Justice - Of Fairies, Pirates, and Heroes

by Denied love494

In this crossover spin-off of the amazing story "Justice" by Black' Victor Cachat, the Straw Hats realize that they're not the first extra-dimensional strangers to the JLU universe! And what's more, they're apparently from a different (but possibly parallel) universe from the Straw Hats' own! The 2 groups will be inevitably brought together, but will they be friends or foes?

4. Meetings and Greetings

(Back where Nami is being imprisoned...)

Nami looked at the 2 visitors as they approached her cell, with the blonde one wearing a plain white t-shirt and pink yoga pants while the red-haired guy wore a white scarf and baggy white pants (he wore no shirt, allowing a full view of his muscular and ripped chest). As they approached Nami, both of them had friendly smiles on their faces, with Lucy having a simple but kind grin while Natsu had a big Luffy-like smile.

"Hey there", Lucy said after Natsu opened the door to the cell, "we thought you might be hungry, so Mirajane made you some dinner". Nami looked at the large wooden plate and saw that there was a hot bowl of freshly-made ramen along with a plate of barbecued meat, both of which smelled very good. Nami, who hadn't eaten before her attempted bank heist and thus was starving, grabbed the silverware on the wooden plate and began to help herself to the food, being just able to eat properly even with the icy cuffs on her arms restricting her movements. Lucy and Natsu watched her eat away, the former smiling as she watched the navigator chow down. Natsu was just thinking about how strong these pirates were, because he hadn't had a good fight in the 2 years since they'd arrived in this dimension and hearing about this 'Luffy' guy on the news had gotten him excited!

When Nami finished the meal, she wiped her mouth with a napkin, before putting it down and thanking them for the meal. Lucy just smiled and said "glad you enjoyed it" as she took the plate and set it on a small desk next to Nami's bed.

'For a girl who just fought me and decked me in the face, this chick's being awfully polite.', Nami thought, 'Although if she and her friends are anywhere close to the power I sensed coming off of Brandish, then I'd stand no chance in a fight even if my arms were free. I'd better just play along for now.'

"So why do you have those cat ears on?", the red-haired guy asked, pointing at her head. Nami's face went a bit red from embarrassment as she realized that she was still wearing the cat ears that Brandish put on her, not to mention the collar. She was about to explain what happened, only for Lucy to say in an exasperated tone: "It was Brandish, wasn't it?". The way she said it seemed to imply that she had experienced this before.

"Here, let me take those off for you", Lucy said, and Nami held still as she pulled off the fake cat ears and tore the collar and took it off her.

"Why are you guys being so nice to me?", Nami asked.

"Because you're not a bad guy", Natsu said, "Well, not a 'bad' bad guy, I mean you were still robbing banks when Lucy found you. But you also saved a bunch of people when that strange virus made me and all of the guys really sick, so you gotta be a good person. Besides, you have a nice and relaxing smell like Lucy does, so you can't be evil."

Nami was a tad embarrassed and uncomfortable at the last part, something which Lucy sensed and smacked Natsu on the back of the head for (although Natsu didn't seem too hurt by it). "Don't say that, ya flame-brain! That's rude!". She then turned back to Nami and, with a friendly grin once again on her face, continued where Natsu left off: "In all seriousness though, we're really grateful that you and your friends stopped that allergen. A lot of people wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for you guys".

Nami smiled back at Lucy and said "Hey, you guys aren't the only ones whose friends were in danger. Besides, I'm not just going to sit around and let some man-hating psycho kill half of the Earth's population." "Yeah, I mean Wendy was able to use her magic to keep Europe and Northern Africa safe until the virus had left, but there were a lot of places that we wouldn't have been able to help if the virus hadn't been cured."

Nami's eyes widened at hearing that an entire continent had been shielded by one of this group's members from the virus (although it did explain why so few people in that region had died from the virus). On the bright side, it meant that these strangers from another dimension were probably good people. "She saved an entire continent? How?"

"Don't look so shocked, I mean Wendy's the best healer we know!", Natsu happily claimed. Nami noted that Natsu seemed to possess a thick-headed mentality and friendly aura similar to that of Luffy, while Lucy possessed a pure kindness that also wasn't different from Luffy's. Could these people be alternate-dimension counterparts of them?

Before Nami could ponder this any further, a rather small blue-haired girl walked into the room alongside a young white-haired woman with cat ears and a cat tail. "Come on guys", the blue-haired girl said in a quiet but happy voice, "It wasn't that impressive. I just did it long enough for the virus to be cured, it was just a few hours."

Her white-haired assistant watched her sit down in a chair but then looked right at her and said in a tone full of motherly exasperation (and a bit of hidden pride): "Wendy, you literally kept hundreds of millions of people in Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa from getting fatally ill for hours on end despite the risks. I don't know what sort of magic power you used to do it, but you mustn't be so hard on yourself. I swear, it's like the more you achieve the more insecure you become."

Wendy smiled and nodded, but then saw Nami looking at her. While she momentarily looked back at Nami, she couldn't help but notice the navigator's impressive physical figure, a result of years of exercise and training. 'Even other dimensions have women that are more developed than me? It's not fair!', Wendy thought to herself with a comically glum expression until Nami got her attention.

"Hello there, Wendy. My name's Nami. I just want to let you know that even though I'm a pirate, I am not a bad person.", Nami said in a motherly tone, as if Wendy was a little child being introduced to their new foster parent. Wendy wasn't crazy about Nami viewing her as a little kid (she was 16 now, for crying out loud!), but was quickly brought out of her thoughts by Carla.

"Not a bad person, hmm? While I can't deny that you saved many people by stopping that insane terrorist Aresia, I also can't help but recall that Lucy and her friends caught you and your buddies in the midst of a robbery." "We needed that money to find a way to get back home, and even when we ran Cherry Blossom we didn't have enough money to manage both that and our crews' appetites and needs. Do you know what it's like to have to pay for a bunch of constantly-bored and constantly-hungry manchildren?".

This question caused Lucy, Carla, and Wendy to all think back to the countless times where the antics of Natsu and the others (although Natsu was always the main factor) caused them to pay large sums of money for property damage, and no matter how many times Lucy and Erza decked Natsu as punishment, he never seemed to give up on his misbehaving ways.

"Fair point, but that still doesn't completely justify your actions. There is no excuse for robbing banks that hold the money of innocent people. And besides, do your beds made of money count as 'finding a way home'?" "Well excuse me for giving myself a eensy-weensy payment for all the work I do. How else am I supposed to get a nice nap with all the stress I have?" "Ever heard of a normal bed? I hear those work great for sleeping." "Why you little-"

Before the 2 of them could fight anymore (and both of them had flames in their eyes at this point), Lucy stepped in front of Carla and said "That's enough. Carla, we don't need you antagonizing these people more than we already have. Judging by what they've done, that woman who offered a partnership to Levy was probably telling the truth", she looked over to Nami after saying this, causing Nami (who didn't fully know what they meant but knew that Robin was involved) quickly nodded her head.

Satisfied, Lucy then turned to her, pointed her right index finger to her and said in a rather forceful tone, "On the other hand, you and your buddies need to stop robbing normal banks. The people who put their money in the bank don't deserve to take the blow for your problem. And beds of money, really? That's the tackiest rich thing I've ever seen, and I literally grew up surrounded by wealth! Long story short, if we catch you robbing any more banks, we will arrest you, common goals or not. Are we clear?"

Nami, who was frustrated at this but knew that compliance was the only way to continue negotiations with these people (and could tell that this girl was not playing around), sighed and responded with, "Alright, I promise that we won't rob any more 'good' banks. Can we still rob bad guys?" "No, that money goes back to the people who it was taken from." "Well then how are we supposed to get enough money then, you goodie-goodies?"

"Oh, don't worry about that", Lucy said while she reached into her purse to get something, her voice back to its friendly tone. She pulled out a checkbook and got out a pen, before writing down some stuff on one of the pages before tearing out the check from the checkbook and showing it to Nami (although making sure to keep it out of her reach, though Nami really couldn't reach far with the chains connected to the bed restraining her hands). Nami's eyes widened as she saw the amount on the check, and her eyes morphed into dollar bill signs (while making a 'ka-ching' sound) as she exclaimed: "9.5 BILLION DOLLARS?!". Blood even began to pour out of her nose, which freaked Lucy and Wendy out until Wendy hastily used a simple spell to quell the bleeding (although doing so did somewhat drain her already-low energy reserves).

