ONE PIECE
Two Worlds, One Family
A young woman struggling to find her place in the world wakes up to find a bunch of cats in her room...cats that turn out to be the characters from her favourite TV show, One Piece! Bound to each other, whether they like it or not, and trying to figure out a way to find a certain somebody's lost Nakama and get everyone back to their home, what follows is bound to be chaos, friendship, tears, romance - and, adventure! (Kind of a re-write of Straw Cat Pirates).
CHAPTER SIX
Compass, Part Two
"Okay..." Emma consulted her piece of paper. "I called my sister and told her I'd be staying at Krystal's, and I packed my overnight bag last night, so I guess the last thing left to do is..." She glanced sideways. "Try and convince Grandpa Garp to go along with this."
"I am NOT going, and that's FINAL!" Garp was glaring at Ace, and Ace was glaring right back at him. Their bristles were standing straight up, and their claws were extended.
Luffy watched in fascination, and Law watched quietly.
"No one's asking you to come with us, old man!" Ace yelled back. "Just mind your own business!"
"This is my business, you snot-nosed brat!" Garp shouted. "As a Marine, I cannot just simply stand by and let this happen!"
"You two..." Law began, but he was cut off.
"THIS IS A FAMILY MATTER!"
Law just sighed.
"Oi, Ojīchan, the Whitebeard Pirates are my family!" Ace snapped.
"Don't you dare say that, Ace!" Garp snapped.
"Uh, Ojīchan...Ace..." Luffy tried.
"STAY OUT OF THIS!"
"Hey, don't yell at Luffy!" Ace told Garp.
"You yelled at him, too!" Garp hissed, swinging his head back around to glare at Ace again. "You think I want to go running off to find the Whitebeard Pirates, of all crews?!"
"No one's asking you to go!" Ace shouted.
"Umm..." Emma whispered, and everyone looked at her. She was standing by the laundry door, staring at Garp. "It's just...I...would like it...very much, if you came with us..."
"What?!" Ace blinked.
"I mean," Emma walked forwards, and knelt down so that she was eye-level with the Marine cat. "When my sister gets here, you won't really be able to let her see you, and it will be too troublesome for you to hide. Not only that, but you'd get lonely, staying here all by yourself. At least if you come with us, you can help me keep an eye on Luffy and Ace and...we can get to know each other better." She smiled.
Garp stared at her for a moment, before nodding his head. "Very well then, I accept your offer."
"What the Hell?!" Luffy and Ace cried.
Law just smirked. Well that was easy. He thought.
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"...How 'bout now?"
"FOR THE LAST TIME, NO!" Everybody shouted.
Luffy pouted. "But why no-ot?" He was sitting in the same place in the car he had the day before yesterday, but this time he was bored out of his mind.
"Luffy, it will take at least three hours to get to where we're going." Emma explained, turning left onto the freeway. "That's why we're leaving so early in the morning," she added, glancing at a sleeping Ace and wishing that she could do that. "That way, we'll have plenty of time to look for Ace's crew." She smiled, already anticipating meeting them, but feeling nervous at the same time. I wonder what they'll be like...I wonder what Whitebeard will be like! Omigosh, what should I say to him? Am I allowed to speak to him? I'd better ask Ace when he wakes up...
"In the mean time," Law said, from the floor, as if reading Emma's mind. "Why don't you sing for us, Emma-San?"
"Wh-what?" Emma was startled, her hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "Wh-wh-why?"
Law smirked. "Because I said so."
Emma swallowed, not liking the sound of that. She still wasn't sure what to think of the dark doctor, whom she didn't know as much about as Luffy and Ace. Something about him seemed to chill her and, yet, at the same time, he was interesting to her. That didn't mean that she was interested in him, she just found him...interesting...
Emma put a CD into the player, and moved to song number seven - Butterfly, by Delta Goodrem. She started off singing softly at first, not liking singing in front of others, and her voice shook. They could all hear it but, beneath that, and beneath the voice of the lady singing on the CD, they could all hear it - a soft and melodic singing voice, one that mirrored the gentle tone she tended to use when she was negotiating or reasoning.
It reminded Luffy of his home back on Dawn Island...of sitting in the bar and watching Makino clean up after a long day of serving drinks. For some reason, Emma reminded him of Makino - both were warm and friendly, and cared about others. Luffy wasn't sure why he was thinking this as he listened to Emma sing and watched her watch the road, but he was content to just lay down and day-dream for the majority of the trip. Mostly, he thought about how cool it would be to find his crew when the time came, and to introduce them all to Emma. He was sure that they would like her - after all, she was also quite similar to Nami. Both always seemed to be worrying about money, for one thing. Luffy grinned, and tried to come up with a way to get Emma to buy him some meat later on.
"You really can't wait to meet him, can you?" Ace grinned, jumping up onto Emma's lap.
Emma tried not to smile, as she turned around the round-about that, one time, her sister had nearly killed them all on.
