"LEAVE NOW! THIS IS THE ISLAND PROTECTED BY GOD!"
My first coherent thought was, What, "God?", I mumbled, then let a wicked smirk spread across my face. Let's play with this… God for a little.
In other words, I began groveling.
"OH! MY ILLUSTRIOUS GOD!", I yelled exaggeratedly, "PLEASE COME! I HAVE BEEN PRAYING TO YOU FOR… 7 YEARS! PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR BLESSING SO I MAY HAVE…", I thought for a moment, "A JAR OF TOENAIL CLIPPINGS!", I finished, just barely holding in my amusement.
As expected, 'God' was silent, save for some snickers here and there. It seems that Katrina has heard my 'groveling'. I didn't really care; I just want to see this 'god'.
"Huh? Wait, what?", poor guy, he sounded genuinely confused. Ha! 'God' what a joke!
…
"You know, when I heard that you were god, I was expecting some powerful being of death and destruction," I stated. Then I gesture wildly to what I was seeing before me. "What I wasn't expecting to see was a boxed son* that doesn't even make it up to my knees.".
The self-proclaimed 'god' closed his eyes, "Yes, my parents loved me so much—OF COURSE I'M NOT A BOXED SON, ARE YOU STUPID?!", he yelled at me while magically forming shark teeth-
Wait. Shark teeth? Eh. Whatever.
I peeked out through the corner of my eye and could see Katrina visibly disturbed by what had just transpired, but then my attention was once again stole by the boxed-son, now named Gaimon.
"You know, if you came here looking for treasure, you're a little too late.", he said while casually petting a… elephant skunk? I peeled my eyes away from the bizarre sight when I heard what he had said.
"Treasure? You mean to say there's treasure here?", I said, while hiding my internal excitement.
"Yes, or at least there used to be.", a melancholic smile wormed its way onto his face, "Turns out, there was no treasure to begin with, it had all been taken long before I had come to this island. Thank god that boy in the straw hat came around and told me of it.".
Hold up. I was pretty sure my eyes were dinner plates at this point, Straw… hat? I frowned. Whichever universe that stunning beauty sent me, and that arsonist (whose existence I still refuse to acknowledge), it's starting to sound way too familiar for my liking.
Then it clicked.
Straw hat… Gaimon… TRASH FRUIT—I sucked in a breath, and with a shaky voice asked, "Do you…", I gulped, "have any clue what the man's name is?", I questioned.
Gaimon looked at me oddly then hesitantly spoke, "Might I know why you want to know?", he asked suspiciously.
"No, no, just checking something.", I said, the words tasting weird in my mouth.
"The young lad said his name was Monkey D. Luffy. He came here around 4 days ago." He said with a nostalgic smile.
All at once, I staggered back. The world began spinning, and Gaimon's voice suddenly seemed so far away. My only thought was, Why?
When I woke up, it was already nightfall. I looked up for a bit and pondered, but all thoughts were washed away when I saw the night sky. I heard somebody suck in a breath from beside me. I could only assume who it was, but based on the breathing, I'm sure it's Katrina.
"Oh my god," she breathed, "I might just never want to go home again, if we get to see this every night.". I looked at her for a moment, then back at the stars.
"I know where we are,", I said, mentally berating myself for not noticing this sooner.
"Yeah, I do too.", Katrina said nonchalantly, as if she hadn't just dropped a bomb of information on my head. And just like that, a flurry of questions tumbled forth.
"You read One Piece?"
"I watch it."
"How far did you get?"
"Around up until the Thriller Bark Arc."
"That's good. I almost forgot everything about that arc.", I admitted. She answered each question with frightening ease. She isn't lying. Oh well, that just makes this easier.
"Hey, jerk,", she turned around to glare at me, then opened her mouth to say something, but I beat her to it, "If we're here, we're going to join the Straw-hat pirates whether you like it or not, got it?". She shut her mouth and muttered something unintelligible under her breath.
