I lay on bed, staring at an unfamiliar setting. This is not my room. And this is not my bed, from what I feel that my skin tells me. Ugh, where the hell am I?

I sit up and yawn. It takes me a while to figure out the reason. I had been thrown into a whole different world that completely defies any logical explanation I ever knew in my whole life and which also will only happen in those fanfics I've been reading before I got thrown into this world. The anime-slash-manga world. The One Piece world.

"Ooh, you're finally awake!"

I turn and my pair of dark brown beads meet a pair of dark eyes looking straight at me, less than ten centimeters away. I scream out and back off into the inconveniently placed wall, where I bump the back of my head against it. I curse silently as I rub gently on the back of my bumped head, which also unfortunately travels the pain to the bandaged area on my head.

How fucking great.

"A-are you okay? Sorry I didn't mean to scare you."

I look back to Shanks, who is now scratching his cheek as he laughs nervously. I pout and start to pinch his cheeks with my now small hands. Hard. And I stretch it outwards to intensify my point about my current annoyance towards him.

"Owowowowow, it hurts! Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" He screams. Satisfied, I let go and jumped off the bed. I hiss a bit as the cold floor touches my bare feet before I start to walk around the place to get used to the temperature, and finally leave the room. I hear footsteps trailing behind me; I turn and look up. It's Shanks. I guess I should thank him for saving me.

"Umm, Shanks?" He hums and crouches down so we're at the same eye level, "T-thank you…for saving me…" I blush and look down. The red-haired pirate chuckles in amusement and ruffles my hair. I feel my face getting hotter. Man this is embarrassing! Not to mention I'm a huge Shanks fan. It's not that I liked him, I just respected him, like an apprentice idolizing their mentor with respect.

Or like a good and badass uncle you really respect.

"Come on, I want to introduce you to someone. He's two years older than you, I think… How old are you anyway, girlie?" crap. I knew he's going to ask that. Shiiiiiitt...

"Umm, I don't really know. I never count." Shit, my voice changed too! My hair is still the same length, despite my smaller body and higher voice. But the way my bangs hung over and kinda covered my eyes, I'm seriously debating on cutting it.

"Huh, I see. Well, I guess you're probably around the same age, so that didn't matter! Well, let's go then." Shanks smiles and holds his hand out for me to hold. I take it and start walking in a direction I barely know. Or is it, really?

Actually, yes. Because I'm bad with memorizing roads, especially if I got it wrong the first time.

We walk slowly with me still barefoot and plenty of people are greeting Shanks. Sometimes they smile and greet me, but I cower behind Shanks, still holding his hand. Shanks only laughs and ruffles my hair. Again. I pout and pinch the back of his hand because my hair gets tangled because of him. He just grins. I made him hiss by pinching him. It became a routine.

Then we stopped at a bar, or what I thought looked like a bar. I never went to a bar before, well, until now I suppose. The bar is full of men with scary looking appearances. Shanks greets them and they greet back with smiles; I guess they're part of Shanks' crew, or at least kind people. I don't know. We keep walking until we stop in front of a long counter with several tall stools.

And guess what? On one of the stools is the main character of One Piece, looking at me with his all-too familiar D-sized grin.

Yup. The soon-to-be famous Pirate Captain, Monkey D. Luffy…

Luffy has a strange way of greeting me. He jumps down from the stool and lands in front of me. I swear, his soul-invading stares are kinda creepy, making me feel a little uncomfortable. He just keeps on staring, as if he's looking for something. Apparently he found it, because he's grinning again and points his thumb to himself in full confidence.

"I'm Luffy! What's your name?" He asks. Damn, what name should I use? I panicked, thinking quickly. I think I'll change my last name, because my last name is a weird one. My middle name is fine, but Luffy has a one-letter name, so I decided to copy him and use the first letter of my name. I smirk. And, of course, never forget to turn the last and first name around!

"I'm Ryuuen A. Eris. Nice to meet you, Luffy!" I smile at him. He grins and sits back on the tall stool. Because I'm afraid of falling and making a fool of myself, I decide to just watch him and Shanks arguing to each other (or a one-way argument from Luffy, because Shanks is only laughing) before feeling my neck starting to feel sore. Man, my neck's starting to hurt. Stupid tall people.

"Ara, Shanks! You're back!" I turn and spot a young woman with dark green hair and a bandana across her head. It's Makino!

"Oh, hello there little girl. Are you the one that Shanks rescued?" She asks, smiling kindly. I nod and squeeze Shanks' hand in my own, which, unbeknownst to both of us, are still holding each other. Makino giggles and crouches down to ruffle my hair.

"Aren't you a shy one, Eris-chan? That's so cute. Oh, I'm Makino. It's nice to meet you." She says, still smiling. I smile back at her before looking back at Shanks and Luffy.

