AN—Now, before anyone says anything about how I pace my story, I will say this, I know that I am going too fast, and I'm pacing wrong for my story. I suck at writing in first person POV, because I haven't been writing in that POV for a good 3 years. I promise, though, that I will try my absolute best to make things slower.

"Kill me."

The second those words left my lips, the entire party stopped. I know I probably shouldn't have said that, but hell if I regretted it. Hopefully reverse psychology will work on him, if not, then I'm toast, and so is Katrina.

Luffy was looking intently at the scene, searching for something, for what? I don't know. Usopp was doing the same, but he wasn't searching for something. It was more like how an audience looks at the actor on the stage.

Nami was too drunk to do anything, and Sanji was unconscious on the floor, which is probably why I haven't heard any yelling recently…

Katrina, however, was quite pale, and her mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water.

I would've found the scene funny, had I not literally dared the guy with three razor-sharp swords, one of which was cursed, to kill me. Wow, I'm stupid.

…

It runs in the family.

…

I turned my head and inclined it slightly to look Zoro in the eye. He was giving me a death glare, which I returned with one of my own. Then, my stupid mouth moved before my brain could tell it to.

"I dare you."

If Zoro was surprised, he didn't show it.

"You know that I will kill you, right?", he questioned, "so why don't you step back and ask for mercy?".

I looked him in the eye, and when I realized he was serious in asking me this, I let out a bout of uproarious laughter.

"Oh, that is too good," I wiped a tear from my eye, "You ask me why I don't fear death? You should be asking me why I should! Death comes to everybody! Why should I fear it when it is but inevitable?", I looked in his eye and allowed a smirk to cross my face.

When I peeked out the corner of my eye, I could see Katrina one step closer to hyperventilating, how she managed to last this long, I don't know. I looked slightly behind Zoro to see Luffy and Usopp.

Usopp was taking notes, on what? I will never know. Luffy wasn't paying attention anymore. It seemed that whatever he was searching for, he found. I turned my attention back to the swordsman in front of me.

He looked strangely contemplative. I looked at him and asked, "Are you going to kill me yet, or what?", wearing a bored expression. Internally, I winced, Me and my big mouth, AM I TRYING TO GET MYSELF KILLED?!

Then, right as I closed my eyes, ready to accept my fate, a familiar weight on my shoulder lifted. I peeked out of one of my eyes and saw that the katana that he was using to hold me hostage was no longer on my shoulder. I turned to Zoro who was now napping by the mast, and leveled the evilest glare I could muster at him.

"I'm going to get him back for that later," I muttered, as the party continued on, full swing. I walked towards the water, and was about to fill a glass for myself, until I found myself sprawled on the floor, with a big, ugly bruise blossoming on my cheek. I looked hazily up at the offender, and when I saw it was that damned arsonist, I snapped my body up into fighting position.

Before I could throw the first punch, she muttered something unintelligible under her breath.

"What?", I questioned agitatedly.

"mmhrghmmrhg", she mumbled, fidgeting from side to side.

"WHAT?! SPEAK UP LASSIE! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!", I taunted, to try and get her louder. When she sucked in a breath, I instinctively put my forearms in front of my face to protect from any blows she would throw, but what she did, I could never prepare for.

"I THOUGHT YOU WOULD DIE, OKAY?!" she had tears in her eyes, "NEVER DO THAT AGAIN, YOU HEAR ME, ASSHAT!", she launched herself towards me and glomped on me.

What. I thought numbly. Whatever else she said, was muffled, her first words playing over and over again in my head like a broken record. When she finally got off of me, her eyes were red and puffy, and there was a wetness on my shoulder that I wouldn't question.

Then, she punched me.

"THE HELL WAS THAT FOR, YOU PIECE OF GARBAGE?!", I howled, clutching my arm. Even though it didn't hurt that much, I couldn't tense the muscles in preparation to block the hit.

She lifted my chin up with two of her fingers and traced my jawline while absently saying, "This never happened, you hear me?".

I glared at her before reluctantly nodding.

"Great!", then she let me go and walked over to the sake barrels, and began a futile drinking contest with Nami. Even though that girl is already drunk, she's good, and I'm pretty sure I'll be poor and in debt by tomorrow.

I walked over to the closest solid, dry wall farthest away from the party and began napping. I had a feeling I would need my energy for tomorrow…

…

…

I was right.

I felt my eye twitch as I looked at the calm waters around us. Now, I may not know much about the Grand Line, because I never really understood how the World Map there worked, but I know the basic oceans. One of them being the calm belt.

Which is where we are right now.

Nami was knocked out and hungover from last night's party, Usopp was out cold, Luffy was… sleeping, not even the Zombie Apocalypse looked like it could wake Zoro, and Mota? She was awake. Slightly hungover, but awake. She seemed to have been able to keep up with Nami's drinking.

I would commend her if we weren't in a potentially fatal position. When I heard a small rumble of the ocean waves beneath us, I froze.

This is the Calm Belt…, I thought numbly as the ocean rose under us, SHIT!

A look of terror crossed my face, as I hoisted the sails and tried to paddle. I barely got anywhere before a huge black and white sea king lifted us up. At this point, Usopp woke up from the noise. And then promptly passed out again.

