"Hey, she still hasn't got in any group…"

"Let her be. It's her fault."

"What? Let you in our group? But we've filled up already."

"You're so annoying!"

I wake up in a jolt, but immediately wince when the bright sun is shining over my eyes. I shield my eyes from the sunlight as I push myself up and look back to see Luffy is still fast asleep while trying to remember what the dream was about. Or was it a nightmare from the past?

I don't remember anymore.

But I do remember that we're still lost and my stomach is grumbling, and I bet Luffy's too.

"Hey Luffy, wake up. We need to find our way back and get some food." I say as I shake Luffy up, who's immediately awake at the mention of food.

"Food!"

"Sorry to disappoint you Luffy, but there's no food," He immediately deflates from that and I just chuckle at how easy to read Luffy is, "but we can try to find food as we're off to find either our way back or to find Ace." And hopefully didn't die on the way too.

"Okay!" Luffy replies as he literally bounces off the rocky ground to his feet and quickly runs off for a moment before stopping to look at me. Sheesh, someone is full of energy this morning.

I push myself up to my feet, but gosh my body is dying and sore. I try again and I groan out for the soreness of my mistake is giving me. I'm never sleeping on the rocky ground ever again, for my body's health and safety.

"C'mon Eris! Hurry up already! I'm hungry!" Luffy yells out while I just sigh as I approach him.

"Right right, let's just go and find food as we follow that dickhead Ace again," I reply with an annoyed huff.

"Shishishi! Eris, you badmouth is at it again." Luffy points out with a laugh as he walks on ahead.

"Makino's not around to scold me, so I can say whatever I want," I reply with a devilish grin.

(Somewhere, in a certain bar, a certain barmaid sneezes.)

"Now, let's just find our way to find our way," I add as Luffy just calls out for Ace's name.

…And then we proceed to get lost for a whole week in the forest.

I have never been a fan of camping, and this is extreme camping, especially for literal children like me and Luffy.

In our first hour, after we woke up, we got chased by a crocodile. And not your normal-sized crocodile too! That shit was huge! And it was chasing our scrawny ass even after we climbed a fucking tree! And not only that, but we were also just fucking starving that we just started to eat whatever forages Luffy found in the forest and just pray that it's not poisonous as we ate it raw.

And during our journey, Luffy was still calling out for Ace's name while I was just ready to rip his and Garp's heads off when we found him and when gramps is back. Curse Luffy's stubbornness to find Ace!

And not only crocodile that chased us, but a fucking pack of wolves as well! They're just drooling over us as we're screaming our heads off while we're on the tree. And when we thought they were over it, they popped out and I just grabbed Luffy and fucking sprinted. One of the wolves got me on my calf and I was just too preoccupied to run to notice it. Fucking wolves!

Then again, we also kinda stole their dinner, so I guess that's that.

We're (read: me) just absolutely delirious and wheezing by the end of it, and dirty with scratches, blood, dirt, etc. When we finally see that crappy shack of Dadan's, I never feel so happy to see that crappy, shitty shack in my whole life as I just crash to the floor when we open the front door.

My nose hurts from that, but my whole body is killing me, so I felt nothing anymore.

I hear heavy footsteps and very familiar voice booms above me.

"Where the hell have you two been?!" Dadan yells at us.

"In the forest…" I reply with my face still planted on the floor that my voice is muffled, but it's good enough for Dadan and Luffy to hear.

"It's been like a week! And where in the forest?!"

"We were chased by wolves," I tell her as I try my best to look up while my body is still horizontally equal to the floor.

"Yeah! And don't forget the croc!" Luffy adds with a serious nod.

I can see Dadan is shocked and gapes at us in silence, probably amazed at how we can survive in the forest by ourselves. I eventually put my head back down because it's tiring and I kinda drift off a bit, but Luffy won't let me and pulls me up back to my feet.

Unfortunately for him and me, my calf is bleeding right now, so I just limp inside the shack, where Dogra (if I'm not mistaken) just gapes at our appearances. Aside from my bleeding calf, both of us are just looking absolute dogshit.

Not only we're dirty, but we also smell, hair sticking out everywhere with sticks and leaves also sticking in our hair, clothes ripped here and there, and scratches all over our bodies.

He grabs a first aid kit and I immediately grab it from him to get the bandaids for Luffy first, who just got cuts and scratches and nothing big. After I took care of him, I take care of mine by dousing the wound with alcohol and just screeching out loud about how painful the sting is (Luffy and the others were horrified when I do that). I slam my clenched fists on the floor and grit my teeth together because of the pain, but I bear on it as I gauze my wound and just lay on the floor.

"A-Are you okay now, Eris?" Luffy asks with a traumatized look on his face.

"Kinda okay. Am tired now." I reply with my eyes closed. I try not to doze off though because I decided to punch Ace's freckled face before I sleep. I can hear rustlings next to me and I open one eye to see Luffy laying down next to me.

"Don't sleep in front of the front door, you brats!" I hear Dadan says, but we both ignore her.

"Hey Eris," I hum in reply, "do you ever feel alone?"

Wow, Luffy just asked me a pretty deep one.

But do I ever feel alone?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I don't have that many friends in the first place, and not even my own family can fill up that hole. I always feel alone even when there are so many people around me, or even when I'm with my family, I always feel like I'm being left out by myself. I only have one friend that I used to be close to, but after we both went to different schools, we never really get in contact again.

My whole life, I have always been…lonely.

My friends, who were always came and went, never to return and taking along a piece of me, leaving me with this gaping hole in my chest.

I'm…scared. I'm scared of being left alone. I don't want to be left alone, but no one can and will accompany me. They all left me with this big gaping hole in my chest, just desperate to be filled up.