Emma was wondering what her sister and parents would say if they knew where she really was, and tried not to think about it. She was focusing on not getting lost - it had been years since she'd been down this way.
"So, what are you gonna say to him?"
"Huh?" Emma glanced at Ace out of the corner of her eyes. "What?"
"To the old man." Ace was grinning. "What are you gonna say to him when you meet him?"
"Don't encourage her!" Garp yelled from the backseat.
"Oh, I get it." Law said calmly. "You're just jealous because she's more excited about meeting Whitebeard than she was about meeting you."
Everyone froze, realising what Law had just said.
Garp dug his claws into the backseat, clearly losing his temper.
Law-San, don't push him any further...Emma thought desperately.
"I mean," Law shrugged. "I can't say I blame her. She probably just thinks he's cooler than you are. Don't take it personally. She's pure pirate material, after all."
SCREECH!
Emma slammed her foot on the brake, and all of the cats pitched forwards, save for Ace, who clung to her lap.
"Emma-San?" Law tried to untangle himself from Luffy.
At the same time Garp cried: "And what was that all in aid of?!"
"Ssh!" Emma hissed, staring at something only she could see.
Curious, Ace climbed his way up to her shoulder, and saw that all the cars in front of them had stopped, and that another blue and white car was pulled up on the side of the road, and people in uniforms were talking to the people in the cars.
"The police." Emma muttered, and Luffy, Ace and Law all cringed. "Quick, get under the seats!" Emma muttered, and the cats all dove for cover as a man in a police uniform came up to the car, just as Emma threw her jacket over the straw hat.
"Good morning, Miss, this is just a random breath test." The police officer said. He was a brunette, in his late twenties. He held out the breathalyzer to her.
"Okay." Emma replied, and blew into the tube.
The results came up negative, and the man thanked her, before he promptly dropped the breathalyzer, or she dropped it or, at any rate, it fell beneath the seat.
"Owch!" Ace cried.
"What was that?" The police officer asked.
"That was, umm, me?" Emma reached under the seat, picking up the breathalyzer. "Okay...?" The police officer seemed just as uncertain, but accepted the small machine back. "So, what brings you down south, anyway?" He asked her.
"Umm, probably the same thing they're all doing?" Emma gestured to the cars in front of her.
"Sanderson wedding?"
"No!" She blushed. "I mean...uh...I came to see that ship...you know the one..."
The officer exhaled. "Oh, yes, I know it...its in the bay about a five minute drive past the Dunsborough town center, but you won't be able to get close to it - it's barricaded off, you see."
"Oh well, thanks anyway." Emma said politely, as the policeman waved her on. Once she was away from the police cars, Emma breathed a sigh of relief. "Whew. That was a close one."
"What was that?" Ace wanted to know, as he crawled out from under the seat. He was rubbing the side of his head where the breathalyzer had hit him.
"A random breath test, to make sure I wasn't over the legal alcohol limit." Emma replied. "Though, I don't see how anybody could be drunk at this hour."
"You'd be surprised." Luffy, Ace and Law said in unison.
"Hmm." Emma mused. "Anyway, Ace, in answer to your question, I don't know whatI'll say to Whitebeard-Sama...I mean, what does one say to the only man that could go up against Gol D. Roger and live? I mean, not just anybody can say that, you know!" She fiddled with the compass-half that she was wearing around her neck, wondering what it was for.
"I know." Ace mumbled, still rubbing his head. That thing that had hit him had been heavy.
"I mean, Whitebeard-Sama is, like, awesome!" Emma exclaimed, her voice gaining a melodic ring, which gained Ace's attention. "He's so intimidating, though - like, he was furious when Shanks sent him a letter instead of coming to see him, face-to-face! Can I even tell him how cool I think he is?! He's like, God, but with a crescent-moon-shaped mustache!"
Normally, Ace would have laughed at this assessment (before warning her not to say that to Whitebeard), but he was too busy trying to get rid of the throbbing pain on his forehead. Perhaps Emma noticed this because, when she pulled up at the red lights, she motioned Ace to jump up onto her lap again, which he did, feeling perplexed, until she leaned down to examine his forehead, where a bump was already starting to form.
"Aww, poor Ace." She said, slightly teasingly and then, before he could stop her, she gave his forehead a quick kiss.
If it had been possible for cats to blush, then Ace would've turned a bright shade of red, and possibly steam would've come out of his ears. He leapt back, onto the passenger seat, and began spluttering, his fur standing on end as he quivered, with either anger or embarrassment, nobody could tell.
Garp was currently laughing from the backseat, and Luffy was too, saying something about 'Ace has a girl-friend'.
Law, meanwhile, was still on the floor of the car, and his expression was unreadable, but his eyes were dark.
Emma just smiled, and hummed as she continued driving, seeming a bit more cheerful now.
"Wow, that guy wasn't kidding when he said that the place was barricaded off." Emma muttered, stopping the car down the road. There were trees to the left and the ocean to the right and, in front of them, a police blockade. "We need to go back to town and think of a plan."
