Eventually, we enter the crappy shack. I enter first because I'm not letting Luffy enter first and get himself killed in a house full of bandits. But as I enter, someone grabs me by the neck and points a knife to my face, while Luffy is freaking out by that.

The one who grabbed me is a big guy, and he looks like he can snap my neck in half like a twig.

"What the hell are you doing?! Let Eris go, you ugly bastard!" Luffy exclaims out and tries to kick the guy, who glares at him for daring to do so and is about to turn his attention to him before Dadan walks in and glares at the guy.

"Put her down and leave them alone," She said, seeming annoyed by it.

"Why should we?" Another bandit guy, who approaches us closer, asks. Fuck, this damned bandit is choking me.

"They're Garp's grandkids." All of the bandits in the room gasp out loud and the one that got me quickly lets his grip go before he backs away gives us a look of fear like we're a damn plague.

I cough a bit because I just got put into a chokehold and it is not a good time. Luffy quickly gets me up to my feet and starts fussing over me in pure concern, but I just pat him on the head and tell him that I'm okay. Still, I can't believe that Garp just decided to make me his grandkid in just barely a day of me meeting him, considering he doesn't seem like the guy to pick strays off the roads to be his pet.

…Wait, now that I think about it, that doesn't sound too farfetched because Ace is a stray, Luffy isn't that specified but he's technically one, and I'm also a stray kid with unknown origin to these people.

And then he threw us off to some strangers to take care of us.

Wow, Garp is such a bad parent. No wonder Dragon wanted to fuck with the government that Garp worked at.

Dadan tells us to sit on the wooden floor and we plop down as she gives us a bowl of white rice, a glass of plain water, and that's all, while a meter from us there was a mountain of cooked meat with the bandits (+ Ace) enjoying the feast.

I'll be honest. A bowl of white rice is not appealing to consume at all.

"I want meat too!" Luffy complains after he inhaled the rice in 2 seconds, "why did he get to eat the meat?" He asks as he points at Ace, who just silently glares at us.

"Shut up! He gets the meat because he caught it! Go in the forest and catch your own, then you'll get some meat!" Dadan yells at him while I wince at her loud yelling. Sheesh, everyone sure loves to scream in this universe.

"Oi, old lady Dadan. Can you at least give us condiments for us to eat this white shit?" I ask and Dadan seems annoyed that I called her old lady, but overall didn't comment on it.

"No." She replies.

"Not even salt?"

"No."

"Stingy old lady." I spat out and eat the rice, ignoring Dadan's even more annoyed expression as she's so ready to strangle me, but is stopped by her men.

"Calm down Dadan-san! She's Garp's grandkid, you need to think better before you do it!" One of the bandits that stop her, which vaguely looks like a rooster, tries to reason with her. She eventually relents, but still glares at me.

"So listen up, Luffy. This shitty shack is filled with mountain bandits. Considering we live here now, we need to do chores and hunt our food, or we won't be able to eat." I explain to Luffy, who listens to me and gives me a cringed expression before turning to Dadan and the other bandits that are always around her somehow.

"I hate mountain bandits and sure, mister," Luffy replies to Dadan's explanation from before, and I just snort loudly as I laugh hard silently.

"I'm a woman!" Dadan yells at him.

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Nyehehe, okay Luffy, that's enough. It's impolite to say that to a lady." I tell him as I pat his head and wipe off the tears from the corners of my eyes.

Out of the corner of my eyes, Ace suddenly stands up and walks out. Luffy is looking at him with a thoughtful expression and I squint my eyes at him. That can't be good. The thoughtful expression on Luffy is never good.

"Hey, Ace! Where are you going?" Luffy calls out but was ignored by Ace, which makes him stand up and starts to run after Ace before I can stop him. I slap my forehead to stop the urge to punch him in the head as I run after Luffy.

I hear Dadan scream at us with a curse or two before I'm out of ear range, and I'm out of breath as I finally catch up to Luffy.

"Hey, Ace! I don't care if you spit at me! Let's be friends!" Luffy exclaims out, with his usual angelic smile.

Ace is about a few meters away from us and definitely on a higher ground level than us. He has that emotionless look on his face which gives me bad vibes and I don't trust it. I grab Luffy's arm as I growl at Ace, who gives me the same look.

Suddenly, he turns to the nearest tree and starts to kick it repeatedly, and the realization slowly floods over me as I start to remember this certain scene. He's going to kick that tree off and it will roll at us!

And as if right on cue, the tree breaks off and comes rolling at us. Fucking hell, is this bastard serious?!

I try to quickly pull Luffy away from the incoming tree to the sideline, but I was a second too late that the tree cleanly rolled on Luffy.