"HEY! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?! IF YOU DON'T WAKE UP RIGHT NOW, I'LL GIVE YOU A BEATING THAT MAKES NAMI'S LOOK LIKE LOVE-TAPS FROM A CHILD!", Mota screamed in Usopp's face while violently shaking him back and forth.

When no reaction was goaded out of him, she sighed and dropped his limp body on deck before looking at me with pleading eyes.

"Please, please, please tell me you know what to do in situations like these.", she begged.

I gave her a melancholic shake of my head but when I heard another rumble beneath us, my senses went into overdrive.

What happened, what happened?! I internally winced, oh that happened…

"Grab all the crewmates you can and hold on tight!" was all I managed to get out before a huge sneeze rocketed us off of the sea king's snout and onto the open ocean.

I woozily got up and attempted a head-count.

"1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…", I blinked dumbly, "Am I seeing double?", I questioned myself, before the entire world tilted sideways and I was facing the sky.

Mota's three(?) faces were worriedly asking me something.

"Lights…so…prettyyyy…", I managed to get out before the blackness consumed me.

When I woke up, we were with Laboon and—wait, Laboon? Dear Lord, how much did I miss? I cursed under my breath.

Nami was catching me up on whatever happened when I was unconscious, but I tuned her out. I already knew this part a good number of times.

"Do you get it?" she asked impatiently. I nodded absently in response and she sighed, "You didn't hear a thing I said, didn't you?".

"Not a thing."

Nami leveled a thoroughly agitated stare at me, before walking to Crocus. The old man was just finishing telling Luffy and the others as to how the Rumbar Pirates supposedly "abandoned" Laboon, and needless to say, I was pissed.

Mota was too, but for completely different reasons. "Hey—!", she was about to say something, but I put a hand over her mouth, effectively muting anything she had to say.

"Mr. Crocus, if you would let me speak?", I politely asked, just barely seething under my skin. He gave me an odd look, oh. Right. Haki, this guy knows what I'm feeling.

"Sure, go ahead," he replied somewhat flippantly.

"You were a Roger Pirate, were you not?", his attention snapped over to me so fast that if I didn't know better, I thought his neck would break.

"How do you know that?", he questioned, low and suspicious.

I ignored whatever he said and forged on, "So you were a Roger Pirate, you were on the possibly craziest pirate crew there is, and yet you forget that this is the Grand Line, anything could happen,".

He gave me a caustic glare.

Taking that as a twisted sign to continue, I went on. "Ever heard of the Florian Triangle?", I asked nonchalantly, "If the Rumbar Pirates got lost in there, there's a good chance that they didn't have much choice but to stay there, but if one of them ate, say, the Yomi-Yomi no Mi?", I let my question hang in the air for him to take.

He slowly nodded along, "I see where you're going, but—", I cut in, "Then, there's still hope! When we return, we will either bring a skeleton of the old crew with us, or we'll return with no one at all, how's that?", I said with a sly smile.

After a suffocating silence, Crocus snorted, "Now, lassie, I don't know how you knew I was a Roger Pirate, but there are many other things that I can question that are better than that." He leveled a light glare at me, "don't disappoint, lass,".

I shot him a goofy smile before schooling my features and removing the hand covering Mota's mouth. She gave me a strange stare, to which I replied with a raised eyebrow. She shrugged and left.

I could only assume what that meant, but ever since we were dropped in together, I don't know if it was on purpose or not, but we share a connection with each other. Not one of those connections as in lovey-dovey connections, I mean like a literal connection. At times, I feel emotions that aren't mine. I feel pain from surface wounds that aren't mine. Sometimes I get thoughts that aren't mine, and in general, we just can understand each other better.

I would find it really cool if it hadn't been my worst enemy that I had been sharing this connection with. I WANT TO BE HER ENEMY, FOR ODA'S SAKE!

You know, I should probably use Oda as a form of celestial beings from now on… He is technically the God of One Piece.

I got on the Going Merry and realized that something was missing. Something… big.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!", my scream reverberated off the walls of the Red Line. The Main Mast was gone, and lying on the deck.

I inclined my head in its direction and stared. It stared innocently back at me. Which is not something Masts should do…

"Umm…", I turned around and gave a Death Glare to whoever was interrupting my inner conflict.

It was Mr. 9. The poor guy gulped when he saw my stare. Oh well, what a shame, because I'm not letting up.

"Miss, you're blocking the way.", his companion, the real royalty of the group said haughtily, but was quickly cowed when she saw my glare. I turned my head back to Mr.9 and saw the pair of daggers he held on his belt. Without sparing the holder so much as a glance, I grabbed the daggers and walked away.

They could be good makeshift weapons until I can get something real. Internally, I felt bad for what I was doing to Vivi, making her fear me and all that, but I needed to keep the act up.

'Oooh! Princess Vivi!', a thought popped up into my head causing me to blink in surprise. I instinctively inclined my head towards Mota and caught her as she was gaping at the hidden princess. I stifled a chuckle and went to the side of the galley.

Next Stop: Whiskey Peak

~~2,090 Words