"Can we buy some meat?" Luffy asked her.
"Sure." She replied, shrugging. "I haven't been here in awhile, so it'll be nice."
Ace just shook his head, impatient to find his crew, but knowing that Emma wouldn't exactly feel good about running a police blockade without at least some kind of a plan.
They went back into town and Emma parked the car. Getting out, she stretched and then, with the straw hat on her back hanging from the chord and Luffy racing ahead, she walked into town followed by the other three cats...wait...
Emma turned around, and did a quick head-count. Ace...Law...
"Where's Grandpa Garp?" Emma said suddenly, realising that the Marine was missing.
At the same time, Ace said: "Where's Luffy?"
And, indeed, Grandfather and grandson had both gone missing, in the space of about ten seconds. They really were related.
Emma looked frustrated. "Really?!" She cried, throwing her hands up.
Ace couldn't believe it. "At a time like this?!"
"What do we do?!" They both asked in unison.
Law sighed, and sat down on a low stone wall. "Perhaps we should split up and search for them?" The blueish-black cat suggested. "We can meet up here in half an hour."
"Hmm, that's a good idea, Law-San." Emma nodded.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Ace muttered.
"Hmm, except..." Emma considered this. "It'll be troublesome if Ace falls asleep standing up and gets cat-napped or run-over or something...ah! Law-San, you go with Ace!" She said, running off before either one of them could protest, or Law could get angry at her for telling him what to do.
Ace sighed. Talk about troublesome. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck walking around a strange town with this dark doctor. He started walking in the opposite direction to what Emma had run. "Come on." He snapped.
Law hissed, managing to resist the urge to claw the other cat's eyes out by plotting his revenge in his mind. It was sweet.
Emma sighed, and sipped on a Mocha Chill, listening to her I-Pod and walking around in what she realised was a big circle - she hadn't been able to find Luffy anywhere.
"Aww, I should've brought Ace with me and let Law-San go off on his own." She realised, feeling a strange ache in her heart. She didn't like being separated from them but, she realised, it was pretty much the first time in four days that she had really been by herself. It gave her time to think, and realise what was happening.
She took a deep breath, after ditching her empty coffee (which she had skulled, because she could) and realised that she was changing...no, scratch that. She'd already changed, but it was going to keep happening.
Why me? Why did I get to be the one to help them? There's nothing special about me. I mean, sure, now I have a Devil Fruit power and, apparently, I can sing, but...I'm shy, socially awkward, stubborn as a mule, can't cook anything past bacon and eggs, not terribly bright, hate maths, am about as athletic as a toothpick... She sighed, going into a darker state of mind that often happened when she was by herself, or had just gotten a grilling from her parents. Somebody athletic and pretty and a real go-getter like Krystal would've been a muchbetter choice, or perhaps somebody smart and confident and hard-working like Mayling... Her shoulders sagged. WHY did I get chosen?
Emma suddenly felt a tugging coming from her left, like something was tugging her in that direction. Taking out her I-Pod and stowing it away in her bag, Emma began walking towards the direction of the sound, the compass-half and winged-heart swinging from her neck. She was wearing black stockings and a black dress today, with her black knee boots and sunglasses. She placed the straw hat on her head. She walked towards the crowd of people, who wouldn't move out of the way and let her through. That was frustrating for a vertically-challenged young woman, such as herself.
"Hey, what's going on?" Somebody near to her said to another person.
He turned to the person. "Some crazy black cat just stole a whole string of sausages from Louie - he's going berserk in there."
Emma had been silently listening to this, and now she gasped. "Luffy!" She cried, causing people near to her to look.
They immediately began to murmur:
"Who's that strange girl?"
"I think I read about her in the newspaper."
"Ah, it's the girl from Perth City that punched that gunman!"
"Straw-Hat-Wearing-Cat-Girl?!"
"That's her?!"
"Oh my God!" (Why do people always say that in a crisis?).
Meanwhile, Emma pushed herself through the crowd, intent on getting to Luffy before this Louie guy hurt him. What she saw when she pushed through the crowd terrified her. The man who owned the local butchers had succeeded in cornering Luffy, and was brandishing a very large butchers knife at him. Luffy seemed oblivious to the danger, as he happily munched on the last of the sausages.
"Rotten cat!" Louie shouted, and raised the knife to bring it down.
Emma gasped again, and shot forwards. "No!" She cried, grabbing Luffy, as the glint of the knife's blade flashed past her eyes. "Aaaa!" She closed her eyes and put her hand up, and felt the tip of the knife graze the inside of her wrist, before everybody gasped. Oh no, he cut my veins, didn't he?
She dared to open her eyes, and saw that a hand had grabbed Louie's wrist, stopping the knife from getting any further. The hand belonged to a police officer, which normally would have made Emma feel relieved but, right now, it filled her with dread, because she didn't like the look in the raven-haired beauty's ice-blue eyes.
