Oi.
Huh? Me?
No, the brain cell next door. No duh I'm talking to you. Who else would I be talking to inside your head?!
Oh, sorry... I was taking a nap.
Oh, so you were taking a na-- WHAT?!! Are you an IDIO-- dumb question. Never mind.
Why? Is something wrong?
Your crew wants to see you.
...What? You mean-- OH MY GOD!!
Hey, no using His name in vain!!
Sorry-- but-- OHMIGOD!! No-- sorry, I meant OHMIGOSH OHMIGOSH OMIGOSH --
SHUT UP!!!
They're there! They're all there!!
As has been the case for the PAST HOUR.
They want to see me??
Yeah. You can take over for a while.
...Really?
Whoa, what happened? You sound so worried.
Nah... I'm fine. Thanks!
I'm taking a nap now, so the body's all yours for a while.
Thanks again, Kale.
Eh, no problem... captain.
Luffy's eyes snapped open, and they widened considerably as he stared at his friends sitting around him, looking at him nervously and expectantly. His friends -- his partners -- he hadn't seen them in seventeen years!
"Zoro!! Nami!! Usopp, Sanji!! Wow!! I didn't think I'd see you for a while!!"
He bubbled out excitedly, his hand automatically reaching for his head to clutch his hat... which wasn't there. He ended up patting his head and feeling a bit empty. Ah well. Luffy grinned at them happily, then noticed all their jaws had hit the ground.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
He asked, wondering if they were thinking how dumb it was for him to feel for his straw-hat. Damn, he missed his hat.
"You utterly brainless moron!!"
Nami blurted out, and Luffy blinked as she continued in an outraged manner,
"What on earth inspired you to go drown yourself in the sea?!"
"Wha?"
He racked his brain for a memory as to when this happened, and said confusedly,
"But you know I don't know how to swim, and that guy just threw me overboard..."
"No!! She's talking about when you were five years old in this life!"
"Oh!"
Luffy exclaimed, laughing as he remembered Kale screaming at him afterwards for hours on end,
"That was an accident! I saw something shiny bobbing and I started to walk to it but I forgot I wasn't 172 centimeters tall anymore so I ended up drowning! Hahaha!"
He was promptly decked by Zoro, who looked irritatedly at his crazy captain.
"That's not remotely funny at all."
"Really? Aww, you're all like Kale. I thought it was funny."
"Dying isn't funny!"
Usopp said with a sweatdrop, and Luffy sighed.
"Fine, you win."
"But there was nothing to win about in the first place,"
Sanji started to say, when Luffy took one look at him and let out a blood-curdling scream.
"Wh-wh-what?!"
Sanji stammered, his heart pounding from shock as the other crew-members exchanged assorted glances while backing away from the cook confusedly. Luffy couldn't believe his eyes, and pointing a deadly finger at Sanji proclaimed,
"You're an imposer!!"
There was a stunned silence. Then Zoro muttered,
"You mean imposter."
"Whatever! Same thing!!"
"What are you talking about?!"
Sanji demanded.
"You think I can't see it? Well, let me reveal your secret to everyone!! Look carefully! Sanji's eyebrow is... not curled!!"
Luffy said dramatically. Everybody face-faulted.
"The hell?! You thought we wouldn't notice that sooner?!"
"Huh? You mean you noticed already?"
Usopp gave up and rested his head in his hands.
"Uhm, Luffy, everyone's changed in their new life,"
Nami started to explain, when Luffy's eyes bugged out as he grabbed at her hair,
"Wow, Nami!! Is this a wig?"
"OUCH!! No, it's not-- that hurts-- LET GO YOU IDIOT!!"
She yelled, punching him aside.
"Oof! Okay, so you're Nami. But Sanji... your eyebrow... it was so cool and now it's gone..."
Luffy began crying, bewildering Sanji.
"Uhhh... I'm sure it'll, uhm, grow back soon,"
He said, and Luffy brightened up immediately,
"That's good! But why does Zoro and Usopp look normal?"
A vein popped on Sanji's head.
"Are you implying Nami-san is not normal?"
Sanji asked, his glaring eyes boring into Luffy's head.
"Hmm... yeah!"
Luffy agreed, and earned a flying kick across the jaw as Sanji snarled,
"Don't you dare insult Nami-san!!"
Luffy landed with a painful sounding crack onto Usopp. Then he sat up and yelled,
"Hey!! Just because I'm in a kid's body doesn't mean you can hit me!!"
And he ran in and gave a surprisingly forceful and well-aimed punch to Sanji's face. Another vein popped on the blonde's head.
"Why, you stupid dumbass--!!"
Within seconds the two were in a full-fledged fight with Zoro occasionally inserting helpful comments like 'Sanji's free to the left!' and such. Usopp mumbled,
"Doesn't Sanji always hit Luffy regardless of his form anyways?"
"Uhm... yeah."
Nami said a little distantly. Usopp looked at Nami, hearing the strange tone of listlessness in her voice, and saw that she looked troubled despite having seen Luffy.
"Na-chan?"
