DISCLAIMER: EIICHIRO ODA OWNS ONE PIECE, I OWN THIS STORY.

I sighed and threw another rock into the sea. Recently, things have been going so, unbearably boring. We had a few encounters with other ships on sea, but none that were worth noting about.

What's more is that, for some strange, unfathomable reason, one way or another, I was always left out of the fighting. Whether it was by Chopper's orders, fainting from fear, being knocked out on accident by one of the crew's attacks, being knocked out by one of the opponents' attacks, and yeah. Etc. Etc. We all get the picture.

It's annoying.

For some, extremely strange reason, I can never see what happens to the opponent in the end, unless it's through Katrina's eyes. I want to see it for myself, dammit!

Recently, I had an epiphany, and realized that I was extremely weak compared to the rest of the crew. Hell, even Usopp was stronger than me, and he didn't have a Devil Fruit, and didn't have much contact with pirates until Luffy waltzed onto Syrup in all his Luffy-like glory.

Granted, I had more hand-to-hand combat skill and speed than him, but that meant nothing if he could just snipe me from a distance, and I wouldn't even know.

That's also saying nothing in terms of sheer sturdiness each of our bodies have in comparison with each other. My bones seem to break easier. Don't ask me how I know that.

To rectify my lack of physical strength, I had to ask Sanji for weights I could put around my legs. When I realized that he was kind of useless in that regard, considering that nearly all of his strength came from moving combat instead of what I wanted to do, I kind of maybe, (read: totally) ditched him to go ask Zoro if he had any smaller weights I could use.

He told me he had a few that were around 50 or so pounds, and for a moment I felt like my breath left my body.

By that point, I literally had no other choice but to take his help and I dragged Usopp into it to, basically, the end result was Usopp somehow smelting the weights together, lowering the density to 35 pounds, and clipping them to a harness he installed onto my legs.

How peachy.

Now, I'm still dragging my weight around the ship, and the weights were put on me 3 days ago. I shifted a little to the side to make room for Arsonist, who was coming up behind me.

"What do you want?" Ah, I think that came out wrong.

"…You know, I feel like I'm getting stronger by the day," she whispered, "But you're staying the same. Why?"

I sighed, I knew this was coming, and I wanted to ignore it as much as possible, which opted for some very… awkward situations…

…

"Hey, Shivani! Can I talk to you?" Katrina stepped forward as Shivani hummed in affirmation.

"You seem to be getting weaker than me, or am I just getting stronger, why—"

"OH MY GOD IS THAT A THREE-HEADED MAN ON A DONKEY?!" Shivani yelled out of the blue all of a sudden.

Katrina blinked, "A what? And wait, is that a reference to—" Shivani was gone and the only thing left was a cloud of dust. Which again raised the question of why there was dust on a ship to begin with, but we can always leave that to the nonexistent logic of the Grand Line, eh?

"…Totally Spies…" Katrina seemed so lost as she looked around, unaware that Shivani was hiding behind Zoro as he was doing weights.

"What the hell are you doing? Get out of my way! I might elbow you in the face." Zoro growled, lifting his weights again.

"Shut up and be quiet," Shivani hissed, still watching Katrina's form.

Zoro looked at her quizzically, "So what should I do? Shut up? Or be quiet?"

"Both."

…

"Ah, I knew I couldn't avoid you forever," I leaned back theatrically, and stroked Invictus' head. Recently, I'd been getting used to having a baby dragon that was allergic to seawater on a pirate ship. Even if he did keep on sneezing into my hair.

Thankfully, Vivi was nice enough to lend me her shampoo.

"Yeah? So, spill it." Katrina crossed her arms and looked at me skeptically.

She, too, had been getting used to Invictus, granted, it was with much, much more trepidation than anyone else on the ship.

I hummed and leaned backwards onto the railing of the ship.

"I've been thinking, you know how you use your status as a human omnivore to its fullest?"

Katrina raised a skeptical eyebrow, "Yeah, why?"

"You've been ingesting more nutrients than me, those nutrients must be doing cool science stuff to your body and making you stronger."

Katrina raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Well, yeah, I guess that makes sense." Her eyebrows furrowed again, "But what about you?"

I smiled, "I'm a vegetarian, remember? Truth be told, I'm surprised I didn't get hypothermia yet. Bare minimum of the nutrients here I suppose." I mused.

"Ooh, hey! You guys talking about cool otherworldly stuff again? Can I join?" Usopp smiled.

I chuckled and moved over to make some more room, "Yeah, sure!"

Usopp grinned and shuffled next to me, "So, what were you talking about?"

Katrina grimaced, "Shivani's getting weaker compared to the rest of us, and she thinks it's because of her limited diet."

