped off the switch of her brain for a few hours of sleep.
-oOo-
Early. It was wayyy too early. Slamming shut her alarm, Kasey groaned. Late-night shifts were the worst when you had to wake up the next day. She regretted agreeing to a meet-up at the convention, but she knew in the end, it was worth it. So, she slowly got to her feet and headed for the door.
Although, as soon as it was opened she had to squint her eyes, damn it was too bright, should have been illegal to be this bright in the morning. Following the sweet scent of freshly brewed coffee, she mentally thanked her roommate for being a caffeine addict. For today, she needed the magic potion, and black a that. She took a small sip of the life elixir and turned around, taking in her surroundings for the first time this morning, and froze.
She was definitely not in her apartment. There, in the middle of the room, were six individuals, three dressed in white and blue and the other three in colorful suits, staring back at her with wide eyes.
"… what."
Was the single thing that broke the silence. Her brain still asleep, the first thing she did was to pinch her arm. Pain. Ooookay, not a dream then. Kasey then eyed her cup suspiciously.
"This is coffee, right?"
Because there was no way in hell she was in the company of One piece freakin' marines. Still eyeing her cup suspiciously, she took a glance at the door she came in… to find a perfectly flat and uninterrupted windowed wall. And by the look of it, it was an exterior one at that. Taking a decision, she slowly looked back at the other presence in the room.
"riiiiiiiiight. Nice costumes guys." Then she remembered last night. "Please tell me this is a prank and that the cameras are hidden."
A pause.
"Costume?" Said the seagull-hat person. Because she refused to even think that this was fleet admiral Sengoku, this was the seagull guy and there definitely was NOT a goat in the corner of the room.
"Cameras?" asked the very bored man with a sleeping mask. Pointedly NOT Admiral frikkin' Aokiji, probably had a late shift and forgot to take off the mask, happened to the best of us.
Seeing as this was going nowhere, and there was no way she was endorsing whatever that was, Kasey started looking around the room. If she came in via a door, she probably could go back the same way…right? Finding what she was looking for, probably a closet, but hey, that was the only normal door except for the main one that suspiciously looked like a shoji. Next step was to get to said door. She opened it… a closet. Closing the door, she reopened it.
Closet. Closing. Opening. Closet.
She did that a few more time-varying the speeds, nothing. This was a closet door, that had a closet in it, with stuff stored in. Turning around to face the still shocked marines in the room, Kasey came to yet another decision. And voiced her concerns.
"Please tell me this isn't marineford." she wined.
Tsuru, coming to her senses, shot an odd look at the strange woman.
"Where else do you think you are exactly?" said the elder with a confused look on her face.
That's it. Taking that as confirmation Kasey started to think. How? How in the bloody hell… Rob.
It was that Rob guy's fault. But that didn't answer the how, or the why. She didn't have much time to think, there were six very dangerous people in the room with her and the frozen surprise wouldn't last much longer. Acting on instinct, she suddenly straightens her back and made the best imitation of a salute she could do, even clicking her heels together even though she was barefoot.
"SIRS! And ma'am." She said bowing a little to Tsuru. "I'll take my leave!" and took the door as normally as she could. Walked out, closed the door behind her, and a soon as she was one door away from the office started to RUN. Just in time, because a ruckus started behind her and it was obvious someone was chasing after her. By the suddenly rising temperature? She knew exactly who was chasing her.
"fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck"
The element of surprise did give her enough of a head start on the raging mutt to turn a corner and hide in yet another closet. Knowing this was not going to work for long, Kasey waited for the steps, and the temperature, to fade a little before getting out and running the other way. Taking the first set of stairs she could find, she started going down in hopes of getting out of the building before someone stop her.
In hindsight, it was a miracle no one DID stop her. Her clothes were very different from the white and blue uniforms she was passing, but other than odd looks, no one bothered. Turning another corner she stopped dead in her track, gluing herself on the wall. There was a flash of yellow at the main entrance. Looks like Admiral Borsalino was talking to a marine. How did he get there so fast? Oh… right, devil fruits mockery. Lost in thought, she didn't realize someone was hiding next to her.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to get out before the yellow monkey sees me." she said while bitting at her thumb.
" Is that so?"
"Yeah, but I don't know if I'm fast enough. Damn, this is crazy."
"Oh?"
"Maybe if I had a mirror… that could help against this jackass, but I can't wait for too long or the mutt is going to find me."
Trying to think, what were their flaws again? Akainu was a lost cause, no way in hell I could do anything about it. For Kizaru I could use a mirror maybe, but I needed to be fast enough to use it and it would only work on his fruit. For Kuzan? With some luck, he was still in the room with the other three.
"Why would I still be upstairs exactly?"
"Lazy justice, with Akainu and Borsalino already out, unless Sengoku orders him to get down he might stay and enjoy breakfast." I wave my hand in dismissal as I answered, not realizing I had talked out loud.
"… Make sense."
"Yeah, but it doesn't help. I still need to bypass… the…"
I froze. This voice, the slightly colder air. Fuck. Turning around, I came face to face with an unimpressed Aokiji.
