A/N

Anni: Sorry for the wait. I had a few writer's blocks for the chapter, but I hope it's okay.

To pizzafan123: Yes, I totally agree. There's almost too many romance fanfics for One Piece, because the only 'romance' in the first 400 episodes is when Robin tells Zoro that he looks good while babysitting. And that Sanji/Zoro almost-kiss in the Davy Back Fight.

As always, enjoy!

Anni's POV

Nakama? Me?

Sanji, Zoro, and Luffy stood there, waiting for my answer.

It was obviously the best choice, but was I really ready for it? Was I strong enough to be a pirate? But over all, would it keep the people that I cared about safe? If I got a bounty, Clara, Nico, and Cathy would be in danger. But if I went with these pirates, they could take care of themselves and I could maybe be a help to the crew.

As I sat on the couch staring at my knees and trying to decide, the door opened and in walked Clara, Nico, and Cathy. The two little kids were sniffling and Clara even looked slightly sad.

"Anni-san?" Nico piped up.

Cathy continued. "If you're going, you gotta come back to play with us."

I smiled sadly. "Of course I'll come back. And maybe I'll bring back some real treasure for you guys."

Luffy pumped a fist in the air. "Yosh! Now you're one of our nakama!"

I stood up and hugged Cathy and Nico. Straightening up, I gave Clara a quick hug too.

"Alright. Cathy packed up your room for you, so you're all ready to go," Clara said. "So get going before I change my mind and keep you here forever!"

I nodded, too choked up to speak. I opened the door and walked down the stairs to the entrance of the bar with my bag slung over my shoulder. Walking out onto the road, I turned and waved at the people that I had come to know and yelled, "If anyone asks, this bar is the home of the Demon's Daughter, Anni! And I'm gonna come back stronger than ever!"

With that, I followed my new nakama to the docks, not looking back once. Why? I had promised to come back, and I wasn't the kind of person to break a promise. As I headed towards my new adventures, I had only one thought.

This is gonna be freakin' awesome!

XxX

The ship that I was about to board didn't look much like a pirate ship. It had a goat face on the front, and was smaller than I had imagined. That said, the crew was also smaller than I had thought. From what I had seen, there was the captain, Luffy, the cook, Sanji, and the swordsmaster, Zoro. They said that there were 'a few' people waiting for them, but combined with the size of the ship, 'a few' could even mean two! Plus... I really hoped that there was at least one girl other than me. Spending the next few years with only boys wasn't the ideal situation.

Suddenly, I realized that the three crew members had already climbed onto the boat.

Luffy looked over the side and yelled, "Oi! Are you coming? We've gotta introduce you to the rest of the crew!"

I climbed up the side of the boat (they had all jumped) and pushed myself up onto the deck. What I saw was more or less what I had expected. There were three people that I didn't recognize.

The first was a girl about my age with bright orange hair. She looked grumpy, but smiled at me when a looked at her. My impression? Eh. I bet she's nice, but kinda bossy.

The second was a man with a really long nose. He flinched when Sanji glanced at me and whispered something to him. I only caught a few words like lit on fire ... beat him up ... scarier than Nami ... Luffy ... new nakama ... but it seemed that Sanji had meant to scare him when he flinched at every other word. He looked at me with a terrified face. My impression? Okay. Kind of a scaredy cat, but he's gotta have some talent to be on this crew.

The third was a girl with long blue hair. She smiled in a friendly way when I glanced at her, and didn't seem scared in the least. My impression? Nice, friendly, but not exactly pirate material.

Then again, who was I to judge these people? I was just the pirate rookie.

Luffy spoke up in his enthusiastic way. "Yosh! Everyone, this is Anni! She's one of our nakama now, and according to Zoro and Sanji, she can light herself on fire and fight really well. Zoro said she could beat Sanji and Sanji said she could beat Zoro." He laughed. "Anni, these are our other nakama."

He pointed to the orange-haired girl. "Nami. She's in charge of the money and navigation, and she's kinda scary."

The girl whacked him on the head. Grinning, Luffy pointed to the long-nosed man. "This is Usopp. He's the sniper, the gunner, and the inventor."

I waved at him and he ran behind Zoro with a "Save me!"