Back in Perth, Sarah Pax sighed, and sat on the couch with a beer, because it was beer o'clock. She was twenty-six years old, with long hair dyed black and with pale streaks, and blue contacts covering her hazel-green eyes. She had nine piercings in each ear, a tongue ring, a Madonna piercing and a belly-button ring. A blue tattoo on her back had the date 11/01/2006, and was followed by the words One Day At A Time in fancy script, in memory of their dead Nanna. She was dressed in a plain black dress with a wide silver belt, and had on blue flats that matched her manicure.
She was also slightly pissed off at being asked to house-sit, and realised suddenly that she'd forgotten to ask her little sister what sprinklers she had to put on that day. Sighing in frustration, she got up, and found her mobile phone (it was a Siri) and then realised that she didn't have Krystal's phone-number.
Groaning now, Sarah stalked down the hall, and into her sister's room. She rolled her eyes at the anime posters on the purple walls, and the manga, plushies, anime DVD's and what-not...was her sister reallyturning twenty-three this year?
However, there on the top of a stack of other books was her sister's pocket-book and, in it, Sarah found what she was looking for after flicking a few pages back.
She dialed Krystal's number, and waited for somebody to pick up. When Krystal's younger brother Blake did so, Sarah asked to speak to Emma.
"She's not here." Blake replied.
Sarah blinked, and then considered this carefully. "Okay...never mind, don't worry about it. Bye."
"Bye."
Sarah hung up, and thought about what had just transpired. Emma told me she was going to Krystal's, but she's not there...maybe they've just gone out, but wouldn't Blake have said so? Sighing, Sarah rubbed her temples. Being a big sister was so frustrating sometimes!
Irritated now, Sarah kicked at the stack of books, which toppled over, and upset the towel that they'd been sitting on. Rolling her eyes, Sarah knelt down to fix them up, but then noticed what the towel had been hiding.
"What's happened to the carpet?" She said out-loud, running a hand over the slightly dampened surface, and then withdrawing it immediately. "Is...is that blood?!" She gasped, her heart pounding, and stared at the red stain on her hand, before looking up - and that's when she caught sight of the claw-marks on the bed-post. WHAT THE HELL?!
Ace and Law managed not to kill each other or get killed, but they became concerned when they returned to the meeting spot and Emma wasn't there. They waited for ten minutes (and, another five for when Ace fell asleep) and, when she still wasn't back, they started to get worried. They decided to investigate in the direction she had gone, and found themselves in an outdoor mall.
"Where could she be?" Ace muttered, looking around, and unable to shake off the uneasy feeling that he had in his chest. "Umm..." He stopped suddenly.
Law stopped too, and sniffed at the red substance on the ground. "Blood." He said darkly.
"Whose?" Ace wasn't sure he wanted to know, but he had to ask.
"Well..." Law began but, just then, something came barreling towards them, crashing into the both of them and sending the three of them flying.
They crashed into a wall, but managed to pick themselves up.
"Luffy!" Ace cried, glad to see his brother, but annoyed at him for going missing for so long. "Where've you..."
"It's terrible!" Luffy cried, sounding panicked. He was breathing heavily, which was unusual for him - he must be really worried.
"Where's Emma-San?" Law asked quietly, a hint of menace in his voice.
"The police..." Luffy said, and both Law and Ace froze. "The police took her away! They're taking her to Whitebeard's ship!"
"Why?" Ace asked tensely. "Why are they taking her there?"
"They said something about her knowing what's going on, even though she said that she didn't!" Luffy explained. "They put her in cuffs and led her away, but she told me to run and find you guys, so I did!"
"You just left her?" Law questioned.
Luffy spoke seriously. "She told me to - she said that she'd be fine, and that it would help her more if I went and got you guys." He twitched his tail a few times. "So...what are we going to do now?"
"We're going to go and get her." Ace and Law said in unison.
Emma was pale, and shaking, as she sat in the back of the police cruiser, with officers Penelope Owensby and Carmilla Brown in the front (Carmilla was driving). They were driving her to the bay where the Moby Dick was and, though this was exactly where Emma had wanted to go, she couldn't help but feel that it would be bad if she went there. She had tried asking both the officers why they were taking her to that place, why she was hand-cuffed, and why they thought that she had done something wrong, but neither one of them would answer her.
She was driven past the police blockade, and began to feel panicked. The cuffs slipped on her sweaty wrists, and her throat felt dry. She'd never been on the wrong side of the law before and now, suddenly, by almost no fault of her own, here she was.
As she was driven up to the bay, Emma's eyes drifted out to the sunset over the ocean, which was simply stunning - a typical red and golden Dunsborough sunset.
Then, she saw the Moby Dick.
"Ohhhh..." Emma breathed, leaning across to get a better view, and feeling a strange sense tugging her towards the ship. I thought that it was destroyed by Sakazuki, but...