"… guessing I can't ask you to let me run?"
He answered with a pair of cold cuffs snapping on my wrist.
-oOo-
Sengoku was staring at the girl. Aokiji had found her and brought her back into the room. While waiting for the others to come back, he detailed her appearance. There was no way she was a marine. The sheer amount of tattoos on the girl's skin would have been more than enough for most of the higher-ups to at least have a nickname for her.
The marines were a big organization, but an appearance like THAT usually came with a little reputation. She was sitting at the other end of the table with a calculated blank stare, pointedly looking over him. He let a breath leave his lungs, what fresh hell was this? His thoughts were interrupted with the door opening on Akainu and Borsalino coming back in. they both took back their seats. Taking a breath, Sengoku started talking.
"So. Now that everybody is back and seated, care to explain who you are?"
The girl kept on staring, at least she was looking at them now and not the wall behind them. Taking another deep breath to calm himself he tried again.
"Look, you don't really have a choice here, who are you, why are you here and what do you want? Did you use a devil fruit to create that door? The sooner you answer, the sooner we can go back to whatever we were doing."
The look she gave him was flat.
"That's classified, I don't know and I want to leave. The door-door fruit is already taken and I can swim very well thank you." She said.
"Watch it you!-" Started Akainu, raising the temperature of the room.
"Shut up mutt" before being stopped by Garp of all people. It did the work, but the room kept the heat.
"How do you know about the door-door fruit?" Asked Tsuru, picking up on the comment.
The girl looked at her.
"I know a lot of stuff that I shouldn't I guess." She said calmly.
Sengoku could feel the tick mark on his forehead as his pressure slowly started rising.
"And you are telling us in a completely flat and un-stressed way because…?"
Another flat glance.
"Denial"
Another tick mark.
"…Denial?"
A blink. No change.
"Yes, denial."
It took a lot of Sengoku's control not to hit something or have golden light sip out of his control. That girl had the same effect on him as Garp. He turned to Aokiji, hoping he had something on the annoying pest. The admiral gave him a lazy look and then sigh.
"She was mumbling about getting out. She knows our names, our ranks I assume, and our devil fruits, by the way, she was thinking of using mirrors to deflect Admiral Borsalino. Didn't say much else."
So, a devil fruit fan of some kind. Knowing names and ranks of the higher-ups of the marine wasn't really something new, but the devil fruit interest was peculiar. Not everyone had that kind of knowledge and the fact that she seemed to know the user of a fruit that could make doors, would also explain how she got into the conference room.
Sengoku sigh, probably a friend of hers making a 'prank' as she said at the very beginning. And the attitude probably meant that the poor kid was terrified. Nodding at his own assessment of the girl, Sengoku calmed down, she was impolite, but he was ready to just move on. Caesar Clown had finally agreed to come to the base to make a very overdue report today and Sengoku didn't want to spend any more time than necessary with the strange kid. Calling two marines he gestured to the girl.
"Alright, lead her to medical for an assessment. If she doesn't seem to be hostile just let her go."
The mooks agreed by doing a salute and were about to lead the now surprised girl out of the room when Sengoku added something.
"Kuzan, please escort them to medical, just in case she gets any ideas."
Grunting, the lazy admiral got up and followed the trio. As the door closed Sengoku gave a look at one of his best friends.
"Anything else, Tsuru?" he asked, flatly.
All he got for an answer was a tsk and a belly laugh from Garp.
-oOo-
I was still unsure of the situation. I was still in cuffs, but I couldn't understand why I was being led to the infirmary of marineford. Or why Kuzan was 'escorting' us to it. Guess I didn't look like a threat, not that it was untrue, but still. Kinda hurt you know.
Fortunately for me, if they had a change of heart for a reason or another, the infirmary was on the first floor, getting out would be easier from there. I still had problems with the fact that I was in THE marineford. The cuffs were pinching my wrists enough for me to know I was awake and probably not hallucinating, the small sip of coffee I had wasn't enough for this to be a mirage for this long. Lost in my thought, I didn't realize Aokiji was starting a conversation.
"-know?"
"Huh?"
He looked down at me, because yes, he was that tall.
"How did you know? For the mirrors?"
"Oh, huh, he ate the glint-glint fruit, so he can use his reflection to travel but if any other reflective surface if on his way it would have deflected. Maybe only once depending on the force of the attack or travel, but it only really needs to be once when you are trying to run away from him." I shrugged. Not like it was a secret or anything, just you know, made sense.
Aokiji just stared at me for a second. Thankfully his attention went back to the front. We had arrived at the infirmary. It was a basic infirmary, rows of beds separated by curtains. I was led to the nearest bed and uncuffed, thankfully, but not a second later two nurses were on my case. They didn't do anything weird and the questions were basic.
It was like having a simple health check. The only difference was that they took a sample of blood and ran the test twice with a confused look on their faces. Probably newbies, or my stress playing tricks on the medical tools. Not my problem, for as soon as they left me alone, I dashed through the corridor and jumped through a window. Thankfully, they were talking to Aokiji and the window was already opened, making my escape easy, silent, and painless.