"That is entirely too much!", Carla exclaimed, while Natsu just thought to himself: 'That must be some expensive rent if she's giving them that much', as his experiences with Lucy (and her constant struggles to pay rent for her apartment back in Magnolia) over the years had led him to believe that most people spent a majority of their money on paying rent, an assumption that was rather narrow-minded but not totally incorrect. Wendy was just shocked at how much money Lucy was offering.

Yes, the group's combined savings from all their businesses and "discovery" of so much gold and diamonds (including the gold created by their magic) amounted up to roughly $1.28 trillion altogether (which was all kept in a top-secret and very secure Swiss bank account), but to give this group of pirates so much money just on the hope that they could help them get home was borderline insane.

Lucy ignored Carla and kept looking at Nami, who all of a sudden looked at this group as a flock of extra-dimensional angels. She tried reaching with her cuffed hands for the check, only for Lucy to pull the check away, which made Nami's face go from happiness to sadness. "After we meet with your group and come to an agreement, then we can discuss money. Capiche?". Nami nodded, now excited at the thought of getting a rich financial backer, while Lucy then smiled and said "That's good. I'm sure we can work things out between the 2 of us." She then gave the check to Natsu, who effortlessly set it on fire (they didn't want Nami to steal it and cash it without their notice), a tactic that angered Nami even if she admitted that it was smart.

Nami, now far less afraid of her captors, turned over to Wendy and said "By the way, they mentioned that you managed to keep all of Europe from getting sick. Is that true?". A bashful Wendy then quietly said "Yeah, that was me."

"That's amazing! How did you do that?", a legitimately astounded Nami asked. Wendy, with a bit more confidence, answered with "Well, my magic allows me to heal the injuries and illnesses of others, even severe magical afflictions or curses. I quickly sensed that there was some very basic magic within the allergen that was making all the guys sick, and my healing magic was more than enough to cure the illness, even though it's some sort of magic that I don't know. The only problem was that as long as the allergen was in the air, it didn't matter how many times I healed them, since the moment I stopped they'd just get sick again. Levy made as many magic masks as she could for boys and men to use, but she could only reach a couple hundred people at best, even if it did completely save those who got them."

"So then how did you manage to protect an entire continent?"

"Well...", Wendy said, not willing to reveal that she'd drawn on 1% of the power of the spirit of Irene Belserion hidden within her to do so (since even her friends didn't know about that yet), "I just tapped into all my hidden reserves of power and then unleashed a healing spell on the entire continent. Good thing we were taking a vacation in France, I guess. I unleashed a normal healing spell but on a continental scale, and I held it until Erza told me that the virus had been cured. However, I guess I overestimated myself a bit, because I'm still having some trouble using magic, otherwise I'd have healed the cheek that Lucy punched".

At hearing this, Lucy got a bit embarrassed as she said to Nami, "Yeah, sorry about that."

Nami ignored her and said to Wendy: "You didn't overestimate yourself, Wendy. You probably saved at least half a billion people from dying even though you knew the risks. If anything, you're underestimating yourself. I mean, I need my Clima-tact if I want to fight anyone that's an actual threat, and even then I'm still one of the weakest in my crew."

Wendy clearly appreciated the compliment, as she straightened her posture and looked more confident now as she said "Thank you very much." Even Carla smiled at her companion's happiness. Nami smiled, until another question popped into her head. "Say Lucy, how exactly did you summon that lady who threw wool at me when we fought?"

"Oh that's just Aries, she's one of the Celestial Spirits that I have a contract with. Basically, since I have her key, I can summon her for battle and use her powers myself. I try not to use her whenever I can, though."

"Why not?"

Lucy sighed before answering: "The thing about Celestial Spirits is that, well, they can't die. They can be hurt, but they'll always regenerate from it. They're not biological beings like you and me. And the person who owned Aries and another one of my spirits, named Loki, before I did thought that this immortality gave her the right to beat them and use them as human shields as much as she pleased. After all, they couldn't die, so it didn't matter if she treated them like trash. What did she care if her abuse turned Aries into a shy flower who is afraid of literally everyone she meets other than her longtime friend Loki?"

It was clear to Nami that Lucy was trying to control herself, her rage bubbling beneath the surface even though Lucy retained her calm voice. "No matter how much Loki and Aries pleaded with her, she refused to treat them better. Any promises she made were only to keep them from escaping and were always just lies.", Lucy continued, her hands on her lap now tightly clenched.

"One day, Loki had had enough, and finally left her service in order to protect Aries from her abuse, since she couldn't use Spirits as long as Loki refused to serve her. He gave her multiple chances to be better in exchange for his return, but she refused. And then, when she fought someone who was too strong for her to face alone, she died. I wish I could say that I feel sorry for her passing like Loki and Aries were, but I honestly don't. Treating others like garbage just because you can is unforgivable! Immortal or not, they were living beings just like I am, and no living being should EVER be treated like that!"

She was shouting at this point, causing Nami, Wendy and Carla to get worried. Lucy noticed this, and took a long breath before saying "Sorry, I just got a bit carried away. It's been a rough few weeks." Before she could continue, Natsu hugged her from behind, remembering all the times she'd hugged him whenever he was losing himself to his rage. Lucy was stunned by this, and she soon calmed down enough for Natsu to be willing to let her go. He then put a hand on her shoulder, looked her in the eyes, and said "You're tired, Lucy. Go take a nap." Lucy smiled and nodded before briefly hugging him and saying "Thanks.", then going off to her room.

Nami now knew for a fact that these people could be trusted. No evil person could show the passionate anger for her friends like Lucy did, even if they tried to pretend. If she could just get Luffy to agree to work with these people, then they could get a powerful and good-hearted new ally. There was an awkward silence, until Natsu turned back to her and said "Hey pirate lady, I got a question for ya".

"Um sure, what is it?" "This Luffy guy who's your boss..." "What about him?"

Natsu's voice then became cheerful again as he asked "How strong is he?"

"What? Why should I tell you that?" "Because I wanna fight him!" "Why? Aren't you guys going to help us?"

"Yeah, but I haven't had any good opponents in 2 years and this Luffy guy sounds really tough! I just want a good old sparring match with him, so I can find out how strong he is!"

"I swear Natsu", Carla said, "It's like all you think about sometimes is fighting". Wendy just smiled and said "That's Natsu for ya".

"Well in that case", a more relaxed Nami said, "you're gonna be in for the fight of your life. I've been with Luffy for a long time, and his power is crazy. Even I don't know where his limit is." Her tone also carried quite a bit of confidence within it, as she was downright proud of the strength that her captain possessed.

"ALL RIGHT!", a happy Natsu said. "This is gonna be great!"

All 4 of them chuckled a bit, until a door loudly slammed open, causing all 4 of them to jump a bit.

"WHERE IS SHE?!", a loud and somewhat gravelly voice roared in anger. The 4 of them then heard loud stomping towards their location, and it wasn't long until a tall and muscular man with long spiky hair and a mean scowl on his face entered the room. He saw Nami, and pointed an accusatory finger at her.

"YOU...", the tall man all but growled as he gave Nami a terrifying look of rage, "You and your criminal buddies think you're tough when you stalk and intimidate my wife, huh?"

As he angrily stepped forward, Nami quickly tried explaining the situation (while mentally making a note to charge Robin heavily for whatever she did to scare Levy once she returned to the Straw Hats): "No, no, wait! We would never harm her! We only wanted to try making a deal with her so we could also get back home to our dimension, I swear!". Natsu, Wendy, and Carla also went in front of him, trying to explain the situation to him in order to calm him down.

"She's not a bad guy, Gajeel! She's actually pretty cool!", Natsu stated.

"They just want to get back home, Gajeel!", Wendy said.

"There's no need to hurt her!", Carla exclaimed.

Eventually, they managed to calm Gajeel down enough for him to lose most of his anger. It helped that his enhanced senses allowed him to sense that Nami was telling the truth about not wanting to hurt Levy. Despite this, he still gave Nami a glare and said: "Your friend Robin gave my wife Levy a helluva fright, and now she's so paranoid that she's cancelling all of her clubs and subscriptions because she doesn't want anyone else to trace her. Now the one thing I can't stand is seeing my girl so upset that she can't enjoy the nerdy things that she loves, as annoying and boring as they are. So I'm just gonna say this: If your pals cause my girl Levy or our kids to get hurt or, God forbid, something worse, you won't live long enough to regret it."