Usopp began uncertainly, when a mis-judged punch his head and bowled him over. He propped himself up on his elbows, his glasses crookedly astray on his nose as he gave a sharp glare at the scuffling duo. Well, trio now that Zoro had joined in, though Usopp had no idea when.
"You stupid swordsman!!"
"Dumbass cook!!"
They stopped in a muffled shout as Usopp threw pillows at them, yelling,
"Shut up and stop fighting, you idiots!!"
He received two pillows back to the face with staggering force.
"You shut up, long-nose! Don't interrupt a man's fight!"
"What are you implying about me?!!"
Usopp demanded with a yell, and promptly entered the ruckus with the addition of Zoro's and Sanji's pillows. Within seconds feathers littered the floor and the four males were tumbling over the floor as they ferociously fought.
Nami began to get a very familiar headache that had nothing to do with Awakening.
And as the irritation continued to grind at her, Nami felt something distinctly... wrong with herself. She didn't feel very good.
However, she didn't voice it, and watched amusedly as Luffy energetically pulled Zoro's earrings, only to have his cheeks yanked.
"Gin?"
Gin turned around to see his leader peering at him from the garage entrance, looking somewhat suspicious.
"Yes, sir?"
"Where are you going?"
"Just a short walk, Captain. I won't be long."
Krieg's eyes narrowed.
"You are informed that we have a meeting tomorrow at midnight?"
Gin felt his chest clench at the reminder, and he nodded.
"Of course, Captain Krieg. Of course."
Don Krieg shot a piercing glare at Gin, and didn't like what he saw.
"Don't do anything crazy, now."
He said. Gin suppressed a snort.
"Yes, sir."
He left, feeling Krieg's eyes burn into the back of his neck all the way until he walked out of sight.
Kaya tried dialing again to no avail. His phone continued to relay a 'busy' message that asked her to leave one herself.
She flopped onto her bed, dropping the phone and pressed her cheek onto a soft pillow. She knew she was beeing a nuisance, but she couldn't help it; she wanted to talk to Usopp about how she felt. She didn't want to ask Merii, and she didn't have any friends she could talk to about Kurohadol...
Something about their meeting today had seemed weird and almost sinister. There was, quite strangely, a very strong sense of deja vu... She didn't like how she felt at all...
"Usopp-san, why don't you pick up the phone?"
She asked her pillow forlornly, and started to cough. The pains in her chest made her stand and walk down the stairs to get some pills.
Tashigi still couldn't believe it. She was in her bed, the blankets tucked up to her chin over her flannels with only a sliver of moonlight resting on the wall, and she still couldn't sleep.
Zoro closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them to meet Tashigi's eyes properly.
"Have you ever felt like... we've met each other before?"
Tashigi blinked.
"Uhm... what do you mean?"
She still couldn't believe it. She felt she should have realised it sooner, but still, it was too much for her to absorb that easily.
"I don't know, truthfully. But... don't you feel like something's strangely... familiar between us?"
At this, Tashigi visibly paled.
"....Sorry?"
She whispered. He returned to his Physics notes as he spoke, shuffling them into some sort of order as he muttered,
"It's nothing. Never mind."
But how is this possible? Tashigi wondered as she rolled over to one side. How is it possible for this to happen?
"You don't mean to say... that you feel it too? Like we've met once before, but not in youth... in another place? Like you know me more than you think you should?"
Zoro's eyes widened as he stared at Tashigi.
"Yeah! You mean... you feel it too?"
He was startled as she stood up abruptly, gathering her books, papers and stationary before marching out of the library. He crammed his things into his bag before following.
"Oi, wait up!"
She didn't reply, and Zoro was forced to follow her quickening pace all the way back to the dormitories.
"What's the rush?"
He asked confusedly, and reached out a hand to grasp at her shoulder to turn her around. She slapped his hand back aggressively, and he saw with surprise her eyes frosty and angered. He opened his mouth to speak, when Tashigi shook her head sharply.
He saw her eyes fill with tears.
"Tashigi?"
He asked questioningly. Without another word, she unlocked her room, stepped inside and turned to shut the door.
Zoro caught sight of a tear running past a cheek before the door slammed in his face.
Tashigi hit herself over the head as she felt her eyes fill with tears again.
"Tashigi?"
Damn he sounded concerned! But this was absurd. It was ridiculous. How was this possible??
"Why do people keep doing this to me?"
She mumbled, drying her eyes with her sheets,
"Why do I keep getting fooled? No one in their right minds would like me for who I was..."
Tashigi didn't fall asleep until dawn, the same question continuing to circle her mind and dumbfound her.
Why the hell is Zoro attracted to me exactly the way Smoker was?
A/N: Yay. Another boring chapter, so to speak, but it helps me to set what's going to happen next. This is the end of the first 'saga' if you would ike to call it that, focused on the Awakening. Now that the Awakening Arc is done, I can move onto completing plot-points that have progressed over the first saga and also start on something that involves a lot of things. I need to get cracking now... And here's something scary: I'm only halfway through! Oh well. I thank you dearly for your kind reviews; it's one thing to write something and post it and hope people read it, and another to have people tell you they've read it and what they think. You're all the sweetest. ^.^*
Cripes! How long can one day last?