As the car stopped, and Carmilla opened the door for Emma, she got out, and looked past Carmilla, to where two figures were waiting - one of them was the police-officer that had stopped her this morning!
Emma kept her head down as she was lead across the sand, wondering what was going to happen next.
"So, this is her?" The police-officer from this morning, whose name badge read Jacob Blaxley, ran a hand through his hair, as Emma glared at him from behind her sunglasses.
"Wh-why am I here?" She wanted to know.
"I think you know." The older policeman, who wore a badge with the name Robert O'Grady on it, replied, adjusting his spectacles. "You know more about this than anyone else, don't you?"
Emma considered this, wondering if she could trust them. I-I'm scared! I don't know what to do! She closed her eyes, feeling tears in her eyes. I...I wish the others were here...I need help!
Carmilla grabbed her shoulder, and forced her to look up at her. "We know that you know!" She said roughly. "Now, who are you, and where are Ace and Luffy?!"
Emma gasped, shaking free of the police-officer's grasp and taking a quick step back. "Wh-what do you know of them?!
Carmilla's eyes flashed. "More than you think...it's our job to uphold the law in Perth, and you are upsetting that balance."
"News-flash..." Emma gritted her teeth, wishing that she wasn't in cuffs and outnumbered four-to-one. "We're not inPerth anymore!"
Carmilla glared at her, and moved towards her but, just then, three shapes darted out of the bushes. One latched onto Carmilla's hand, making her scream. Another clamped his jaws onto the hand-cuffs, breaking them instantly.
The third just waited, and watched from the shadows.
Luffy let go of Carmilla's hand and flipped back, his hackles standing straight up, as Ace finished with the hand-cuffs, effectively unchaining them, and they sat harmlessly against Emma's clammy wrists, as Ace joined his brother.
"We heard you were looking for us." They said in unison, glaring daggers at the four police-officers.
Emma, meanwhile, was stunned. Th-they came for me...but...why? Her necklace - the half-compass - suddenly felt warm and, just then, began emitting a soft glow. "Huh?" A small beam of light pointed towards the Moby Dick. "What the...?"
Just then, the ground began to shake slightly, and everybody looked around, trying to find the source of the shaking. Emma suddenly looked towards the rocks that formed the grounds of her rock-climbing expeditions as a child holidaying here, and gasped.
Everyone else looked, too, to see over a hundred cats standing there, glaring down at them with glowing eyes.
To Emma, who had never seen so many cats in one place before, it was a tad overwhelming.
To Ace, however, it was the biggest and most welcomed relief he had had in awhile, and his kitty face suddenly sported a huge grin. "Oyaji!" He cried, greeting the largest of the cats, a big white one with...was that a crescent-moon-shaped mustache?!
"Ace..." The old cat growled, his yellow eyes flashing. "What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into now?"
Emma was stunned, staring in shock at the crew. "This...this is...Ace's family? The Whitebeard Pirates?" She breathed. They're all cats too - how'd that happen?!
Whitebeard's eyes flickered over to her, and then to the half-compass around her neck. His eyes widened ever-so-slightly and then, with a sweep of one huge paw, he used his Devil Fruit powers to send her flying with a tremor in the air.
Emma didn't even have time to realise what had happened, and then she was hitting the deck - quite literally - of the Moby Dick, sliding a few ways back before coming to a stop.
"What...?" She muttered, before seeing a pair of glowing eyes from above. "Oh, now what...?" She wondered.
"Men, you all know why you're here." The Captain really had no idea why he was saying this but, hey, why not go with it? This was absolutely the strangest assignment that they'd ever gotten and, so, one could forgive him for not really knowing what to say. "We may have just been transported to a different world by a really scary-looking child, but we're following the orders of Admiral Sakazuki," (The scariest man alive). "And we're going to confront the Whitebeard Pirates again. Any questions?"
"How are we going to get back to our own world, Captain?"
"No idea." The Captain replied. "Everybody ready?"
"Yes, Sir!" They all saluted.
"Good." He turned to look to the front of the ship and saw, to his surprise, that they were already within sight of the beach, and the Moby Dick. As the Captain watched, a figure went flying from the shore, to land on the deck of the Whitebeard Pirates' ship. "It looks like things are starting to happen...again..." He muttered quietly to himself, as he and his men prepared themselves for battle.
Meanwhile, on the deck of the giant ship, Emma had managed to sit up, and was watching the blonde cat advance upon her. She swallowed nervously, trying to figure out who he was, when he spoke.
"So glad to see that you're doing alright after the battle." He had a lazy voice to match his lazy expression.
Emma stared at him, and then gasped. "M-Marco-San...?" He nodded. "But...oh wow, dozo yoroshiku." She bowed her head. It's Marco the Phoenix!
"Likewise." The blonde cat smiled at her, and then bowed his head, slipping a necklace off that he had just been wearing around his neck.
Emma glanced at it, and then gasped, realising that it was the second half of the compass! She got onto her knees, and slid her own half of the compass off of her neck, sliding it across the deck.