And with that declaration, Gajeel stormed out of the room.

Once he was well away from the room, the 3 of them turned back to Nami, and Carla then said "Care to explain?" in an accusatory tone.

"I don't know the specifics behind what Robin did, but I know that she'd never hurt an innocent person. Scare them a bit, sure, but never hurt them."

"She's telling the truth, guys", Natsu said, and Wendy nodded in agreement, which somewhat confused Nami.

"How do you know?" "Wendy, Gajeel, and I are all Dragon Slayers, and we all have super good senses. I can hear that your heartbeat didn't change when you said that you didn't mean to hurt her, so you're probably telling the truth. Still, I don't wanna see you scarin' my friends again, got it?"

"Got it. One more question: Can you guys please take these cuffs off of my hands?" "No", Carla replied. "Why not?" "Even though you're not dangerous, we still don't trust you enough to let you on your own. What's to say you won't take our money or capture one of us while we're asleep?"

"Damn it, you got a point. But I just wanna say that if you want to make a deal with us, you better make it quick."

"And why is that?" "Because when my captain wants one of his nakama back, there is no force in any dimension that can stop him. Not even a Dragon Slayer."

Wendy and Carla were somewhat taken aback, but Natsu just grinned and said one thing in response: "Sounds good. Just thinking about fighting him is gettin' me all fired up."

(About an hour or so later, at the Straw Hat Base...)

Sanji hummed as he cooked a gourmet dinner for Nami-swan and Cheetah-chwan for when they got back from their heist (and for the shitty marimo too, he supposed). He couldn't wait to finally return home, even if he had had some fun times in this dimension, although he hoped that he could get to meet all the beautiful women in this 'Fairy Tail' organization. He'd love nothing more than to bake as many strawberry cakes for the woman known as 'Erza Scarlet' as she wanted, and he could even meet the famous model known as Mirajane!

Suddenly, he heard a loud banging at the door. 'That must be Nami and Cheetah back from the robbery!', Sanji thought as he glided to the door. He looked through the peephole to make sure that it was them (he might be hopeless when it came to women, but he wasn't an idiot) and saw Zoro and Cheetah with bags of money but grim looks on their faces, with Nami nowhere to be found.

'Shit', Sanji thought as he opened the door. He already had a general idea of what had happened just from their faces and Nami's absence. He opened the door and quietly said "Get in", then pressed a button on a watch that Franky had made for each of the Straw Hats. This button was meant for emergencies only, so when Sanji pressed it and all the other Straw Hats received the signal, they all knew that something was wrong, even Luffy.

Once all of the Straw Hats had arrived at the main room, Luffy immediately noticed that Nami wasn't there and could tell right off the bat that she'd been kidnapped. Had she been killed, Zoro would be covered in the blood of the bastard(s) who'd done it, but Zoro looked alright aside from a few bruises and slashes.

"What happened?", Luffy asked in an eerily calm voice, his terrifying aura of Conqueror's Haki already beginning to leak from his body (which put all of the 'new' Straw Hats on edge). Zoro and Cheetah explained what happened, and how the people they'd fought matched the exact descriptions of the files given to them by Nico Robin. There was the author and business owner known as Lucy Heartfilia, the fashion designer extraordinaire Erza Scarlet, and Elfman Strauss, who (alongside his sister Lisanna) owned a large restaurant chain known as 'Beastly Dining'. They also mentioned how the 3 of them used some sort of magic that they had never seen before (not even from the Justice or Injustice League), and that they had fought the 3 Straw Hats to a standstill (aside from Nami, who'd actually been beaten by her opponent, albeit barely).

On the bright side, these confirmed both of the suspicions that Nico Robin (who'd recently returned from her 'book club') had about those individuals being part of some secret conspiracy as well as them having powers (although that did little to comfort her or the others at this time).

Zoro mentioned how the group seemed to have been angry at them robbing the bank, which heavily implied that at least these people were on the side of good. He and Cheetah both seemed to blame themselves for Nami's capture, even though no one in the room blamed them and was mostly just glad that they were alright.

Luffy turned to Franky and Robin and calmly asked: "Can you track where these guys live?" Robin sighed and replied with: "Even if we did, they can probably move across the globe at a moment's notice. Same with their finances and contacts. These people have been in this dimension for 2 years, Luffy, so they know this world better than most of us do." Franky picked up where Robin stopped and added: "And if we try to take them on or capture one of them in public, it'll only get both the public and the Justice League against us since they're still some of the world's wealthiest people, plus there's no guarantee that we can even beat them in a fight. If we want Nami back, we need them to come to us."

Luffy took all of this in, frustrated at the lack of options for rescuing Nami, but before he could say anything, Luffy's cell phone rang, causing all the Straw Hats to turn their heads towards him. The only people who knew his phone number were his fellow Straw Hats. Luffy looked at the caller identity (it was Nami), before looking at the other Straw Hats who gave him a quick nod. He then pressed the answer button, and replied to the caller.

"Hello?"

"HEY, WHO IS THIS?", a loud and boisterous voice boomed through the cell phone, although Luffy was basically immune to loud noises due to his own experience yelling at people and being yelled at. Luffy at this point, angry at the thought of what had happened to Nami if someone had taken her phone (since Nami would fight with tooth and nail against anyone trying to steal her possessions), responded in a cold tone to the loud caller:

"Where's Nami?", Luffy asked in a voice full of his typical quiet anger. "YOU MEAN THAT ORANGE HAIRED GIRL? I DON'T CARE ABOUT HER, I JUST WANNA FIGHT-".

The loud voice was interrupted by the sound of what seemed to be a young woman hitting the loud caller on the head while yelling "IDIOT!", and there was a brief moment of no sound other than what seemed to be the loudmouth whimpering until a new voice (this one female and notably quieter than the previous one) made its presence known:

"I apologize for that. This is Lucy Heartfilia speaking, am I talking to Luffy?" "Yeah, now what did you do with my friend?" "Oh she's fine, don't worry. We just found her and some of your other criminal buddies stealing some money and recognized you guys from the news. So we wanted to find out more about you. I promise you we didn't lay a finger on her. Do you want to talk to her?"

Most of the Straw Hats were surprised at how nice this girl sounded, and thought that it might be some sort of trick. Luffy, not concerned with that and just wanting to have proof that Nami was ok, firmly said "you're damn right I do". There were a few seconds of silence (the woman on the phone was likely just walking to where Nami was), until they heard her say "Hey Nami, it's your captain!".

The Straw Hats were surprised at how polite she sounded, and were just as surprised when a calm Nami responded with "Hey, Luffy." Luffy, overjoyed at the sound of his nakama being unharmed (to the best of his knowledge) happily cried out with a big "NAMI! YOU'RE OKAY!" (which caused Nami to hold the phone away from her ear to prevent her hearing from being damaged), before being pushed down by Sanji, who quickly took the phone for himself.

"Nami-swan! Are you okay? Do you and those other lovely ladies need me to come rescue you?", he said in his typical lovey-dovey tone, causing all of the Straw Hats to facepalm while Nami gave an exasperated smile. Lucy looked at Nami with a raised eyebrow and an exasperated face, and Nami silently mouthed to her, "He does this all the time", before responding to Sanji's question:

"I'm fine, Sanji. I can't leave the building and they won't let me take my cuffs off, but other than that they've treated me well. Now can I please speak to Luffy?"

Sanji, somewhat heartbroken, glumly handed the phone back to Luffy, who went from grinning to serious the moment he got the phone back in his hands.

"Where are you?" "I have no idea, and even if I did they probably wouldn't let me say. But they said that I'm going to come back in a week anyways."

There was a brief pause, before a bewildered Luffy flatly said: "What?"

"Yeah, turns out that these guys are actually pretty nice and are willing to give us a LOT of money to help both us and them get back home. They just want us to stop stealing stuff in return."

Something was off. Nami was always in favor of stealing stuff and robbing for money. Either they brainwashed her, or they must've offered her a very handsome amount of money in order for her to agree to stop stealing. Either way, it seemed that she was doing well for someone who'd been captured and imprisoned, and there was no way to know if she was really alright or not unless Luffy and the Straw Hats decided to 'play ball' for the moment and listen to what these guys have to offer.

"So what's the deal, then?", Luffy asked.

