Ink's Notes:

Hello everyone~! As promised, today's chapter is going to be a bit... different. I'm giving you previews in regards to the six other Grand Line characters who are showing up in this story! Granted, I won't be giving any names, but I think a few of them (...namely, the second one) are incredibly obvious, and you'll probably be able to guess exactly who they are. I also changed the description to be a bit more up-to-date with the story. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Two

There was no way around it – he was lost, hurt and hungry. Hunger he could take care of, that was no problem. Animals were easy to hunt, no matter how different they looked from the ones back home.

Home…

He missed home, his crew, his Captain. That guy with the Devil's Fruit… if only he hadn't gotten distracted, then his crew probably wouldn't be worried about him. They were relying on him to get them from place to place. Without him, who knows where they'd end up?

Certainly not here. There was no escaping it – he was in another world. He'd gathered that much when he'd scared a group of travelers into leaving their map behind when they'd run off. Which he would admit was his fault, he supposed. He did have a rather scary appearance to the ordinary civilian. He'd tried to apologize for scaring them, but they were long gone already. So he'd picked up the map they'd dropped and called after them, waving it in the direction they'd run, before pausing to look it over and take in its contents.

This definitely wasn't some weird island. This was an entire continent – the likes of which he'd never seen before. So many possibilities – but he'd have to apologize to his crew for exploring those possibilities without them. He'd sat down and studied the map when he'd been ambushed – and while he'd managed to fight off his attackers (who were laying beaten and bruised not far away), he'd taken a few blows and was bleeding in a few places.

He needed medical attention, and he didn't know if it was readily available to him in this strange new land.

He whined and tightened the cloth he'd wrapped around the wound on his leg. He at least knew that stopping the bleeding was the first course of action that he needed to take to treat injuries. For now, he'd just need to do that, before finding someone who was a better doctor than he was and was willing to treat him.

She adjusted the blade at her hip and looked over her traveling companions. Certainly not the most trustworthy group – her superior would probably have something to say about the company she was keeping – but it wasn't like she had much of a choice at this point in time. Her fight with that Devil's Fruit user had left her injured, and if it hadn't been for the one with red hair finding her she would have been in a lot worse of a state.

It hadn't taken her long to put together that she was in a place far away from home. The one who appeared to be their leader had said they didn't have time to waste helping random women, and when she'd asked what the hurry was he'd told her he was looking for his brother to get revenge.

A few questions later had led to her holding what was apparently called a 'Bingo Book', and realizing that she had no knowledge of any of the outlaws written in their pages. And she was a Marine! She prided herself in knowing at least half of the outlaws in the world. The fact that she knew nothing about any of the ones here – as well as the differences in currency and various notes on techniques – meant that she was either having a bizarre dream or had somehow wound up in another world.

She had asked – not pleaded with, never pleaded with – the strange group to let her travel with them, that she'd be of some use to them. The one who'd helped heal her injuries and the biggest one seemed fine with it, but the one who looked vaguely like a fishman didn't seem to like her while their leader had just regarded her with distaste and distrust. This had enraged her – of course she was trustworthy! All Marines were! – so she'd attacked him. Much to her surprise, he was able to parry all of her blows, even when she'd started using Soru, but she certainly wasn't weak. And by the time their little match had come to an end, he'd simply told her not to fall behind before taking off in the direction she assumed they'd been heading before.

He surveyed the work he'd done, wiping the sweat from his brow and averting his eyes from the women that periodically passed by the docks, largely to check out the men who were working there. He really wished they would button up their shirts a little bit more, but the people of this city had given him a home in exchange for his services here, so it wasn't like he had much right to complain.

A few more nails hammered into place, and the ship was nearly finished. Now it was simply a matter of it getting painted and having the finishing touches added to it. He would have preferred to do this with the company, but he was in a strange place filled with strange people (who had no decency!) so he had to work with what he could get – that is, those… shinobi, he thought they were – on these ships. Building ships was what he was good at. He was lucky that Devil's Fruit user had sent him to a place near water. Granted, it wasn't his island, but it hadn't taken him long to figure out exactly what had happened to him.

Another world entirely, where it was shinobi – ninjas – who ruled the lands – a world covered in land, not water – all of it was almost too much to take in. But he had managed so far, and he certainly had no intention of letting anyone here find out that he was from another world. When it came to people back home, at least most people gave a pretty clear indication of whether or not you could trust them. For these shinobi, everything was business. He had no doubt they'd try to make some sort of profit off of him or try and find a way back to his world. And while it'd be great if they found a way back home, he had no guarantee that they'd actually send him back home. So he'd remained tight-lipped about the whole thing, and simply occupied himself with working on ships.