When it got close to the other half, both halves began to glow, and shake as if they were magnets. Emma jumped back, as the two halves shot towards each other and were connected, floating up into the air and an energy-field of pinkish-red light expanded out from it, blanketing everything in a dull red light, momentarily.
When the light cleared, Emma blinked, and found herself staring up at a man with spiky blonde hair and that same lazy expression that the cat had been wearing.
"M-M-Marco-San?" She stammered, staring in complete shock at the transformation. He looks even cooler in real life than he does in the manga! Her heart was hammering in her chest.
Marco, who was holding the now-not-glowing-completely-whole-compass, smiled calmly, and extended a hand to her, which she took, and he helped her to stand up. The broken cuffs clinked on her wrists.
They stared at each other for a moment, before Emma dared to glance at the shore but, before she could, her eyes fell on the sails of a ship that she had only ever seen in a cartoon.
"M-Marines?" She whispered, unable to speak any louder. Her hand flew to her throat.
"It seems that way." Marco was still smiling, but not in the same way that Law did. Hissmile was so calm, it was incredible. He was holding onto Emma's hand still, but transferred the compass to it and let go. "Daijoubu." He added, casually, before walking over to the railing and activating his Devil Fruit power. Wings of blue flames unfurled on either side of him, as he jumped up onto the railing. He stepped off the ship, and Emma ran to the edge, leaning over in time to see him fly just above the water's surface towards the Marine's ship.
"Wow..." Emma muttered, and then cringed, as she heard the sounds of a battle begin behind her, from the shore.
She then turned around, to come face-to-face with a Marine.
"Aah!" She gasped, staring in shock. Then: "Coby?"
The pink-haired Captain nodded, seeming calm, which was more than could be said for Emma, who was sweating buckets by this stage.
"You're the one that they've been looking for." Coby took a step towards her.
"Wh-who's they?" Emma stammered, staring back at Coby without meeting his gaze. Her sunglasses were long gone, and so was the straw hat - she hoped that she hadn't lost it.
"The World Government." Coby replied.
"I didn't do it!" Emma cried.
"Didn't do what?"
"Whatever it is that they're accusing me of." Emma mumbled. She held up her hands, noticing that the cut on her left wrist was still hurting, and bleeding a little bit but not a lot - it wasn't a very deep cut. "Look, Coby, I'm not the bad guy here - I'm an innocent victim, just like you were on Alvida's ship."
Coby paled ever-so-slightly at the mention of his former Captain's name, but did his best to remain composed. "How do you know about that?" He asked her.
"Look, you know that you're in a different world now, right?" Emma asked him. He nodded. "Well, there are many strange and unexplainable things in this world, okay?"
"Stop stalling!" Coby snapped, making her flinch. Okay, so he was definitely NOT the same boy that he had been in episode one! "I have my orders, and I'm not backing down!" He began walking towards her.
"Hey, you can't attack me, I'm untrained!" Emma cried, desperation taking over as her feet suddenly moved of their own accord, not to run away, but into her fighting stance. "Well, that's not true, I'm a little bit trained, and I punched a guy the other day, but that was just a reaction!" There was suddenly a sound from her pocket, that made both her and Coby blanch.
"You will remember the night you were struck by the sight of, Ten Thousand Fists in the air!" David Draiman's voice ran out from Emma's mobile phone, which she answered gingerly.
"He-hello? ... Oh, hi, Nee-San..." She muttered, and then gasped, just as Coby attacked her.
"Emma, what's going on?!" Sarah demanded to know, with no way of knowing what her sister was going through right now.
"Umm, not much..." Emma replied, rolling across the deck and then getting up as quickly as she could. "Just...watching a DVD with Krystal!"
"You're not." Sarah said coldly. "I called Krystal's house - you're not there, Emma."
"Why did you call Krystal's house, why didn't you just call my mobile?" Emma demanded to know, somehow managing to dodge another punch from Coby, although just barely. Her heart was pounding. Great! Of all the ways I could've gone out, I'm going to get killed by COBY!
"I'm calling your mobile now." Sarah pointed out.
"Touche."
Just then, Coby's fist connected with Emma's shoulder, making her gasp in pain but, surprisingly, she could handle it. Yeah, come on Coby, do your worst! This is NOTHING compared to when my folks lose their tempers! Ha-ha!
It's probably best to point out that, at this moment, Emma was panicking. She clutched her shoulder with her free hand, and the phone and compass dangled from her other hand. Her heart was pounding.
"Emma, what was that?" Sarah asked.
"Hang on a sec, Nee-San." Emma said calmly, and then she glared at Coby. "Coby, would you stop this for five freaking seconds while I talk to my sister?!"
Coby froze.
"Emma..." Sarah asked, a note of wonder creeping into her voice. "Are you with a boy...?"
"Umm..." Just then, Emma realised that her five seconds were up and, just then, Coby was directly in front of her, and had his right forearm across the front of her chest, pushing her back against the railing.