Nami gave the phone to Lucy, who then responded with the conditions of the deal:

"We actually thought it'd be better to discuss our partnership in person, preferably at a nice restaurant. We'll send you the date and location by email soon, since Nami told me that you can't write. Until then, we promise that we'll make her as comfortable as possible."

"Well that's good, just be careful that you don't get into debt with her or you'll never pay it back."

He could hear Nami in the background shouting "I WILL MURDER YOU IN YOUR SLEEP, LUFFY" (so at least she wasn't being brainwashed, since her priorities and behavior seemed to be intact), followed by a nervous Lucy weakly chuckling while saying "Uh yeah, thanks for the heads up. Oh, and one more thing: No. More. Stealing."

"Aw man, why not?", Luffy asked with a childish whine in his voice. "We're pirates, not superheroes. How else am I supposed to get money for meat?" "We'll discuss that when we meet up, but until then, no more bank robbing, or the deal is off and you don't get your friend back." "What about if we beat up some rich bad guy?"

There was a brief silence as Lucy thought this over, before responding with "If you don't know who exactly the money belonged to, then you can keep it. If they stole it from poor people who you know the money belonged to, return it. That fair?" "Eh, I guess we can do that." "Glad to hear it, Luffy. Once again, don't worry about Nami, we swear that we'll treat her well."

"Okay, then. One more thing." "Hmm?" "Will there be a lot of food where we're meeting?"

He could hear Lucy groan in exasperation while muttering 'Good Lord, why is it always about the food?', before she replied with "Yes, there will be plenty of food. You're not the only group whose leader has a bottomless stomach." Luffy happily laughed before saying: "That's great! I guess I'll see you guys then! Bye, Nami!", and he then ended the call before Lucy or any of the Straw Hats could say otherwise.

Luffy then noticed the other Straw Hats giving him questioning looks, which confused him and made him ask: "What?"

"WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'WHAT'?!", almost all of them (except Robin) collectively shouted at him, frustrated at how thick-headed he was. Robin, calm as usual, waited until they were done shouting before saying: "What I think they mean to ask, Luffy, is 'How is Nami doing?'".

"I mean, she seemed fine when I talked to her", Luffy stated in a blunt tone. "Yes, but did she seem as though she might be brainwashed or threatened to lie about her condition?". "Not really, I mean she still got angry at me for telling them about being in her debt, and the lady on the phone seemed nice enough."

Robin sighed (although it was more out of hidden guilt than exasperation, since she felt as though her aggressive attempt at negotiation with Levy might have aggravated this secret group, which in turn might endanger Nami), and replied with "It's easy to sound nice, Luffy, but you don't know if it's a facade. They already took Nami's phone from her, and we both know that Nami would never give away anything of monetary value unless they either ripped it from her cold dead hands or managed to earn her trust."

"Well, they don't seem to be bad people if they don't want us to rob any more banks, and besides, how else are we gonna get Nami back if we do what these people want?". Robin knew that Luffy had some surprisingly good points, so she decided to back down. "You're probably right, Luffy. I suppose that all we can do now is wait until we meet them in person."

"Speaking of which", Volcana interjected, "did they say when and where we're supposed to meet them?" "They said something about emailing you guys the date and location, I really didn't pay much attention other than that they'll have a lot of food." "Of course you didn't, Luffy. How do we know that this isn't a trap?".

"We don't", Zoro interjected, "we just have to hope that they're as nice as they say they are and that they'll help us get back home". Everyone in the room seemed to reluctantly agree with Zoro (aside from Maureen), and they gave small reluctant nods. "But what if they hurt her?", a nervous Maureen asked. "Then we make sure that they'll regret it", Zoro replied, which inspired a bit more confidence in the Straw Hats.

"On a related note, now that we can't rob banks, how are we supposed to get enough money for the next week?", Usopp asked. Robin calmly answered with "I suppose I can cash in a few favors, that'll likely give us enough money for the time being now that Nami's not here", which made sense since Nami's spending often cost them a pretty penny (albeit not nearly as much as Luffy's eating habits). "By the way, Zoro", Robin said as she turned to him, "if you and Cheetah can give us any information on how the mages you encountered fought, I would greatly appreciate it. It could be very important if negotiations fail."

Zoro and Cheetah nodded, and with that, the Straw Hats awkwardly and reluctantly adjourned the meeting, most of them being mostly frustrated at their helplessness and inability to help their friend. Zoro and Cheetah went off with Robin to discuss the powers of the people who they'd faced when Nami had been captured, Sanji quietly made dessert as his way of cheering the others up, and Luffy went off the the gym with some of the other Straw Hats in order to train (in case they had to fight to get Nami back).

Nami had been captured by enemies in the past, but never had her captors openly contacted the Straw Hats with a peaceful offer for her return, especially since they seemed to be more than capable of fighting toe-to-toe with the Straw Hats and didn't seem to need anything from them. If the Straw Hats were lucky, then these people could very well be good people who could get them home and return Nami in One Piece. Knowing the Straw Hats' luck, however, there was no way to tell for sure.

Later that night, Robin received an email from an undisclosed gmail account later that night with details of the location where they'd meet up. It was in Moema, São Paulo, Brazil, at the restaurant known as 'Fogo de Chao' (the email explained that they had a few people with huge appetites for meat, something to which Robin could relate). They'd meet up there at noon, where they would reserve a large amount of tables and seats for the Straw Hats and themselves. The email didn't have much else, so Robin just wrote down the information and (per the email's request) deleted the email and made sure that it could never be recovered and read by someone else.

While she kept maintaining her calm exterior, Robin secretly blamed herself for any injuries Nami might get while in captivity. She had intimidated Levy McGarden (somewhat intentionally), and she was afraid that they might take it out on Nami. Of course, none of the Straw Hats blamed her, but that did little to make her feel better. That night (and for the next few nights), Cheetah felt Robin hugging her more tightly in her sleep.

(Right after the call with Luffy...)

Nami, annoyed but unsurprised at Luffy abruptly ending the call, handed her cell phone back over to Lucy, who thanked her.

"Let's hope that your friends trust us, Nami". "Trust me, once they see that I'm fine, I'm sure they'll hear you guys out".

Lucy sighed. "I sure hope so. Now what were we talking about?".

"I asked you how you were so good at gambling".

"Oh, you heard about that?".

"I observe all news involving large sums of money, and you winning $72 million in one night in Vegas is definitely unnatural. So how'd you do it? Some sort of magic that lets you rig the machine? Illusion magic?".

"Nope. I'm just unnaturally lucky."

Nami could not believe her ears. "What?".

"Yeah, my parents used to call me 'Lucky Lucy' and I think they might've had a point. I mean, I managed to escape a demonic curse even though the chances of that were literally one in a billion, so I'm pretty sure at least something's there.".

Nami was somewhat amazed at this, and in the back of her mind she already began to make plans for how she could use this girl's luck to win a boatload of money, with Nami keeping 55% of the profits.

That night, Lucy had shown Nami all of her Celestial Spirits at the latter's request. The first spirit was Aries, the same one that had distracted Nami with its fluffy wool long enough for Lucy to knock her out (and the obvious source behind the amazing synthetic wool sold by Aries Wool, one of the largest companies that Lucy had created). Aries was so shy and adorable that Nami just wanted to give her a big hug, especially since Nami had met people in the past who behaved similarly to Aries due to coming from bad places.

Next was Loki, who immediately reminded Nami of Sanji due to him flirting with her the moment he noticed her (something which caused Lucy to groan and apologize for his behavior and promptly close his gate). After that was Taurus, who was no better than Loki, causing Lucy to promptly close his gate after less than a minute. Next was Virgo, a beautiful pink-haired maid who kept asking Lucy and even Nami if they could 'punish' her, which kind of freaked Nami out. However, Nami remembered Lucy momentarily donning an outfit similar to Virgo's when she'd intercepted Nami and the others in the tunnel.

"Wait a sec, how did you make your clothes like Virgo's down in the tunnel? Was that some sort of magic?". "Yeah, it's my Star Dress Magic. It lets me use the powers of my Celestial Spirits so I can fight alongside them. I even learned to use the Star Dresses for the few Celestial Spirits that I don't even own, so I can still use their powers. Not to mention it lets me assist Erza by performing as a model for some of the latest fashion designs", Lucy finished with a bit of pride in her voice at her looks, something which Nami related to.