"I told you I'm going to be the Pirate King!" Luffy brags, "Just wait and see, you bastard!" I just give him a nervous look. Oi, oi, Luffy. It's not good to talk like that to an adult, especially when you're still a little kid. I avert my gaze back to Shanks, who is laughing at Luffy for some reason, along with all his crew.

The two of them kept arguing for what seemed to me like ten minutes or so. Bored, I let go of my grip from Shanks' hand and walked around the bar. Eventually I met a man with curly blond hair. He grins at me and introduces himself.

"I'm Yasopp. Feel better now, girlie?" I nod and touch my head, which was still bandaged.

"Yeah, thank you for asking. It's better than the first time I woke up," I quickly explained. "I'm Eris, by the way. Nice to meet ya!" He laughs and pats my head.

"You know, I have a son named Usopp. He has a long nose and black curly hair; he got it from his mother." Oh yeah, Yasopp was Usopp's dad. I almost forgot about that…

"So you left him to sail across the world?" I ask. He nods and smiles.

"Yeah. I miss him though. Maybe it's because you kids are here and my son's about Luffy's age. It's nostalgic!" Yasopp laughs and pats my head again. I nod politely and turn to see if those lousy guys finally stop arguing.

They have! Thank the lord, because I don't really like loud voices, including and especially loud, crying people. I slowly walk back to Luffy and Shanks. Shanks looks at me and waves me over. I walk a little faster but suddenly I trip and fall, landing on my face to the wooden floor first. Thankfully I don't wear glasses. Everyone looks shocked, especially Shanks.

I push myself up slowly but my head is throbbing again and I feel something is flowing down my face. Shit, don't tell me the wound opened!

"Eris!" Shanks quickly runs toward me and holds me up. I examine his expression and come to the conclusion that he looks stupid. It still surprises me, though. Shanks' expression is full of guilt and worry, the same as my mom's expression whenever I got hurt. It has been a long time since someone has worried about me like that…

"Makino, bring me a medical kit," Shanks orders. Makino nods and quickly grabs the medical kit. She runs and gives it to Shanks. He mutters his thanks and opens the bandage with a scissor slowly. After the bandage is off from my head, Shanks opens the medical kit and takes out an alcohol wipe. I hissed in pain from the stinging of the alcohol. Fucking hell that hurts even more than the actual pain from the wound!

After a while (which feels like forever because Shanks made it as slow and gentle as possible), finally the injury has been bandaged up (again). Everyone sighs in relief. Shanks actually looks almost like a zombie. His eyes are red and his expression is really serious. The pirate then switches from zombie-like face to relief and sighs. I giggle when I remember his expression from before.

"Nyehehe, Shanks looks really stupid when you're so serious…" I tease him. He glares at me as I turn my head to the other side and giggle, while Shanks' slightly traitorous crew laughs.

"Thanks for the concern, but don't worry about me, I'll be fine! This little injury will probably heal in a few days!" I grin at him. He just sighs and pats my head for the fifty gazillionth time.

"I'm worried about your wellbeing, you know. 'cause you seem like the clumsy and reckless type." He mutters softly as he ruffles his own red locks. I giggle at that and give him another grin.

"Don't worry, old man Shanks. I'll be fine," I reply back happily and the crew laugh even harder when I call him 'old man' while Shanks himself is ready to protest. I took a sip of my warm chocolate milk given to me by Makino when Shanks 'operated' on me as I ignored the old man.

"By the way Makino," Shanks calls, "I know this is a lot to ask, but can she stay with you? As you know, I can't bring her along because a pirate ship isn't a place to raise children, plus it's dangerous. I'll give you money to help her." Shanks picks me up and puts me on his lap. I sip slowly on the milk as he starts stroking my head. I enjoy his big and gentle hand on my head.

I'm actually starting to get sleepy and soon I slump back on his chest. I yawn and put the cup on the counter. I can hear a chuckle and a giggle and feel a hand ruffling my locks. Even though I'm sleepy, I still want to hear their conversation so I try my best to stay awake.

"It's fine. I would love to take care of a girl and have another child around other than Luffy. He needs more friends around his age, after all. I don't need money; come, let me lead the way to her room," Makino replies. I feel myself being turned around and my face is in front of Shanks' chest, his strong arms around me to hold me from falling. I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes; his steady heartbeat is lulling me more and more into a deep sleep. Then Shanks carries me to a room, Makino trailing behind.

A few moments later, I was pulled away from Shanks' broad chest and his calming heartbeat, which got replaced shortly by a soft thing and a pillow. I feel a hand ruffling my head. I can't help but smile with my closed eyes as I turn and curl in a fetal position. I actually love being petted or ruffled, especially on my head. Too bad there isn't any tradition like that in my home country…

I can start thinking about the future with Luffy later, but now, I'm off into dreamland.

(Posted on January 7th, 2022)