"Yeah, sure," she said after a moment's silence "We'll join them. But what'll we do? They've already got all the crew positions ready and—", I cut in, "That is where you're wrong my friend!", I said cheerfully. She looked at me suspiciously and asked, "You never call me friend, are you coming down with something?".
I shot a deadpan look at her and then said, "By now they'll be at Loguetown. Let's get there, maybe we can grab a tailwind and track them down.".
"Yeah, well, how do you propose we traverse the seas? I don't suppose that you have a good nautical sense and know of latitude and longitude and all of that… stuff.", she scrunched her face up as if she sucked a lemon, then turned to me, "Well?".
I looked at her oddly then sighed, "Look, maybe the Devil Fruit you forced down my throat will help us," I shot a pointed look at her, and was inwardly glad that she flinched away from my gaze, "If it doesn't, then we're just going to live here with Gaimon. Forever.".
I could literally see the word forever bouncing through her head, so when she snapped a determined look on her face, I wasn't all that surprised.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!", she cheered.
I turned an exasperated glare at her and monotonously said, "Yes. Let's go. Where will we go? Yes. Loguetown. Where is Loguetown? That's right, WE DON'T KNOW!", I yelled nearing the end, satisfied when she winced from the sheer volume of my voice.
"Loguetown? You want to go to Loguetown?", an old voice questioned, I turned towards the source and saw Gaimon with an irritated look on his face and clear bags under his eyes, showing that he hasn't gotten any sleep for a long while. Most likely from me and that jerk's yelling spree.
He pointed towards the rising sun, "Go East. You'll reach Loguetown in a few hours depending on how fast you go, I don't care. JUST GET OFF MY ISLAND!", he ranted. Then sighed.
"I've seen that devil fruit of yours before, you know.", he said, "It's been on this island for a while. One of the animals ate it and ran headfirst into the cliff due to the fact that he couldn't control his speed. It truly is a Devil's fruit. It gives you the power to speed anything up.", he finished.
I looked at him like he just gave me seven years' worth of Birthday presents.
"Okay then, let's go.", I said.
"Wait, what?", Katrina yelled, "The hell do you mean, Let's go, ARE YOU STUPID?!".
I turned to her, "If you don't grab on, I'm leaving you behind.".
In a split second she latched onto me, "Go, go. We have a ship to track down!", she said cheerfully. She dug her heels into my sides like I was a donkey. I couldn't even be bothered to care at this point, so I just decided to go along with it.
"Okay,", I said thoughtfully, "You know, that if you keep digging your heels into me like that, I might lose balance and drown us both, you know that, right?".
I took sick satisfaction in seeing the way the blood drained from her face, and she stopped digging her heels into my sides, and instead hooked her arms around my neck and shoulders.
"OKAY! HOLD ON TIGHT!", and I sped off towards the rising sun.
~\_o_/~
It's been a good half an hour, and my legs are starting to get tired. We (read: I) are going significantly slower, and if we (read: I) go any slower we both will sink. Katrina was on the lookout for land while I was running, since… well, tunnel vision, and I wondered, Was Gaimon lying— "I SEE LAND!", I was rudely interrupted out of my thoughts when I heard Katrina yell in my ear about what she saw. I turned towards the direction she saw and saw… absolutely nothing.
"Are you pulling my leg, because if you are, then I'm dropping you, right here right now.", I threatened. She sighed exasperatedly and pointed to the direction I was going in, "It's not my fault you're as blind as a bat compared to me, just keep going that way, and you'll see land.", she said simply.
I raised a brow at this but nodded and continued on. Sure enough, after some 20 minutes had passed, we reached the promised land. I looked at Katrina with a dumbfounded stare, and all I got in return was a mischievous smirk.
I looked around the island and everything looked new. I looked at the people and saw fairly normal people, minus the fact that one looked like a rooster with green hair. Rooster with green hair? BARTOLOMEO!
AN: Ho ho! So, the two girls (read: Shivani) have now met Bartolomeo! I wonder what will happen...
1,555 words~~