"For example," Virgo interjected, "Milady was able to use my ability to dig quickly and efficiently in order to intercept you and your friends. Not to mention her outfit also boosts her sexual appeal and-".

"AND WE ARE CLOSING YOUR GATE!", Lucy quickly shouted as she pointed the golden key at Virgo, closing the maid's gate with a large blush on her face, causing Nami to chuckle at the spirit's antics.

Nami noted how all of Lucy's spirits were quirky and had no trouble embarrassing Lucy and acting independently, which while funny was also a sign of how much they respected her. It was clear that Lucy treated her spirits as companions, not grunts. Nami could also tell that something about this girl's personality was just...magnetic in how quickly she was able to make a small bond with Nami right off the bat, despite them having met as enemies.

It was quite similar to how Luffy managed to quickly bond with strangers whom he viewed as friends, even if they did not initially share his feelings of friendship (like Law, as well as some of the villains within this dimension that were now [mostly] loyal members of the Straw Hat Pirates). Perhaps the universe where these people came from was more similar to the Straw Hats' home dimension than Robin had thought.

Lucy went through her other spirits, impressing Nami somewhat with all of their abilities, but when she was done she let out a large yawn. "I'm gonna go get some sleep. You should too. Tomorrow, I'll introduce you to everyone and we can tell you more about ourselves."

"Okay, but before you go, can you please take these cuffs off?". "I can only remove the chains on the bed. Look, you seem like a great person but we don't know for sure yet".

Nami was a bit bummed at this, so Lucy quickly interjected with: "Tell you what, tomorrow at breakfast once the others see that you're not a bad person, they'll have no problem trusting you and removing your cuffs. Sound good?"

Nami thought it over, then sighed in submission and said "Fine. That sounds fair, I guess. But when I get out of here, I'm giving this place a heavy fine for substandard room service!".

Lucy laughed, happy that this friendly stranger was no less quirky than Lucy's own friends, and said: "Don't worry, it'll get a lot better in the next few days. Besides, once our two groups become friends, you can complain to your buddies again!". This caused both of them to laugh a bit. Lucy then walked out, but before she left the room she said "Good night, Nami".

"Night.", Nami replied, followed by Lucy flipping off the light switch.

Nami spent the first 10 minutes analyzing her icy cuffs to see if there was anything she could use to pick the lock. She didn't want to try breaking the cuffs because she doubted that it'd work, plus it'd only confirm the suspicions of the more aggressive members in the group, like that Gajeel guy who would've probably beaten her to a pulp had the others not intervened. Nami wasn't too mad at him, though, since he'd just wanted to protect his wife and reacted just like any good husband would.

She was unable to find any weak spot or keyhole in the cuffs, which didn't surprise her since they were made of ice, not metal, and thus lacked the machinery within common handcuffs.

When she realized that freeing herself was impossible, she lay back on the bed and began thinking to herself. She first thought about how much she now missed her old bed with Cheetah and Robin, since she now missed Cheetah's fluffiness and warmth.

Her next thoughts revolved around the possibility of getting home soon. She knew that Luffy promised to come back for their friends who they'd met here, but she herself still wasn't sure whether she was worried about taking them to her world in general or leaving them behind at all, since she was afraid of the possibility of their new friends being forced to return to their old lives once Luffy and the Straw Hats left. Just the thought of Maureen being on the streets by herself again almost made Nami cry.

She moved her mind away from those sad thoughts to her opinion of her captors. Gajeel aside, most of the people she'd met so far had treated her with plenty of kindness and trust, and the way that they'd talked about each other, themselves, their actions, and their friends gave her the impression that wherever these guys were from, they weren't too different from the Straw Hats (well, asides from the 'no stealing money' part). The fact that Lucy had casually offered to give them so much money in order to both help them return home and make sure that they didn't rob any more innocent banks was only more proof of how goodhearted these people were.

She did feel very sorry for them after hearing that they'd been in this dimension for at least 2 years, that's for sure. The Straw Hats had been here for one year at most, while these guys had been here for at least twice that. It was likely that these guys probably had as many or even more hopes, dreams, and friends in their home dimension who they couldn't see again. It explained why they were so open to the idea of help from the Straw Hats, despite the latter's reputation.

Nami decided that she'd just stay with this group for the next week and see if her feelings about them being good potential allies were true.

After making this decision in her head, she decided to sleep on it.

(The next day...)

Nami gradually came to, yawning and stretching her cuffed arms as she sat upward, although it was only when she saw the icy cuffs on her hands that she realized that this hadn't been a dream and she was technically a captive of a secret group of wizards from another dimension. On a list of the weirdest things to ever happen to her, this one just might crack the top 3.

She looked over and saw on the clock on the desk that the time was 9:00. The sound of light footsteps got closer to the room, and soon Lucy entered and walked over to Nami's cell, opening the door with a light smile on her face.

"Hey there. Hope you got a good night's sleep". "It was fine, thanks. Of course, it would've been nice to not have my hands cuffed". "Don't worry, as soon as the others see that you're a good person, I'm sure that they'll let you take the cuffs off."

Nami smiled at this and said: "Sounds like a deal".

"Great, now come on, I'll introduce you to some of the guys that aren't at work, and then we can go get breakfast. After that, we can relax in the onsen and you can tell us more about yourself. And if there's time, we can even go out and do some shopping, assuming the others say it's okay".

"Wait, you guys have an onsen?". "Well yeah, how else are we gonna relax after a long and hard day of work?".

"Best. Captivity. Ever.", Nami thought to herself with a big smile on her face.

"We have two, actually: one for guys and one for girls. We used to have just one with a wooden wall separating us, but various...incidents over the past year or so have led us just having 2 separate ones." Nami nodded in understanding, before letting Lucy guide her through the hall.

The first people that they met were Mirajane, Lisanna, Elfman, and Evergreen. When Nami saw Mirajane, she sweetly introduced herself and gave Nami a smile that was so pure and kind-hearted that it bordered on angelic. Combined with her amazing figure, it was easy to see why plenty of men and women had fallen for her looks and charms.

Evergreen politely introduced herself to Nami and assured her that she wasn't the only one who'd started off as an enemy of the guild. Lisanna was also very friendly to her, while Elfman gave her a wary look at first, but once Lucy assured him that Nami was a good person, he flipped from aggressive to boisterously friendly in mere seconds.

"Well it's nice to know that you're a good person, Pirate!", his voice boomed through the hall, causing all five women to wince a bit, "You and your friends sure put up a manly fight against us, and together we can both return to our own manly dimensions!". "Uh, sure…", Nami said while taken aback by this large man's bombasity.

Evergreen then smacked him on the head with a newspaper and said "For the love of God, could you stop going on rants about 'manliness' for just 5 minutes?!". Elfman, with a small bump on his head, turned back to her and yelled "Leave me alone, woman!", causing the other women to giggle.

"They're in a relationship, aren't they?", Nami asked, to which the other 3 women nodded. This caused both Elfman and Evergreen to blush heavily and simultaneously say "Sh-Shut up, pirate! You don't know anything about us!", before embarrassedly hurrying away. Once they'd left and the others had stopped chuckling, they continued to walk to the dining room together.

As they walked, Nami then asked Mirajane and Lisanna: "So, what kind of magic do you two have?". "Well, Elfman and the two of us all use a form of magic called 'Take Over'", Mirajane said in the same tone as a kindergarten teacher, "but we all have different variants". "Mine is called 'Animal Soul'", Lisanna said, "and it allows me to turn into animals or gain animal characteristics to help me fight."

A puff of smoke suddenly appeared, surprising Nami, and when the smoke faded she saw Lisanna still standing there, but now with 2 large cat ears, whiskers, a tail, 2 large cat paws with claws on them, and a 2-piece bikini with zebra stripes.

"This is Animal Soul: Cat", Lisanna said with a bit of pride in her voice. Nami was actually a bit impressed at this and wondered if it was somehow related to Chopper's devil fruit. Lisanna was then surrounded by a puff of smoke again, but this time seemingly disappeared. This confused Nami, until she looked down and saw a small and adorable pig that was standing on 2 legs and had Lisanna's hair and eyes. "I can turn into real animals, too! This was my first ever transformation!", the transformed sorceress said in an adorably squeaky tone before turning back to normal.

Nami, a bit impressed by this, turned to Mirajane and asked "So what's your 'take-over' magic?". "Oh, I can turn into demons".

