‚Thoughts'

„talking"

Slowly the dark fog over her mind lifted and she regained her conscious back.
Midori wished it hadn't.
Pain was pulsing through her head and so she was simply thankful for the dim light in the room she was lying in. The blonde girl really didn't want her headache to grow, not really.

Wait.

Hadn't the last thing she remembered been…?

Instantly her eyes shot open widening pure horror.

OH NO!
The last thing happening had been herself drowning in the ocean and then somebody had grabbed her hand, wasn't she right?
Although that meant that…Oh god, she had to be on the Moby Dick! The Moby Dick!

Her body jerked up from the bed she had been laying on.

'Bad idea, Midori. Bad idea…' Midori groaned in pain holding her head in pain.

"You're awake. That's good." stated the person calmly.

The girl vaguely registered that the voice sounded familiar. Yet she wasn't even able to open her eyes, before a pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist pulling the blonde girl to her feet. A big mistake, as Midori realized, when her vision started spinning unpleasantly and her head pulsed painfully.

"Just great!" She hissed weakly.

One shaky hand moved up massaging her temple, the other steadying the blonde. She was glad that this helped at least a bit, though the calm heartbeat beneath her fingers also helped to soothe the headache.
Midori twitched.

'Please god, don't let me cling to a pirate…PLEASE!'

Slowly-she didn't want to make the headache worse- she looked up.
To her misfortune, she had assumed right. She was indeed clinging to a pirate and said pirate was obviously amused at her wide-eyed starring. Or so his look told her. On the other hand it could also be the raised eyebrow and the smirk tugging at his lips that conveys that impression. The strong arms around her waist and her hands on his chest were just an adding to the whole impression, they gave.

Oh crap…

At first she was rescued by a bunch marines being forced to be one of them herself and now she rescued a pirate only to find herself in an even worse situation. What in god's name had made her rescue him in the first place? Had this trip to another world fried her brain cells?
Probably…

That she was lying in his arms wasn't improving the situation at all.

'What a great first impression…' Midori thought sarcastically.

The blonde finally tried to step back failing, as expected. The grip on her waist even tightened in return making it impossible to walk away. With a light pink blush her glare was still fierce and demanding.

"Is something wrong?" His smirk betrayed the innocent sounding words.

"Would you, please let me go?" The smile she gave him in return was forced and the corners of her lips twitched dangerously.

The way he looked at her now was unnerving- She could have sworn that it was the same look, he'd given her on the marine ship-, but Midori made no move or sound to break the awkward silence. A sudden knock interrupted their starring contest.

'Yes! God shows mercy with me!' She couldn't help, but beam inwardly.

"Marco?" A voice asked.

Eventually Marco let her go and walked over to the door opening it.

"What?" Was that annoyance in his voice?

"Pops wonders what takes you so long?..."

Drop.

Drop.

Blinking the blonde looked down her body and realized that she'd been wearing her marine uniform since now. Obviously, she hadn't been unconscious for a longer time, because her clothes were still dripping wet. She shuddered lightly, yet she couldn't help but be relieved that somebody hadn't undressed her to get her out of her wet clothes. She rather wore this much too big uniform than anything what they would have given her- probably something rivaling and sexy-, though her current clothes were uncomfortably wet. Well, if she walked around a little, they would hopefully dry.

Drop.

A new drop of water fell to the floor, but not without making a detour over the left side of her face. The blonde girl hadn't recognized the marine cap which was still seated firmly on her head. It was really surprising that it hadn't fallen down yet. Normally people lost their caps, when they jumped from a ship into the ocean underneath.

'Great, now this strange world also works illogically! Damn you…arg….whatever. There are more important matters at hand.'

Midori took the cap off just in time to prevent another drop of water falling down. Sighing she let her fingers slide through her wet hair. She blissfully ignored the other occupants of the room for a moment of peace.

However, the blonde turned around, when she heard a loud gasp. The man who had come to look for Marco was starring at her with his jaw (practically) one the floor. Even Marco stared.
Had these guys never seen a normal girl before?
Wait.
Where they checking her out?
Wow… They were truly fast in recognizing that she was an indeed pretty girl (People were telling her so over and over again). Though she couldn't help, but feel slightly like she was in the wrong film (which she undoubtedly was), so she took action.

"Hello~~! Somebody home?" the girl waved her in front of their faces. It let the look like idiots, but, hey, it worked!

Marco caught himself first.

"Come." He said grabbing her wrist. With a last look back Midori realized that the other man still starring at her…
Idiot…

The blonde haired male literally dragged her through several corridors and some stairs up. Hell, she had no idea how he could find his way!
Although there was something she noticed: They were going upstairs, probably to the main deck. Again she became nervous. There was absolutely nothing in the world that could prepare her to face at least a hundred people and the strongest man of (this) world at once. Just wonderful…

Then Marco opened the door to her doom.

All over the deck pirates were celebrating their victory over the marines. Midori released a shaky breath, as she happily observed that nobody was paying the two of them any attention. This was a better start, than she had expected, still there was one thing left…

The two made their way through the crowd approaching the biggest thrown the girl had ever seen. Still the thrown was nothing against the man sitting on it. His massive frame towering above everything else, his aura overwhelming. So powerful and wise. The girl could tell from the moment she first laid eyes on the man that he lived up to his title.

Midori swallowed hard hoping that her legs would carry her all the way. To put it nice, her legs felt like jelly and she was everything but keen in breaking down again. The moment of weakness, when Marco was there, had been enough.
Said blonde came to an abrupt halt and the girl behind him crashed into his back. The first impressions she was giving people nowadays were just perfect…

"Sit down."