Usopp's eyes softened in sympathy, "Yeah, I get what you're saying. To have that much of a limited diet at sea… It's going to be hard. Especially since you're from a different world that doesn't have the Grand Line or the same insanity as the Blues."

I paused to contemplate what he was saying and nodded, "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. You know, I'm planning to open my diet to fish too, because of this."

Katrina's eyes widened, "Wait, Shivani, you don't have to—"

I shot her a cold glare, "I can't sit here and become weak while everyone else is becoming strong. I need to do something, and if changing my diet is necessary, so be it." I paused and added an afterthought, "Red meat is a no-no, though."

Katrina nodded, "Yeah, I can see where you're coming from."

After that exchange of a few sentences, a comfortable silence descended upon us.

"Yeah, you know, I'm gonna go get up and tell Sanji about my decision." I got up and set Invictus into Usopp's arms.

"Think you can carry this guy up to the mast?"

Usopp nodded, "Yeah. Why the mast though?"

"Farthest place from the sea on this ship."

"Ah, makes sense."

Smiling, I pivoted on my heel and walked off into the galley where Sanji was no doubt trying to test the new lock Usopp made for the fridge.

"Yo, Sanji!" I opened the door, "If you're busy or something, I can leave and come back later, but I've got a pretty important thing to tell you, and it involves…" I trailed off, looking at the more than questionable scene unfolding in front of me.

"…Food?" Luffy asked hopefully, slightly stretched out from Sanji prying his face open and pinning him to the floor.

My mouth flopped open and close for a few seconds before I found my voice, "What is going on here?"

Sanji scrambled upwards with as much dignity as he could and stuck a cigarette into his mouth. I knew he was itching to light it, but he didn't do it in my presence. Probably because he was wary of me once I explained to him rather explicitly what secondhand smoking can cause and what a lung with cancer looked like.

"This idiot," he growled, "Was trying to steal food again."

I raised an eyebrow, "I suppose that the lock Usopp made isn't working as well as it should?"

"As well as it can work against a rubber human with the freakish strength of a sea king." Sanji groaned.

"I'll tell Usopp to make a new one." I said dryly as I closed the door behind me.

"Now, what was that important thing you wanted to say?" Sanji questioned, sitting down into a chair in front of me, pulling Luffy down too.

"I wanted to say that I'm planning to add fish to my diet, but no red meat, if that's okay. Weights can only do so much for me to get stronger. I need to ingest the local nutrients too, if you get what I'm saying."

Luffy nodded, "Got it!"

Sanji nodded too, before a contemplative look came across his face, and then smacked the back of Luffy's head without any real heat, "THAT WAS MY LINE YOU IDIOT!"

I smiled, "Yeah, that's all I'm here for, I'm going to go talk to Nami now, don't steal too much food, Luffy. Leave some for the rest of us." I walked out the door and made my way to the deck where Nami was sunbathing.

"Hey, Nami! You got a moment?" I called.

She lifted her sunglasses a bit and nodded, beckoning for me to sit down next to her.

"What did you need? Shivani?"

Over the time I was on this ship, our relationship became… not so hostile, to put it… gently. We generally didn't talk much unless it was a direct variable into the crew's wellbeing.

We didn't share much, but we did share an unshaking loyalty and faith towards our captain.

"I was thinking. You're the navigator, Usopp's the sniper, Sanji's the cook, and Zoro's the first mate…"

"Yeah?" Nami raised an eyebrow, "Please don't tell me you came here just to state the obvious."

"That'd be fun, but really, it's just a waste of time." I said dryly, "What position do me and Arsonist have? I want to have something stable to work off of. So, I know where I stand."

Nami put her sunglasses back on and faced the sun again, "If that's your question, then it would be better for you to go ask Luffy. He decides everything on this ship."

I mulled that statement over in my mind and nodded, "Yeah, I guess he does."

Mollified with that answer, I flipped on my heel and turned, Ah. What a nice day today, I hummed softly to myself, I do hope nothing will go wrong…

I cast a meaningful look towards the sea before sighing tragically, Oh well. Can't have everything, I suppose.

After a small, aimless stroll around the ship, a mild internal panic over the fact that I couldn't find Luffy, and the question on 'Whether or not I was as directionless as Zoro,' I managed to catch Luffy on the figurehead of Merry.

"Hey Luffy!" I called out, walking towards him, "I got a question for you."

Luffy smiled, "Yeah! Shoot!"

"What position am I on the ship?", You see, unlike Nami, or Usopp, or Sanji, or even Zoro, Luffy cannot get subtle hints unless it's in the middle of a battle, because somehow, when he's fighting, his IQ suddenly becomes higher than everyone else's on the ship's put together.