"Ugyaah! Luffy are you okay?!" I exclaim out as I quickly help Luffy back to his feet and start to fuss over him. Fortunately, he's already his rubber self, so no bad injuries on him other than scratches and dirt all over his body.

Luffy, being his bouncy self, just grin at me as he brushes off his hat before putting it on my head. I push the hat up as I look at him wide-eyed.

"You can dodge pretty cool, so it won't get damaged." He said.

I feel blood starts to rush to my face, feeling a bit sheepish as his action is not something I get very often back home. It's a bit embarrassing, but I nod at him.

"I'll protect it, Luffy," I tell him, who just giggles in return.

Luffy then starts to run in the direction where Ace went again, and I just sigh as I run after him.

"Do we have to go after him? I know this sounds stupid, but bad things will happen later." I warn him.

"Yeah Eris, we should," Luffy replies. He barely spares me a glance while I can only sigh and keep on following him. I can't leave him be when bad things are about to happen to him, after all.

We catch up to Ace, who is standing on the other side of a bridge before cutting the rope as we're crossing it. Fuck.

I quickly grab Luffy and make him cling onto me on my back as I hold onto his has tight to my head. We fall into the water stream below as I try to keep us afloat despite my hands being quite occupied already, but this feeble body of mine is unable to fight the strong water current and eventually falls down the raging waterfall.

It's a small one, thankfully, but the waterfall is still a waterfall and it hurts when you land onto the water below, especially when there are river rocks as we land.

I almost gasp in water in pain when I hit the rocks, but I still try to swim to the land as I pop out from the water. When we finally reach the land, I immediately flop on the rocky land like a dying fish while Luffy got off of me and starts fussing over me as I start to puke the excess water in my stomach. Gross.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt? I'm sorry that I'm useless in the water!" Luffy says worry and regret are shown on his baby's face.

"I-I'm okay. Don't worry about me…" I tell him, coughing and gasping for air. I'm a good swimmer, but even I can't fight against the water stream like a school of salmons.

I look at Luffy, who other than scratches from before, he looks perfectly fine to me. I check on his hat and it's perfectly okay, just wet. I let out a sigh as I pat my chest before dreadful realization washes over me.

"My locket!" I exclaim out as I pull on my collar to check on the pendant that was supposed to be dangling on my chest, but nope. Nada. The golden heart-shaped locket is nowhere. Only my flat chest exists.

"L-Luffy! L-Locket…! Gone!" I frantically tell him as I'm about to jump back into the water, but Luffy quickly grabs me and before I can protest, he reaches to my neck, and voila, there's the locket.

"Don't worry! It was probably got moved around by the water that it got flipped to the back!" Luffy reassures me, but his face looks blurry somehow, in which his expression turns into a panic.

And before I can exactly process why, I start to bawl my eyes out.

Is it the fear of death? Is it the dread of losing your treasure? Or is it the relief of not losing both your life and your treasure?

I don't know.

What I do know is how Luffy is trying his best to cheer me up (to no avail) before settling on just holding onto my hand and stroking my wet hair, while I just cry out fat tears and sobbing loudly like a child.

Ah, that's right.

I'm a child now.

I'm not the teenager kid back home anymore.

I'm a child that barely knows anything about this world, despite knowing it through the windows of papers, that still needs proper guidance from a guardian from this world.

No matter how I'm trying to be mature and a know-it-all, I'm not.

And I might've just realized it, after all these years.

Eventually, my tears and sobbing subside, leaving only the hiccupping behind, and the dark and silent night start to dawn on us both.

"Are you okay, Eris?" Luffy asks. I just nod silently as I wipe away the tears before sneezing. I just realize that we're standing by the forest and still drenched from head to toe, and the cold is starting to get me.

"I'm okay. Sorry, you have to see that." I reply, a little embarrassed while Luffy just laughs.

"I didn't know you're a cry baby, Eris!" He says and I just pout in return.

"I'm not!" I huff in finality before looking at Luffy again, "We still going after Ace?" I ask and he nods. "It's already late and it's dark. We can't find him like this. Why don't we stop for the night and continue the search tomorrow morning?"

"M'kay!"

And just like that, we lean on a nearby tree and try to get comfy. Luffy barely spares a second to immediately off to the dreamland, while I just watch the sky, the stars, and the moon. The sky in this world is beautiful and full of stars at night. Unlike my world, stars are already difficult to see because of air pollution. I wish my world's sky can be as beautiful as this.

Slowly, I reach to my locket and close my eyes, leaning on Luffy and curling up to him as I start to doze off.

Tomorrow, we're going to work hard again.

(Posted on February 4th, 2022)