The shipwrights here… they certainly weren't anything like the ones back home. They prided themselves on quantity, not quality. The first thing he'd done upon getting himself hired there was put a stop to that. Ships that wouldn't hold up for long on the seas – especially if there was a battle on the seas, like there usually were on the Grand Line – were no good, and would bring disgrace to their company.

More importantly, he reminded himself silently, it'd bring disgrace to him and all of the shipwrights that he worked with back home. No matter how far away from home he was, he wanted to make sure the ships he made were the best they could be. It was important to him, just like the friends he had back home were.

He surveyed his work, and then let out a deep breath. He hoped he'd be able to see them again.

Thunder, rain, lightning… it was all so horrifying, and dreary.

Just the way she liked it.

The architecture reminded her of her old coworkers, and the place she'd taken up residence in for two years. A pleasant two years, loathe as she was to admit it, until that Devil's Fruit user had shown up and ruined it…

But here was nice too. These… shinobi, as they called themselves, knew nothing about Devil's Fruits, giving a user like her a distinct advantage over them. She'd even come to be known as a phantom amongst the people in that hidden village. She supposed it was a little mean of her to get what she needed the way that she did, but it wasn't like she was ever as morally righteous as a Marine was. A hand went up to her lips, and she laughed quietly into it, the sound echoing throughout the spires and floating to the streets below.

Sure, she was away from everything that she knew. But the people here knew nothing about her. She could live peacefully, perhaps, find a nice, uninhabited castle in these dreary lands… or even that tower that, if she recalled correctly, belonged to someone called Kage? Wouldn't it be nice to live in a place like that?

She frowned, looking out at the city below from her position above. As wonderful as it was being in such a dreary place, and as much as she didn't want to admit it, she missed home. Here was filled with a bunch of self-righteous people who all thought what they were doing was right and just and for the greater good and it reminded her of Marines to the point that it made her sick.

What she wouldn't give for a way back home.

Sailors trying to land on the shores of the Land of Water were surprised to find the strange gatekeeper blocking them from entry and pounding them into submission whenever they tried to dock their ships. This shock was doubled when they discovered that this wasn't the work of any hidden village, or at least no hidden village was stepping up to take credit for it.

Whenever they attempted to dock on the shore, the creature would make a few motions then get into a battle stance. Some people had simply gone to another port, but those who had gotten off the ship had found that the creature was surprisingly fast and surprisingly strong, and had wound up with several injuries and their metaphorical tails between their legs as they went to find another place to dock their ships.

The gatekeeper was proud of himself for defending his shore, but also very lonely. His teacher had left a long time ago, and his brethren were far away, in a place that he didn't know how to get back to. He wanted to go home, but he couldn't communicate that to anyone here. No one understood him.

He let out a solemn cry, only to replace it with a fierce battle cry as another ship neared the shore that he was guarding. They couldn't dock there without his permission. He wouldn't allow it.

She breathed heavily as she ran, tripping over her feet a few times before spotting a small alcove, which she quickly ducked into. Not a moment too soon, she realized, as those strange people dashed past where she'd just been and scanned the area once again. She was thankful that she could hear their voices, no matter how scary those voices were. It was letting her stay several steps ahead of them.

She waited until there was no sign of them or their voices before she rummaged into her backpack – where she used to keep her treasure, but there was no sense in keeping it in a place like this – for some of the food that she'd packed. As she pulled out her last apple, a frown crossed her face. She'd need to find a village to buy things, which meant risking going out in public, which meant risking more people seeing her…

These people were scary, a different scary than the scary from back home, and how she missed home. She missed her friends and her family, and the stories of the pirates who had saved her home. This new world was strange – and she knew it was a new world because the voices were different. They spoke the same words, but the tone and the infliction was different, like two people who had grown up in different regions saying the same sentence with a different accent.

But she had a little bit of hope lingering in the back of her mind. It was faint, but she'd briefly picked up on a voice that sounded like the ones from home. That meant that she wasn't the only one here. There were more people from her world. She just needed to hold out long enough for them to find her, and hope that they were friendly, or would at least be willing to help her get back home.

She slowly bit into the apple, being sure to eat as quietly as she could. If those shinobi found her…

She shuddered. She really didn't want to think about what would happen if they did.

And now I respond to reviews. Let's see here...

Krazyfanfiction1: Y'know, I'm actually not sure. On one hand, he could keep the same speed and hit with more surface area. On the other hand, the sudden addition of wind resistance might slow him down before he hits... aahhh physics why do you haunt me soooo

Skipper917: Thank you~!

Allykrau: Well, here's the hints! See if you can figure any of them out!

The Keeper of Worlds: BIG MARCO HAS ARRIVED!

Wicken25: As fun as romance might be, I see Marco as more of a father figure towards Sakura. Any romance would probably have to be between other people. As far as Bepo goes... well, see if you think he matches up to any of these snippets!

That's all of them, see you guys next time~!