The phone and the compass flew from her grip, and she made a desperate grab for them, but only succeeded in grabbing the compass by its chain. Her phone fell to the dark waters below, and landed with a very audible splash down there.
"AHH!" Emma screamed.
On the shore, the fight had escalated.
A lanky boy with messy black hair casually picked up his straw hat, which was lying on the sand. After returning the hat to his head, Monkey D. Luffy joined in the fight, helping the Whitebeard Pirates to take on the Marines that had just shown up.
Ace, especially, looked like he was having fun, getting some sweet payback on the Marines for locking him up and trying to execute him before. The Whitebeard Pirates, too, were doing what they did best - living up to their fearsome reputation.
Luffy looked towards the Whitebeard Pirates' ship where, a few minutes ago, Emma had been sent flying to by Whitebeard himself. He had a feeling that she'd had something to do with their sudden transformation, and hoped that she was okay but, it wasn't to be.
"AHH!"
Luffy, Ace, and Law all looked up at the sound of Emma's scream, the sound reaching their ears like a thousand and one shards of glass.
For some odd reason, hearing that was one of the worst things they could have heard. Luffy, however, was suddenly engaged in combat by two Devil Fruit using Marines, and Ace was tied up with nineteen Marines of his own (where were they all coming from?).
That only left Law.
"Law!" Luffy shouted above the noise. "Can you...?!"
"Ya, I'm already on it." The doctor muttered.
Emma was seething. "You...my phone...my parents are going to kill me! You, Coby, will be responsible for my death!" She told him.
"You have bigger worries, Demon Of War." Coby told her, alerting her for the first time to the fact that she now had an epithet.
"No." Said a voice from behind Coby. "You do."
Coby froze, hearing the cool sarcasm in the voice, and slowly turning to see...
"Law-San!" Emma cried, relieved to see the surgeon, who had also reclaimed his human-form. And, slowly, her relief turned to shock. H-HANDSOME! Was her first thought because, indeed, the young man was handsome - they didn't make them like that in this world. Cool grey eyes, that facial hair and, of course, the trademark smirk...no doubt about, if the fan-girls could see this now, then there'd be a shark feeding frenzy from all the blood going overboard.
But, more importantly, he was here to save her!
That might be a problem, though and, as Coby let her go, Emma dashed to grab onto Law's arm. "Ne, Law-San, please don't hurt him too much - he's Luffy's friend. Remember, that kid, Coby?" She added, quietly.
Law glanced down at her, and noticed how red her face was, which made him smirk. "You'll owe me for it."
Emma blushed even harder. "Umm, how?"
"You'll see." Law replied, before turning back to Coby and muttering: "Room."
Marco flew over when he was summoned by Whitebeard.
"Marco!" Whitebeard yelled to him, easily taking down about sixty Marines. "Get back to that girl and get her to use her powers to send these guys back to our world! This is getting troublesome!"
"Hai, Oyaji!" Marco replied.
"That'll be a problem, Oyaji!" Ace called suddenly. "Emma doesn't know how to use her powers!"
"Well, she's gonna have to learn fast!" Whitebeard replied, as Marco flew off.
The Phoenix flew back to the Moby Dick, and landed on the railing, watching in silence at the scene going on before him.
Trafalgar Law was currently using his powers to create what resembled a Chop-Chop Circus with Coby's body-parts, much to the pink-haired boy's dismay. There was no way for him to overpower Law like this.
Marco then noticed Emma, standing off to one side and looking stunned, as she held onto her shoulder. He flew over to her. "Emma," he said, and she looked up at him. He held a hand out to her. "I need you to come with me."
Emma took his hand, and then was surprised when he pulled her up, holding her to his chest as he flew up to the crow's nest. Once there, thankfully, he let go of her, and said: "Oyaji wants you to use your powers to send the Marines back to their own world - can you do that?"
Emma looked nervous. "N-no, I mean...I-I don't know how to, Marco-San! I don't know how to use my powers!"
"Just calm down, and try, Emma." Marco replied calmly. He reached out, and put his hands on her shoulders - it was comforting. "Now, think for a second about your Devil Fruit powers. Close your eyes, and try to picture your powers - picture a name for it all..."
Emma did as she was told, trying to block out all of the outside noise, and focusing only on what Marco was telling her to do. Okay, think...focus Emma, this is no time for your ADD to kick in...okay, focus...focus on what the cute bird-man is telling you to say, with his lazy and cute voice...aurgh, no, this is no time for the female-hormones to be kicking in, either! People are counting on you out there...Whitebeard must knowsomething that you don't...I feel like everybody knows stuff that I don't...like that crazy, blue-eyed lady...she was the one that got me into this mess in the first place...her giving me this necklace and those Japanese Sultanas...wait a minute...they were...
In her mind's eyes, suddenly, she could picture the box she had been given, that contained the cut-up Devil Fruit...that hadn't been Kanji on the box, it had been...Katakana...and, the Katakana had read the same name as one of the hamsters from Hamtaro...