Dashing to the nearest harbor as fast as my weak asthma lung could take me. I stopped in front of three battleships, wheezing heavily. Taking a moment to assess which one to get on, I was cut off by a yell coming from the direction I came from. Thinking fast, I made my way into the loading docks and hopped on the first moving crates I could find. Opening one of the crates was harder than I thought, but one of them had a loose lid, probably from some kind of inspection. I quickly hid in it, finding myself on a soft cushion of marine uniforms.
Neat.
There was some movement for a while. I waited until most of the noise was gone and looked outside my hideout. From the low light, I could barely make out the storage space I was in. There were no windows, but there was a door. Listening as much as I could to any kind of noise, I slowly got out of the box. If the slow movement of the ship was any indication, we were moving away from marineford. Good.
Still keeping an eye on the door, I checked the crate for a uniform that would fit me. I found some light long sleeve shirts to put under the button-down shirt. Unfortunately, most of the pants were a little too short on the length, apparently, the mooks were one size fits all. That or it was made that way so the seawater didn't eat at the bottom of the pants. Top all that with some white shoes and a cap and I was no longer going to stand out in a crowd of white and blue.
Satisfied with my appearance, I opened the door. I was definitely in a lower deck section of some sort. The only light came from a square opening on my right, each of them half blocked by a canon. Having never set a foot on a boat this big, and especially not one that was sail-powered, I had no idea if it was one of the battleships or some kind of smaller galleon. Took me a few minutes to find my way onto the upper deck listening to the other sailors to figure out where I was and where we were headed. I needed to think, and for that, I needed somewhere safe where no one would look at me twice.
I found a group of mooks heading, somewhere, and started to follow them.
"Did you see the cleaning schedule? Man, I think the captain really hates me. I have cleaning duty for most of the trip!" said the smaller one.
"Dude, at least you are cleaning the decks, I have canon maintenance half the time and I have to clean out the heads the rest of the time!" said the taller one.
"Shucks to be you guys! I was able to trade some of my shores with Benji, so I get mostly meal cleaning and 2nd lookout. My time here is going to be smooth sailing!" said the third one.
So these guys were ordinary seaman. Probably recruits by the looks of it. I could blend in with them no problem. Most of what they were talking about made sense until they started using some kind of ship language I couldn't understand. I would probably end up learning, but for now, I had no clue what a starboard was or a heads.
As we were moving along, I spotted people going in and out of a door, delicious smells coming from it. Probably the cafeteria, perfect. I slipped myself past the sailors and down into the lower decks again, following the growing number of hungry sailors. Once in, I got in line, got some food, and sat at the most secluded table I could.
First thing first, assessing the current situation. I was on a ship sailing to who knows where in a world that was literally not mine. I got here opening the door of my room, which I never found afterward, and no clear way to go back.
Great.
Letting the logical part of my brain take over so I didn't end up in a panic attack, I made a list of priorities. I needed to know where we were going, that's for sure, but I also needed to know when we were. Being on a ship wasn't something new in the One piece world and the only characters that I saw were the admirals, vice-admirals, and Sengoku. Which didn't gave me a lot to work with.
Fortunately for me, a passing group of sailors answered me while passing by.
"Captain Nezumi is so pissed right now, we just barely left and Admiral Aokiji was on board asking questions."
"Seriously? Why? That's not like him."
"Yeah apparently he lost something and was asking around, but the reason the captain is pissed is because, when he left, he iced part of the upper deck and some seaman slipped."
"He was pissed because a seaman slipped?"
"No no, it was because the seaman was carrying a crate of good boose reserved for him. Such a waste."
The rest of the conversation was drowned in the cafeteria noise after that. Nezumi, I knew this name. That's the corrupt marine that was on Cocoyashi island, the one that was dealing with Arlong.
The one that would give Luffy his first bounty.
I smiled, finishing my food. If my assumption were correct, I was headed to known territory. If everything worked out, I had two possibilities. One would be to keep on hiding in the marine for the rest of my time here, or try and hop on the straw hat crew for incredible adventures. Now that I was here, no way was I just sitting nicely at a random island. When Rob asked me why I would choose One piece, I said freedom was the reason. Now that I was really here? Even if this was some sort of dream or another kind of shenanigan, I would make the most of it. The only thing I had to do was to survive until I somehow met with a straw hat.
How hard could it be?
...
...
Mwahahaha! Congratulation on reading the first chapter of this story! And thank you for taking the time!
There are more to come soon since I try to keep a few chapters ready before posting a new one. I might make a special and post a new chapter sooner than anticipated depending on my grammar correction (my nemesis!) and the time I have.
I know the timeline is going to be a little strange in the first few chapters (I figured out my mistake too late and I already have up until Loguetown written down and until water seven in bare bone mode) so please bear with me, I'll try to figure something out so it makes kinda sense with canon.
As you can see, most of my babbles and news are going to be after the chapter is done, so if you have questions or things that you say that I find important enough (or funny enough) I'll address these here, in the after story.
Thank you again for reading my little piece and I hope to see you in the next chapter!
May chaos rule and dorkyness prevail!