Luffy fell silent before speaking, "I don't know, what do you want to be?"

I shrugged, "Whatever you want me to be."

Luffy looked at me with an utterly bored expression, "Just answer the question."

I laughed, "Chronicler? Tactician? Info Broker? Spy? I don't know, what do you want me to be? Tell me, and I'll become it."

Luffy groaned, "Stop making this so hard." He clutched his head and thought so hard, his face became red and steam shot out of his ears.

Then he dropped his fist in his palm in an 'oh yeah!' motion, "You can be the Chronicler-Tactician-Info Broker-Spy!"

I stared at him, "What."

Luffy smiled proudly, "You can be all of them!"

I shook my head, "Luffy," I explained patiently, "I don't have 8 arms. I can only be one thing."

Luffy shook his head, "You only have two arms." He said stubbornly, before relenting.

"Fine then. You can be the Chronicler-Info Broker, and Kat will be the Tactician-Spy!" he smiled.

I shook my head and laughed, "Sure, Luffy, sure." I paused for a minute, "Hey, Vivi. How you doing?"

Vivi sidled up next to me and hung her head, "Not very good. I'm dying of anxiety. Call me selfish, but I want to get to my kingdom now."

I stared at her through the corner of my eye, "That's not selfish." I said honestly, "Truthfully, if I were you, I'd probably want the same, anyone would want the same. You're not being selfish, Vivi." I looked at the sea, "You're being human."

Vivi gazed at me, "I didn't know you could be so philosophical, Shivani" she remarked.

"Oh, shut up, will you?" I joked, shoving her lightly.

Laughter bubbled in Vivi's throat, before dying down, "Also, I think you should know… you have a bounty."

I raised my eyebrow, "I know. How much is my head worth?"

Vivi bit her lip, "Two-thousand beri."

My mind short-circuited, "Two-thousand beri," I repeated.

She nodded, "I-I'm sorry, I—"

"Why are you sorry?" I interrupted, "I mean yeah, the bounty is pitiful, but what can I do about it? At least people won't be paying much attention to me."

Vivi sucked in a breath, "You… Two thousand beri is pitiful to you?"

I nodded slowly, "Compared to the bounties others on this crew will have in the future, it's pitiful."

"Pitiful." She repeated.

"Yes."

"Pitiful."

"Could you get to the point?" I asked, honestly creeped out by the dead stare she was giving me.

"What crew of monsters am I on?" she moaned.

"Oh? You're asking that question. Welcome to the club?"

"You ask that question? Wait, back up—there's a club?"

"Nah, not really."

"For which one?" she questioned.

"Both." I replied cheerfully.

I was sure that Vivi died a little inside at that moment.

"HEY NAMI! WHAT'S THAT?!" Luffy shouted.

"Hm?" I turned towards where Luffy was pointing and saw steam rising out of the sea, "Oh, I'm pretty sure that's a hotspot."

"Shivani's right." Nami strolled over, "That's a hotspot."

"What's a hotspot?" Luffy asked, swinging back and forth on the rail, dangerously close to tipping over and falling.

"Basically, there's an underwater volcano there, and it's doing cool science stuff, meaning that later on, there's going to be a new island there instead of ocean." I droned.

"'Cool Science stuff', seriously?" Nami looked at me skeptically, "You don't even know the theory behind it?"

"Who cares?" I said breezily, "I know enough, and don't forget who knows where all the treasure is."

Nami muttered something unintelligible under her breath and stalked away.

"HEY USOPP! LET'S GO FISHING!" Luffy hollered, bounding towards Usopp.

Oh yeah, my eyes widened, "USOPP! YOU MIGHT WANT TO MAKE A BETTER LOCK FOR SANJI'S FRIDGE! THE ONE YOU MADE LAST ISN'T WORKING!"

"WHAT?!" Usopp roared, "LUFFY, WHAT DID YOU DO?"

As I watched the small argument unfold, I felt a small tug on my pant leg.

"Yeah, there something you need Chopper?" I let my eyes fall to his tiny form.

"Um…" he fidgeted, "I heard you have knowledge of the future, right?"

"Yes." I replied, "But I'm not going to tell you anything about our adventure."

"Oh no!" he denied, "I wasn't going to ask about that. I was going to ask if…" a shaky smile appeared on his face, "If we ever met Doctor Hogback!"

Immediately, I had to fight off a grimace from appearing on my face. I may have skipped through most of the Thriller Bark episodes, but I knew the name Hogback all too well.

'Hogback… That's the psychotic zombie-doctor, right?' Katrina questioned inside my head.