Nami did a bit of a double-take at this response. "You what?".

"Yep, it's called Satan-Soul. Wanna see?".

"Uh, suure.", a very nervous Nami said, not wanting to insult her host but also not wanting to be eaten. She glanced at Lucy, who didn't even seem to be scared by this. 'How is she not freaked out right now?'

Mirajane then closed her eyes and inhaled, before opening them as her body seemed to glow with light, causing Nami to avert her eyes. When the light disappeared, Nami looked back and saw that Mirajane now had demonic wings, what appeared to be clawed gauntlets on her arms/hands, a bulky tail, a red uniform that revealed her stomach and cleavage, wilder hair in a sort of ponytail that somehow pointed upward, and a very scary face that gave Nami a terrifying glare.

Lucy saw the look on Nami's face, and said to Mirajane: "I think you can turn back now, Mira". There was another brief flash, and Mirajane was back to her normal smiling self almost instantly.

"That's just my basic form, I have at least four others that I can use", Mirajane said in a cheerful tone to a still-somewhat-scared Nami, "but if you want to see more, I'll have to show them to you later. I think it's best if I make breakfast before I go to work".

"That sounds great, Mira", Lucy replied, and the 3 of them continued to walk down the hall together (with Nami eventually calming herself down). They were getting close to the dining room/kitchen, when they suddenly passed a room that caught Nami's attention, mainly due to its inhabitants.

It was a large living room with enough space, bean bag chairs, and couches to fit at least two dozen people, and on the rug in front of the massive flat-screen TV were two guys playing Smash Ultimate, with the red-haired guy whom Nami had met the previous day playing against a blue-haired guy wearing nothing but shorts. Nami quickly recognized the latter from Robin's files as "Gray Fullbuster", who was the head of the company known as "Hakobe Ice".

Next to Natsu were Wendy, Carla, and an adorable blue cat with a long tail, with Wendy and the blue cat both rooting for Natsu as he and Gray played like their lives depended on it. Next to Gray was a beautiful blue-haired girl who was cheering him on with just as much enthusiasm as Wendy and the cat were, and Nami recognized her as Juvia Lockser.

However, Nami noticed that Juvia, who on TV was always friendly but rather shy when cornered by paparazzi or fans of her accomplishments, was now a completely different person as she enthusiastically cheered Gray on and repeatedly expressed her faith and belief in him while trying to be as physically close to him as possible. The way she gushed over Gray (despite his apparent annoyance at it) and constantly called him "Gray-sama" reminded Nami a lot of Sanji.

The 5 of them were so focused on the game that they didn't even pay attention to the 3 ladies watching them, since the other 3 had stopped when they noticed Nami had stopped so that they could see what had caught her attention. Lucy saw the 2 guys playing and gave the smile of someone who was used to literally all of her friends' antics.

"That's just Natsu and Gray, Nami. They always play competitive games like this to see who's better at them. It's loud, but it's a helluva lot better than us having to pay for collateral damage all the time."

Nami gave an understanding nod, wishing that there was a way that they could put Luffy under control like that.

It seemed that the game had finished, as the screen showed Natsu's character (Incineroar) having taken the last life of Gray's character (the Ice Climbers). Natsu then happily dropped the control and pointed both index fingers at Gray while saying: "HA! EAT IT, YA FROST BRAIN! I'M THE KING OF SMASH! BOW DOWN TO SMASH KING NATSU!", followed by the blue cat next to him happily jumping in the air and saying "Aye, Sir!", like a sort of cheerleader, while Wendy just cheered and congratulated Natsu.

Gray growled in response, muttering something to the effects of "This isn't over, flame brain", which was quickly followed by Juvia tightly hugging his left arm and saying: "You'll always be a winner to Juvia, darling!". As she clung to him, Gray seemed to be irritated at her clinginess but at the same time did nothing to actually push her away, and was even smiling.

They then all saw Nami, and Natsu was the first to respond (while the other 3 looked at Nami in confusion), happily saying "What's up, uhhh, was it 'Name?'. 'Nani?'. 'Mommy?'".

"It's Nami!", Lucy and Nami angrily yelled at him. "Oh yeah. Welp, as the new king of Smash, I was just gonna go get my royal breakfast! Wanna eat with us?". Lucy smiled and said: "Well the 4 of us are already going there, so if you wanna eat with us you can".

The blue cat next to Natsu nervously hid behind him and shakingly asked: "Natsu, shouldn't we be scared of her? She's one of those Straw Hat Pirates that we saw on TV! They're super powerful!".

"Don't worry, Happy, she's cool. They're the ones who stopped that wacko lady who made the virus that was killing all of the guys."

The cat, now convinced that Nami was a good person, quickly changed from scared to bubbly as he suddenly sprouted wings on his back and flew right up to Nami with his right hand extended towards her. "Hiyah! My name's Happy! It's nice to meet ya!".

Nami, instead of shaking his hand, grabbed him by the cheeks (although it was somewhat hard to do with her cuffed hands) and said: "Aw! Aren't you the cutest thing?" while rubbing his cheeks. She did have a soft spot for adorable children and animals, after all.

Everyone else watched her rub Happy's cheeks with amusement, until a somewhat annoyed Happy pulled himself away from her hands, and began to rub his cheeks while Natsu laughed a little. Lucy (who'd also been giggling) managed to get control of herself and say: "Yeah, he's a cutie, just don't give him the idea that you have feelings for anyone or you'll never hear the end of it. The nudist over there is Gray, and the girl clinging to him is his girlfriend Juvia."

Gray just waved his hand and said "Sup", but Juvia got up and walked over to Nami and shook her left hand (although both Nami's hands moved since they were cuffed) and sweetly said "It's a pleasure to meet you, especially after you saved Juvia's beloved Gray and plenty of others from that terrible virus." "Oh, it was nothing, just looking out for my dumbass friends", Nami replied, causing everyone to laugh a bit more. Mirajane then said: "Come on, everyone. I'll go make some pancakes for breakfast."

This caused all of the Fairy Tail members to cheer and continue walking to the dining room. During the walk, Nami fell a bit behind due to looking inside all the rooms she went across, many of which had pictures of what seemed to be the home of these people or magical artifacts. This happened so much that Lucy just told her to take her time looking while the rest of them walked off to the dining room. Nami looked through a few more rooms, and even tried to enter one (only for a strange magic barrier to block her before she could even step inside), before deciding to go in the direction of the other mages and hope that she could find the dining room without getting lost.

She finally arrived in the dining room, the noise from a few of the rambunctious mages making it pretty easy to detect, only to see all the mages (aside from Mirajane, who was at the stove in the kitchen) sitting down at a very large table that still had a majority of its seats unoccupied. Gray and Natsu (who were in chairs next to each other) were yelling at each other, with Juvia (on Gray's left) holding him back while Lucy (to Natsu's right) held him back as well with Happy's help. Lucy saw Nami and, while still holding onto Natsu, said in a strained but friendly voice:

"H-Hey there, Nami. There's an open seat right next to me. I hope you don't mind the fighting, as soon as Erza gets here she'll put a stop to it". Nami, having dealt with this issue many times in the past with a certain swordsman and his perverted rival, didn't reply but calmly walked past Lucy and right next to where Natsu and Gray were trying to go at each other. She took a deep breath, ignoring Lucy and Happy warning her to get out of the way before she became collateral damage, cracked her neck muscles, and put her natural 'negotiating' skills to work.

"BANG! BONG!"

Natsu and Gray both stopped moving and fell sideways onto the table while twitching and jerking, but otherwise not moving. Each of them now had a huge bump on their head from Nami clutching her cuffed hands together and using them as a hammer. Not as quick or efficient as a one-handed bonk on the head, but it had far more power and besides, she had to make do with what she had.

With a calm demeanor that only partially hid her anger at the idiotic antics that she'd just stopped, Nami walked over to the seat that Lucy had offered her, and sat down in it. Lucy, Happy, Lisanna, and Mirajane all looked impressed, while Juvia just rubbed Gray's wounded head while mentally admitting that she was glad Nami had put a stop to the fighting. 'Just like Erza', they all thought.

Nami saw them looking at her and just replied with "Trust me, I got two pals who bicker just like those two numbskulls all the time. Different universe, same bickering idiots who need some sense knocked into them.".

"No kidding," Happy said, "you're just like Erza when it comes to keeping them in line.".