Emma opened her eyes suddenly, smiling as red and gold ribbons began snaking out of her chest, near to where her necklace was.
"Ribon-Ribon No Mi." She said and, as she did, the ribbons shot away from her, snaking through the air like red and gold dragons, twisting around each other and multiplying. "Transport!" She added, and mentally added: Authority figures only...ah, but not Grandpa Garp!
She didn't want him to leave yet! She wanted to get to know him better, and everybody else, too! Now that they were finally all here, she wanted to meet them all!
"M-Marco-San," Emma asked him tentatively, as she sensed her ribbons working their magic. They even wrapped around the Marines' ship. "What about...you guys...will you be leaving, too?"
Marco gazed steadily at her, and then shook his head, tapping a finger to the compass that she was wearing. As soon as he did, the needle began spinning.
"Hmm? What is this?" Emma wanted to know.
"This compass isn't normal, obviously." Marco told her, and an image appeared above it, like a hologram.
It showed a cat, in a sort of pinkish-red hue due to the compass' powers, hissing as he tried to keep a group of random strangers away from three swords.
Emma stared at the image, her heart pounding. "It...it's showing me one of Luffy's crew-mates! That's Roronoa Zoro, I'm sure of it! He's here! In this world!"
Marco nodded. "Seems that way, doesn't it? This is the Tomodachi No Konpasu - I think it's been given to us for a reason."
Emma could only nod, feeling slightly freaked out by all of this.
Marco ruffled her hair. "Hey, calm down - this is supposed to be fun, remember?"
Marco carried Emma down from the crows-nest, to discover that all of the Marines - plus the police - were gone (the ship, too), and that everybody else was onboard the Moby Dick.
Emma felt incredibly self-conscious all-of-a-sudden, and half-hid behind an amused Marco, that is until Luffy leapt through the crowd and crash-tackled her.
"Emmy!" He cried, hugging her fiercely.
"Ah, Luffy!" Emma gasped, blushing the same colour as Luffy's top. "You-you're back to being a human! Umm, Ace, too...?"
The man himself came through the crowd, grinning as his little brother stood up and pulled Emma to her feet. "Yup - looks like that compass is a lot more important than we thought it would be."
"Ace, you have no idea." Emma replied, turning quickly to Luffy. Luffy was easier for her to look at - he was cute, but not anywhere close to the level of handsomeness that Ace and Law were. The fact that Ace was shirtless did not help matters, one little bit. "Luffy, I need to tell you..."
"Ems!" Ace suddenly grabbed her shoulder, making her wince but not too much. He began dragging her through the crowd. "Come on, I've got somebody that I want you to meet!"
"Huh?" Emma allowed herself to be dragged along. "Wait, Ace, who is...ah!" She gasped, seeing the towering man that was Edward Newgate, even though he was sitting down, for the first time, and in person! "Ah..." She said again, going from completely red to completely pale, all in a matter of seconds. He was even more than she'd imagined him to be!
Yellow eyes met hazel ones.
One of the nurses who had, up until recently, been a tiger-striped tabby cat, stepped forwards suddenly, concerned. "Oh dear, somebody catch her, quickly, she's going to..."
Emma fainted, landing with a very audible thunk onto the wooden deck.
"Faint." The nurse finished meekly, as everybody else just stared.
Ace was horrified. "Hey, wait a minute, you never said anything about fainting!" He quickly knelt down beside her, freaking out slightly. "Come on, Ems, what about all that stuff you wanted to say to him, about how cool he is and everything! You said you really wanted to meet him!"
Whitebeard raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
All eyes were on the unconscious figure, lying on the deck there.
Law sighed, stepping through the crowd and kneeling down beside her. His eyes narrowed slightly, as he pulled down the collar of her dress, to reveal the injury on her shoulder. "How troublesome you are, Emma-San." He murmured, thinking that he'd have to remind her later on that she still owed him.
Author's Notes:
Butterfly, by Delta Goodrem. watch?v=Vs0mq20-xYk
The song on Emma's phone is Ten Thousand Fists, by Disturbed. David Draiman is my Rock-God. watch?v=JyxBiUbCP8E
Emma's scream of "AHH" sounded like Lisa's scream from The Saddle Club, where she falls off of Prancer whilst performing a dangerous jump. watch?v=jC96EL1jf30
Where did Garp go?
Cocoa Liddell - I'd LOVE to get a hug from Ace, seriously! XD Thanks for the review!
Wolf Spirite - aww, thank you, you're too kind! ^/ / / /^ Zoro as a green cat...OMG, that'd be EPIC! We'll see...
KaiF. Raphaella - thank you! I try and update as much as I can (for example, it is 2:05AM here, right now...)
Chieko Namikaze - I KNEW it! (Lol, your review came in just as I was about to post this chapter, so I had to go back and add this in). Thanks for the review! ^^