Yeah. I replied, Now for the clincher… How am I supposed to tell Chopper that the person who is nigh his idol is a psychotic zombie-doctor?

'…' When I felt the connection between us snap like a pencil, I knew she had ditched me, that piece of garbage.

"Yeah, we meet Hogback." I said carefully, "Although… he's not quite as… amazing as you think."

A crestfallen look came on Chopper's face, "He isn't?"

I felt a pang in my chest, "No, not really, but you can worry about that later, when we actually do meet him. Right now, all we've got to focus on is Alabasta."

"EH?! A PERSON?!" Luffy shouted, "SHIVANI! C'MERE!"

Seriously? I missed it again? I groaned and skimmed over to where Luffy and the rest of the crew sat, "There something you need Cap'n?"

"LOOK AT HIM! HE'S SO COOL!" Luffy suddenly generated stars in his eyes.

"Hey captain?"

"Hm?"

"Smile a bit quieter please, you're making me blind."

"Huh?"

"Nothing."

"Anyways, what were you saying?" I expertly diverted the topic.

"Look at this guy! He can become you! And me! And us!" he told me excitedly, "Show them, Bon-chan!"

"Oh, well, I suppose I can stay a bit longer to show." A slightly scratchy voice mused.

I knew who this was. And I was torn between wanting to laugh or to cry, because it was Bon-chan who was probably dead in the canon timeline, who sacrificed himself to help Luffy save Ace, who inevitably ended up dying anyways.

I'm sad.

Then he started scrolling through the faces he stole, and I became coldly aware of just who he was working for at the moment.

"Bon-chan, was it?" I questioned, "You say you can imitate any personality which matches the face, right?"

"Yeah, of course I can!" he said proudly.

"What if someone whose face you stole had, say… A split personality?" I questioned.

Bon Clay shrugged, "Then I can't do that. I have to know the person who I'm imitating personally if I want to ever imitate them perfectly." He did a twirl, "And as Zero-chan says, 'you either do it perfect, or you don't do it at all!'"

I raised a brow, ignoring Nami's gasp, "Does 'Zero-chan' actually say that?"

"No, not really." Bon Clay shrugged, "Maybe? I don't know."

Then he turned abruptly towards an approaching shadow from the mist, "Ah! There's my ride! Thank you for being so hospitable to me! I shall always remember this friendship, Mugi-chan!" he bowed, did a backflip and landed on his own ship.

"Ah! So good to have you back Mr. 2, Bon Clay-sama!" one of the grunts on the ship cheered.

"Good to be back!" Bon Clay replied.

When the ship sailed away, the deck was left in stunned silence. Then, the door to the galley opened and Sanji came strolling out.

"Okay." He sighed when he saw everyone's shocked faces and mine and Katrina's deadpan ones, "What happened?"

"I think…" Vivi said shakily, "We just met Mr. 2."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING SHIVANI?!" Nami whirled around and began choking me.

"I didn't say anything because the alternative would've been much worse if I did say anything." I replied calmly, prying off Nami's hand from my neck.

"What." Nami hissed, "Just what could possibly be much worse?"

"As of right now, Mr. 2's loyalty is to Crocodile. If I said anything, the chances that he would tell Crocodile what I said are too high to be comfortable with. Right now, I think that the best possible outcome could've been us getting him away—" I paused, "Quick question, Nami, did he touch your face?"

Nami looked at me confusedly, "No, why? You distracted him before he could do it. Was him getting my face important or something?"

"Oh nothing." I waved her off, "It's just that, Sanji's going to be the one fighting him."

Nami's face soured, "Oh. Makes sense." She shook her head, "Anyways, what were you saying?"

I looked at her blankly before I remembered what I was going to say, "Oh yeah!" I snapped my fingers, "The best possible outcome could've been us getting him away without him getting any of our faces. As it stands though, all we can do is create a secret password or something to combat his acting ability."

Luffy seemed to think for a moment before snapping his fingers and shouting out, "MEAT!"

""No."" Nami, Katrina, and I deadpanned.

Silence descended on the deck before I smiled evilly, "I've got it."

~\_o_/~

I stepped off the ship and breathed in the air. It was so strange. It reminded me of my homeland, but it was distinctly Grand Line.

So, this is Alabasta. I looked around before grinning like a loon, Crocodile, you'd better watch out. Because we are coming. And we are coming fast.

AN: Dang, this chapter is so freaking late. I would've done it earlier, but, you know, it's summer and I kind of wanted to do nothing. Anyways, here's the first chapter of Alabasta.

...

I really need to make an outline for the Alabasta chapter *mutter mutter*

~~Oracle Norzi