"Well, it's nice to know that you guys at least have some smart people running this place, although I feel bad for this Erza if she has to put up with this all the time like I do with my crew".

"Oh, and speak of the devil", Mirajane said, causing everyone to turn towards the entrance and see the red-haired beauty in question enter the room while wearing pink pajamas with strawberries on them. "Good morning", she said in a friendly but somewhat bold tone. Everyone other than Nami and the 2 knocked-out boys replied with a "good morning" in response, and Erza got herself a cup of coffee. She was about to sit down, until she saw Nami sitting next to Lucy.

"Ah, you must be Nami of the Straw Hat Pirates", she said as she walked over to Nami, offering the hand that wasn't holding a coffee mug to her.

"My name's Erza Scarlet.". "Pleasure to meet you", the orange-haired pirate said as she extended her hands, only to remember that they were still cuffed together. Erza noticed this, then put her coffee cup down and extended her left arm to the side. A sword then appeared out of thin air in her left hand, which surprised Nami.

"Hold still", Erza said in a bold and authoritative tone as she held the sword up, which freaked out the Straw Hat navigator. Nami gulped and did as Erza said, closing her eyes as she braced for the worst.

"All done", Nami heard Erza say just a second later, and she opened her eyes to see that her hands were now free and her former cuffs of ice were now on the floor, cleanly cut into many little pieces. Checking out and rubbing her wrists, Nami was very impressed at this elegant display of swordsmanship. No wonder this woman had been able to match Zoro when they'd dueled in the tunnels the night before.

"Thanks! It was a real pain to not be able to use my hands.", Nami brightly said as she moved her hands around, both happy and surprised at the new freedom her captors had given her.

"Don't mention it. After all, you saved the lives of my friends and countless others by taking down Aresia, so this is the least I can do. Now where were we? Oh that's right, I'm Erza Scarlet, the acting master of this remnant of our guild".

"And I'm Nami, the navigator and quartermaster of the Straw Hat Pirates".

"Wait, pirates? I thought you guys were crime lords."

"In our home dimension we're pirates. The good kind, I assure you".

"I see. While I am grateful for you saving the lives of my friends and I'm glad to see that we're not the only strangers in this dimension, you and your comrades have still stolen countless rare and precious alloys, along with millions of doll-"

"Hundreds".

"What?".

"We didn't steal millions of dollars, we stole hundreds of millions. I've spent most of my life as a professional thief and I'm not going to let my reputation as a world-class cat burglar be downplayed. Besides, we were running a legitimate institution with only slightly-fraudulent ID's and licenses until Batman drove us underground.".

"What he did was awful, but you were stealing money for months before that even happened".

"Like I told Lucy, how else are we going to have enough money to feed a guy who could literally out-eat 100 men, along with the needs of over a dozen other people, and try to build a portal home? Go to the Justice League? You saw what that smug ass-hat Batman did even when we didn't do anything wrong! And if we went to the government or Lex Luthor, I don't even want to think about what they'd do to us!

But you want to know what the difference between you guys and my crew is? Where you guys are from, I can tell that you guys are probably like the Justice League is here. The superheroes, the ones that people worship, the ones that get paid and are treated by the government and the people as the good guys".

"What's your point?".

Nami, whose face had gone from a mixture of anger and fear to an eerily cold calm, chuckled a bit before frowning again and once again staring Erza down, with eyes full of boiling anger that could barely be contained, like a fire that was only slightly cooled by water.

"Well you see, where we're from, there are no heroes. Well, not real heroes, unless you listen to the propaganda from the World Government. Otherwise any man who kills millions of people or hunts down children that the world government doesn't like is a hero".

This caused everyone else in the room to look at her with a look of shock, even Erza. Before she could respond, Nami stopped her by coldly saying:

"Oh no, you wanted the full story and you're going to get it. See, when I was just a girl, probably seven or eight, a group of pirates, and I mean evil pirates, not like my crew, came to our village. They wanted to set up their base there, and viewed us as vermin. They took everything from us. Our money, our dignity, and my mother. She only had enough money to save me and my sister but not herself, and the leader of the group gunned her down in front of me.

I don't remember much from the first few weeks after she died, aside from me crying a lot, then deciding to steal money and scraps of food for both me and Nojiko. It was all we could do to survive, since our mother had died and the pirates had claimed our home as property. That was, until the man who'd shot my mother saw me drawing maps one day.

He then noticed that I was good at it, really good in fact, and decided to make me his cartographer. He wanted me to make him a map of all the lands and seas of the world, and told me that if I fled then he'd kill the entire village. He wouldn't have actually done it, of course, they were his only source of money, but I was seven. How could I have known? All I knew was that drawing those maps and getting him money was the only thing protecting me, my sister, and our village.

The marines came, eventually, and I had expected them to do the right thing and chase out the evil pirates and save the day. In fact the woman who'd taken me in, the one who was my mother in all but blood until her death, was a marine herself, so I naturally thought that since she was good, the World Government and the Marines were also good. That is, until I saw the marines drinking with the captain. Laughing with him. Talking with him as though they were friends. I didn't understand it myself, I mean these were the men and women who my mother had talked so highly of. Heroes of justice, slayers of evil pirates, you know the works.

And then I saw the bags of money that he'd given them. And even though I was just a child, it all of a sudden hit me: there were no heroes coming to save us. No knights in armor, no champions of justice, nothing. I was on my own.

So I did what I could to survive, and I drew the captain his stupid maps, and I even made a bet with him that if I got enough money to buy back the entire village, then he'd leave us forever, and set me free. He lied of course, and those marines who were supposed to stop scum like him helped themselves to the money I had gotten. It broke me, you know. The realization that I was trapped forever, that all the people I'd lied to and robbed from had suffered for nothing because of how stupid I was to believe him.

Then Luffy and his friends came. They were nice and funny. Stupid, but nice and funny. I didn't care much about that at first, I just wanted to trick them so I could rob them and buy my village back. And I eventually betrayed them, and I expected them to leave me, and I wouldn't have blamed them at all. But when I was fooled by that bastard, it was Luffy and his friends who helped me. They didn't owe me anything, they themselves had nothing to gain from stopping him, but they did it because they viewed me as a friend. And they won. Luffy personally fought and defeated the scumbag captain, and my village was saved by those pirates. What did the "brave" marines do? They took credit for Luffy's victory, and put a bounty on his head when he tried to stop them.

And I'm not the only victim of the World Government. Nico Robin? Her entire island was slaughtered because they knew something the World Government didn't like. Franky? Had his mentor taken away and locked up for making something for someone that the World Government didn't like. Luffy? He lost…someone very close to him, just because the World Government didn't like who he was the son of.

And I'm not finished. The World Government claims to have banned slavery but keeps the slave market open to appease the nobles on top, allows said nobles to kill, pillage, and rape as much as they please, and allowed seven pirate warlords to run rampant in exchange for their military service. Two of whom tried to take over and then wipe out an entire country! And both times it was Luffy who put a stop to them, only for the World Government to blame him, take all the credit but none of the responsibility, and increase his bounty! And all of these actions are called 'justice' by the Navy.

So yeah, we Straw Hats were never able, no, never allowed to have normal jobs and a normal life. Because we grew up in a world where the word 'justice' isn't loved. It's feared.

And that is why I joined Luffy's crew, and why I will fight for him and his dream until the day I die".

And with that, she stopped talking and took a deep breath from having talked so much. She then looked around at her guests/captors, who were all in various forms of stunned silence. Lucy, Lisanna, Mirajane, Happy, Carla, Wendy, and Juvia were looking at her with eyes full of pity and tears, Natsu and Gray were quiet but their eyes burned with rage while both their teeth and fists were clenched, and Erza was just silent.

That was, until she walked over to where Nami was sitting, knelt so that she was eye-level with Nami, and hugged her. Everyone else's jaw dropped at this, aside from Nami herself, who was so surprised and confused that her face was frozen in shock.

"I understand. You might not believe me, but I understand what you've been through. I spent most of my childhood in an oppressive hell not too different from yours, and it was only through sheer luck and the help of so many good people that I managed to overcome my past.", Erza said as she hugged Nami. Nami was still too shocked to say anything, although all the other people now had looks of pity but also understanding, since they knew about Erza's terrible past as well.