Whitebeard's voice held no threat at all, but Midori still couldn't ease her fear. Luckily Marco sat down first, so she easily could follow his example. Jozu and Vista sat next to us.
She was truly thankfully for the privacy this talk had. To speak to hundreds of men and explain her would have been a nightmare. He blonde directed her gaze back at the giant man. He was studying Midori intensely like searched for any malicious intent. She was really curious about what Whitebeard would do or say next.

"Why did you rescue my son, an enemy even?"

Okay, the girl hadn't expected that question. She gaped at him, because, honestly, what was she supposed to say, when the correct answer would be 'The hell do I know!'.
All of them stared expectantly at her, even the crowd seemed to become more silent. Midori continued holding his gaze, but said nothing. Then…

"I don't know." The plain truth. She hadn't dared to lie to this man. He would have seen through her lies anyway.

Whitebeard's eyebrows furrowed dangerously.

"Don't lie to me kid, it's useless." He took a sip from his sake barrel.

The blonde pressed her lips into a thin line. Her sanity screamed at her to fucking remain silent and not aggravate the man any more. Like usual she didn't listen. Her friends were right, one day she'd kill herself that way.

"Do you believe I am dumb enough to even try?"

Her sanity sighed with relief; she hadn't said something that would get them killed on the instant.

"You're girl." Noooo really? Midori stared a Marco with the typical 'What-the-fuck-do-you-want-from-me-?-look'. This man was aggravating her, not the other way round!

"Since birth, I guess."

"Then you probably jumped after me, because you fell for me at first sight."

Was this idiot for real?
Apparently he was or he simply wanted to get the truth out of her by irritating her. That's why the blonde teenager did the evilest thing a woman can do to an overly arrogant man.
She started laughing. Hard.
Marco's expression went from self-confident to downright pissed, as he watched the girl next to him lying at her back practically breathless from laughing at him.

"S-sorry…haha…t-his i-is just sooo funny..haha…."

He growled at her.
Midori stopped laughing, a wolfishly smirk lit up her face.

"You know… this game can always play two." Oh yeah, that just eased her fear and bad mood!

"Gurara… What's your name girl?" The old man asked still laughing at his son who was currently getting mocked by his rescuer.

"Midori."

"Midori, you've got a sharp tongue there." The amusement vanished from his voice. "But now say the truth. I can't believe that you had no reason at all."

So he wasn't going to let the matter drop? Obviously not.
The blonde girl sighed. There had been no real reason for her action; she had acted on instinct for heaven's sake!

"I acted on instinct…"

"My instinct never ever told me to rescue an enemy." Midori really wished that Marco would just shut up. The she was already tense and the conversation wasn't leading into a good direction. She needed anything but his smartass comments right now!

Her voice become freezing and yet it sounded awfully calm.

"Look…First I am no marine; they simply fished me out of the ocean, when I nearly drowned! Second, yeah, my instinct told me to help you and I did, because I acted on 'You don't a reason to rescue somebody, just to kill him'. And yes that counts to instinct for me since I always act on that rule, intentionally or unintentionally. Oh and third, .Hell!"

The ship had fallen utterly silent somewhere in my rant. Marco, Vista, Jozu and all the others were downright old man was the first one to break the silence.

"Gurara… I never thought I would hear something like this from a marine."

Midori made an unhappy face at the last word. Hadn't she told him just now that she was no marine? But, hey, who was she to complain? They apparently weren't going to kill her anytime soon and nobody knew that she came from another world (If they ever found out, she was dead meat…).
For the first time that evening she was genuinely relieved.

"We'll reach our destination soon, then we will finally decide what we do to you."

This on the other hand didn't sound relieving at all…

"Until then Marco will take care of you."

He had to be kidding!
This was more than just a bad idea! If he thought Marco could repay the favor of rescuing him this way, then he was dead wrong. Midori would be the happiest, if people just left her alone!
She really hadn't thought about this part of her future. The blonde sighed. It looked like every time she told somebody her name, she wound up in unwanted predicaments. Just her luck…

"Ehm…" Midori cleared her throat. "I don' want to be rude, but where am I supposed to sleep?"

"It's best, when you share a room with Marco."

What had she just thought about her luck? Oh yeah, just her luck…

"You also have no clothes to change in… Hmm, what could we give you?"

"She could wear a nurse uniform." Marco suggested.

"Like hell I will! There's no way in hell to get me into this!"

Marco's jaw dropped at the loud and very angry outburst. Vista and Jozu looked visibly surprised and the rest of the crew didn't do better. Only Whitebeard laughed as usual.
To avoid a further discussion over this matter, she turned to Marco.

"Could I please go to bed?"

Now that she concentrated back on her body, she had to admit that she was tired and her headache had come back. The throbbing in her temples grew, for her taste, much to fast.
With a hand sign Marco, who had caught himself, dismissed both of them from the group. Midori followed him back to the quarters, a unfamiliar exhaustion taking over her body and worsening her headache. What was suddenly happening to her?

'Something is not right here…' She thought tiredly.
Breathing in slowly her back hit the wall. Her breathing grew more and more irregular.
'My body feels like it's on fire…'
She coughed in pain, her body throbbing painfully in sync with her headache.

"Midori!"Marco's face came into view.

"Hey!" He shook her. In return the girl just fell forward collapsing in his arms.

What the hell was happing?
At one moment she was perfectly fine and in the next she was barely conscious because of nothing!

Black spots started appearing in Midori's vision. She was going to black out again. In her opinion that happened to recently…

Slowly Marco's voice faded away, growing more and more distant. When it completely vanished the blonde girl lost conscious again.

Yeah! I finally made it! The next chapter is edited and it is 26 minutes past midnight…. Oh damn…
I am really tired, but I just had to finish the chapter (took me long enough anyway *cough*)

Oh well… thanks for all the reviews!

Hope you'll continue reading ;D

See ya Yumiko Kazumi