But…

I think I'll be fine now, though. I have Luffy, Makino, and the others. I just hope that I won't be left alone again. Sure, sometimes I miss my life back home, but maybe it's just not the right place for me to find those pieces for this hole in my chest. And maybe…maybe this time, I can find it myself, instead of waiting and waiting for those pieces to come for me.

I let out a breathy laugh from my nose before turning to look at Luffy, who's unusually serious about his question to me.

"Nyehehe, well of course I feel alone. I don't have my biological family here, and I don't have many friends, but I have you, Makino, and the others to make me feel less alone," I answer with a smile, "Now let me ask you back; do you ever feel alone?"

"Yeah. I always feel alone before you came, so I'm glad that you came into my life! Shishishi!" Luffy replies with his trademark huge grin of his.

I just smile and laugh in return, because that's exactly how I feel when I suddenly got thrown into this universe.

"You're welcome, Lu-chan." We both grin at each other and I sit back up, looking around to find Ace. I'm serious; I'm gonna punch him first before I fall asleep, and now I'm extremely pissed.

When I finally found him, just sitting on a barrel with his arms crossed across his chest and eyes closed, I stand up and dust myself off before limping my way to him. I clench my fists so hard when an angry vein pops on my forehead as I keep my eyes on him with a hard glare, and somehow the temperature in the room gets lower and colder.

Ace seems to realize it and opens his eyes, watching me close while it's pissing me off even more before I jump at him with a yell. Of course, he dodges easily and is about to kick my face, but I jump at him and tackle him down with a deep growl before landing my clenched fist on his freckled face. He struggles back and is pissed off, but I don't care. If he wants to fight, then let's fight.

"Did that fucking hurt? Well, that's nothing compared to whatever you did to us both for the past week, you bastard! You almost killed us twice. TWICE!" I yell to his face furiously as I grab on his shirt to pull his face closer to mine, "This is just a little warning for you for hurting Luffy. I don't care if you're older than us both, or stronger than both of us combined, but show us some consideration, will you?" I finish with the sweetest smile I can give, but apparently, the aura and the temperature around me are the opposite of what's shown. I let him go as I stand over him and let my façade off, looking down at him with a dead expression.

Either it's from me or Ace, I don't give a fuck.

Everyone looks so shocked that their jaws are basically on the ground, including Luffy, who is also trembling in fear and looks like he's about to collapse.

"…You," Ace stands up and I step off from him as he brushes off some blood that came out from his nose, giving me a death-glaring and he seems ready to just devour me in a second. I just return the glare with a deep frown and a growl, standing my ground against his bullshit.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Ace yells as he jumps at me and kicks me in the chest to the floor.

I let out an animalistic scream as I jump back at him, not minding the pain in my chest he gave me as I grab him by his hair and start yanking on it before landing a punch to his face again. He pushes me down to the floor that he's above me and returns the punch, while I just scratch his arms and yank on his shirt to swap the position. He tries to grab me on my face, but I immediately bite his hand hard and do not let it go as he's scratching me using his other hand.

Pretty sure our fight can escalated further if Dadan's family members didn't pull us away from each other, while me and Ace are just screaming each other names as we were pulled away from the other.

"LET ME GO, I'M GONNA KILL THAT BRAT!"

"OH YEAH? THEN DO IT, YOU BASTARD! I'M GOING TO HUNT YOU DOWN IF YOU HURT LUFFY AGAIN!"

"SHUT UP, BOTH OF YOU! GO COOL DOWN SOMEWHERE AND DON'T COME BACK UNTIL YOU'RE DONE!"

And just like that, Dadan kicks me out outside while Ace got kicked out somewhere. I just grumble off as I limp my way to Pochi's doghouse. The dog himself doesn't seem to care and just watching me as I lean on the small house and look up at the sky.

Fuck, my body is hurt all over and even more so after fighting off Ace. His strength is monstrous and I'm surprised that I can fend his strength equally and he did not kill me instantly. Maybe because this world's weird biology or whatever it was that makes me a little stronger than back home. Heck, I can even immediately able to understand, read, and speak the World language of this world!

(It doesn't sound like Japanese or whatever language I ever heard of before, but I guess it's like how English is the international language back on earth.)

"Fuuck, my body is sore and bleeding all over… I need a proper bath." I complain as I plop down onto the grassy ground and face Pochi. I pet the dog and giggle when he licks on my hand and face. "Gosh, you dogs are so hecking cute!" I squeal out as I hug and pet the white dog that just barks and wags his tail happily.

I guess I'm just that tired that I immediately just drift off to sleep, not minding that I will regret my decision oversleeping on the ground again.

Sleep now, regret it later.

XXX

"Hey Ace, she's asleep already. Are you gonna get your revenge on her?" Dogra asks Ace, who is right beside him and watching the brat named 'Eris' that is fast asleep while hugging Pochi from afar.

Thanks to the fight with the brat, he's filled with bandages and bandaids. He would be amazed if he's not pissed that a small girl like her got guts enough to fight him and even managed to fight him equally. Not even that other brat Luffy dares to do it, other than the fact that he's somehow obsessed by trying to be friends with him.

Eventually, Ace approaches the sleeping girl and stares down at her for a moment, before he grabs a blanket from the clothesline nearby and covers her with the blanket. He crouches down and pats her on the head before doing the same to Pochi.

"I'm gonna get my revenge, but not today. So be prepared." Ace says softly before he stands back up and walks back inside in silence, ignoring Dogra that gapes at his sudden OOC moment toward the sleeping girl.

Dogra doesn't know if he should be amazed, shocked, or horrified to encounter the rare sight.

(Posted on February 11th, 2022)