She let go of Nami, and put a hand on her shoulder before continuing with: "I'm sorry for being so harsh on you. I was naively ignoring the fact that many people in the world did not have the same good fortune that I did when it came to their upbringings. It was foolish of me, and I hope you can forgive me".

Nami smiled and took Erza's hand into one of her own. "It's okay. You couldn't have known, and you were just trying to protect your own nakama. I'd have been just as protective as you if our positions were reversed."

Erza smiled and looked her in the eyes. "Thank you, Nami. I promise you, once our groups agree to work together, we will get you and your nakama back home safely. You have my word. Until then, we hope that you'll make yourself at home here for the next week". This declaration caused the others to smile again, now that a potential conflict/beatdown had been averted.

Suddenly, a plate of pancakes was put in front of Nami by Mirajane, and Nami saw that all the other people at the table also had pancakes on the plates (except Happy, who was eating a fish, and Erza, whose eyes were sparkling as 5 whole strawberry shortcakes were put in front of her). Mirajane sat down with her own plate of pancakes before saying the words that everyone in the room was waiting to hear:

"Dig in."

As they ate, Nami chatted some more with the others, mainly exchanging funny information or stories about their crewmates, although Nami also learned more about the magic abilities of the other people at the table while they were eating. Natsu could control fire, Gray could use ice (and was the one behind the handcuffs that had been on Nami's wrists), Juvia controlled water, etc.

Natsu and Gray almost got into a fight again, until Erza glared at them and asked: "Is there a problem, boys?", to which they quickly responded with "Not at all, ma'am!", while hugging each other.

Seeing how quickly this had been solved, a seriously-impressed Nami looked at Erza and asked: "Is there any way I can get you to join my crew? It's a full-time job trying to keep my idiot nakama in line, and I could really use your skills.", which caused Erza to chuckle.

"I'm afraid not, Nami. You seem like a charming person, but I'm a Fairy Tail member for life".

As she said this, she lifted up the left sleeve of her pajama outfit to show Nami her guild mark, and Nami saw that the other people in the room all had the same mark but different areas of the body (like Robin had said), with Lucy having it on her hand, Natsu and Wendy each having it on their right shoulder, etc. Wow, these people seemed as dedicated to their group identity as Nami and her own crew mates were to Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates. It was honestly pretty heartwarming.

However, Nami's offer to Erza (even if it was only half-genuine) caused Natsu to get a rather radical idea. He stood up and yelled yelled: "I got an idea, guys! And it's a good one!". All of the others did not look excited at whatever this "good" idea was, since Natsu's view of what was "good" often had very messy and expensive results.

He turned to Nami and said: "Whaddaya say to us coming back with you guys and helping you beat up whoever's running this evil government?". This question caused Nami to spit out her orange juice right onto Mirajane's face, although Mirajane just blinked and then chuckled as she wiped her face off with a napkin. Nami then turned and looked at Natsu with a face full of disbelief.

"You're joking, right?". "No, why?"

Erza intervened before Nami could respond and said: "Natsu, while I want to help these people as much as you do, we've also got homes to get back to, and we don't know whether the guild back home has been safe these past few years."

"I know, but going with them would basically be like another quest for us! I mean, who cares about the 100-Year Quest when we can go to another freaking universe? Besides, do you want to go back home knowing that people like Nami are suffering? You heard what she said about her friends and their homes, and the bastards who run the place! It's just like Edolas!".

Erza sighed and said: "You have a point, but it's not something we can make a decision about right now. We need to talk with the entire group and Nami's friends about this, and there are a lot of factors to consider."

Nami stepped in, since this was her universe that they were talking about, and said: "Look, while I'm touched that you guys want to help us, you have no idea what you'll be up against. The entire world and all of its armies will be your enemies, along with 3 of the world's strongest pirate overlords. Those overlords and the World Government both have people who can destroy countries without even trying, people who even our captain has had trouble fighting against. But even without taking the power of our enemies into account, are you seriously willing to fight the entire world?".

Natsu momentarily thought this over before looking back at Nami with a look full of resolve and giving his answer: "If the whole world makes an enemy of my friends or decides to make innocent people suffer, then I'll burn the whole world down, just like I would any other foe".

As he said this, flames began to crackle on his shoulders and arms, and in his eyes Nami saw the same conviction that her captain had when his mind was set on saving his friends or defeating an enemy. This conviction seemed to be noticed by the others, as many of the other people in the room seemed to be unsure now as to which side they supported.

Nami, realizing that if Natsu was anything like Luffy that no words would deter him from wanting to help her, eventually came up with an idea that would hopefully discourage these people (as nice as they were) from throwing their lives away.

"Look, Natsu. You guys might be tough, but like I said, the people we're going to face are just as strong as my strongest nakama, maybe even stronger. If you guys want to come to our world, you'll need to prove that you're strong enough to handle it. So here's the deal. If your strongest guy can beat my captain, then I'll try to persuade the others into letting you come. If not, then you all go home, and I get one ton of gold."

"Wait, why the gold?". "Consider it a fine for trying to throw your lives away, and for kidnapping me. And for Brandish making me wear those stupid cat ears.".

Lucy sighed at the pirate's greed, before responding to the rest of Nami's proposition:

"You don't think we're strong enough, huh? You've met Brandish right? She might not look powerful, but where we're from she's known as the "Nation Destroyer". We've personally seen her make an entire island grow and then shrink to the size of a floor tile, all by tapping her foot. And she's not even the strongest person in our group now, not even close."

Nami did not seem too shocked or intimidated by this fact, and only replied with: "Well if you're so confident then I guess you'll have no issue with my proposal."

Lucy then turned to Natsu, whose face was now gleaming at the prospect of fighting Luffy. "Natsu, think you can handle this?"

"Hell yeah, I can! It's a deal! Oh man, I'm gonna fight him with everything I've got!".

Nami just looked at him, wondering if he's who Lucy meant by them having people stronger than a "Nation Destroyer". Even so, Luffy had faced similar types of opponents and won, but what if this Natsu guy actually had the power to face Luffy? What if he actually won?

Before she could continue with this, she was interrupted by a figure behind her that used its right hand to grab Nami's right breast and its left hand to grab Lucy's left breast, causing them both to yelp as a female voice behind them brashly said: "What up, guys? Who's your hot friend here?".

Nami turned to see that a beautiful brown-haired woman with a cheeky smile (and signs of minor intoxication on her face) was the culprit, and saw that Lucy's face was now more resigned, as though this was not an individual occurrence. Nami mentally viewed it as some sort of karma for the time that she and Robin had messed with Tashigi in the hot springs on that island (from One Piece: World Seeker).

"Hey there, Cana. It's nice to see you up, now could you please take your hands off of me and our guest?". Cana did so, leaving both Nami and Lucy a bit embarrassed, but then took on a more serious (and sober) tone as she said: "Let me guess. You guys have already decided to make her a friend since she's not really a bad person?"

"Yep!", Natsu cheerfully said, "And I'm gonna get to duke it out with her group's captain in a week!".

Cana sighed and sat down in the chair on the right side of Nami. "Figures", she said as Mirajane went to get her a barrel of booze. Once Mirajane had carried it over to her, she took it, opened the cork, and chugged the entire thing down in 20 seconds. When she was done, she looked over at Nami. "So ginger, do you drink?".

"Oh, I don't know, only enough to win me a couple dozen drinking contests.".

Cana smirked at this challenge. "Wanna see who can drink more, lightweight?".

"Fine by me.".

"Wait a second", Lucy said, clearly exasperated at the fact that Nami seemed to fit perfectly into their group's madness (for better or worse). "You two can get wasted later, we need to talk more with Nami about some important decisions and we can't do that if she's drunk or vomiting for half the day. Or both."

Cana sighed and said "Fine", before going back to chugging down booze. Nami just then realized how strange and quirky this band of magic misfits was, as though the guild was a puzzle made of pieces that all looked as though they didn't fit, yet somehow created a masterpiece when successfully put together.

In other words, it was just like home. Nami couldn't help but smile at this revelation as she watched her friendly captors goof off and act chaotically in a way that only true nakama could, with some people like Elfman diving into the fray almost immediately upon entering the room. It eventually devolved into a large brawl that everyone aside from Mirajane, Wendy, Lucy, and Nami herself partook in, although Nami couldn't help but laugh alongside the other bystanders as they watched the chaotic and destructive brawl, as she was reminded of her own nakama and their antics.

This was going to be a very interesting week.