As Zoro tried to untangle himself from the clinging Usopp, Luffy introduced me to the third member of the crew. "This is Vivi. She's the princess of Arabasta. We're gonna bring her back to her kingdom and stop the civil war there."

Struggling to comprehend all these facts, all I could say in response was, "Uh huh."

Luffy ran to the goat head and sat on it. "Yosh, everyone! Let's go!"

Everyone scrambled to their positions while Nami yelled instructions to them. A little overwhelmed, I stood in my spot while people rushed around me, doing ... ship stuff.

I finally decided to try and help. I turned to Nami, who was giving the orders.

"Nami, is there anything I can do?"

She looked down from the deck she was standing on.

"Hmm. Do you know anything about ships? Is there anything that you're especially good at?"

"Fighting. Burning. Drinking. Sleeping. Eating. Volleyball. I don't have any idea how to operate a ship." I replied bluntly.

Looking around her, Nami didn't seem to find anything for me to do. She spoke loudly over the wind. "I think they're almost done. You can go inside for something to eat if you like." She smiled. "Don't worry, we'll teach you about ships soon enough."

Nodding, I walked up the stairs, past her, and into the cabin where I found a Sanji cooking at small kitchen and Vivi sitting at a table in the back of a nicely made room. There was a refrigerator, a rack for wine and beer, a bunch of barrels that probably had food in them and a pole sticking up from the floor with another goat head on it. I had no idea what it was for so I didn't touch it.

Pulling out a chair, I sat down at the table just as the rest of the crew poured in.

"SANJI! FOOD!" Luffy yelled, crashing into the chair beside me.

Nami, Zoro, and Usopp sat down at seats around the table. My stomach growled at the smell of cooking fish. As everyone looked my way, I said, "What? I'm hungry. I haven't eaten since... umm... " I counted the meals that had past, "Yesterday's lunch."

Luffy's eyes grew wide at the thought of not eating for so long. A plate was set down in front of me by a black-sleeved hand. When I looked at the food, I thought that it must have been pre prepared because of the elegance of the arrangement. At a second look, it had to have been made only a few seconds ago, as indicated by the steam.

A voice jolted me out of my awe. "Food's made for eating, not staring at."

I looked up to see Zoro with an already empty plate.

"Ah. Okay. Umm, did Sanji really make this? It looks amazing." I said hesitantly.

He stared at me with an unbelieving look. "Yeah? Well, it tastes good too, so eat it before Luffy steals it all."

I glanced around to see the black haired captain grabbing food from other plates with an impossibly stretched arm.

"How are you doing that stretchy thing?" I asked, taking a bite of my food. It was really amazing.

Luffy laughed. "I ate the Gomu Gomu Fruit. I'm a rubberman."

I concluded that these special fruits were rare, but not uncommon, because I had already met two people with their abilities. Or I could just be lucky.

Zoro slammed his plate into the table. "Sanji! Seconds!"

Not to be outdone, I ate my remaining food quickly and put down my fork. "Me too!"

Sanji grinned as we both dug into our food, eating as fast as we could.

"Thirds!"

"Fourths!"

"Fifths!"

"Sixths!"

"Sevenths!"

"Eeuugh. I'm gonna barf."

Reaching my limit, i stumbled outside to hysterical laughter from everyone. The wind was cold, but refreshing. As the waves passed by, I could see fish under the water, and the occasional thing that was too big for a fish. I walked down the stairs, up the other set, and sat on the deck, contemplating what had happened in the past two weeks.

XxX

So. I had apparently fallen asleep on the deck next to the goat head, and had partially fallen through the baluster holding the railing up, but before I could fall into the ocean, Zoro had caught one of my feet. I was now hanging upside down by my ankle above the water with all my blood rushing to my head. After all that food, now I was really gonna barf.

Zoro pulled me back up onto the deck where he dropped me on my head.

Rubbing my head, I scowled. "Oww... you could have warned me."

He grinned. "But where's the fun in that?"

"So you think that dropping me on my head was more fun than not injuring me?" I said disbelievingly.

Laughing, he said, "Yeah, plus you're fun to annoy." He stopped laughing and stared at me. "And you were in my spot."

I felt a bit disconcerted that he was so serious about it, but I decided that I would avoid that spot next time. Or... maybe I wouldn't... mwahahaha...

"Anni?" Vivi had come to see what was happening. "That expression is kinda scary..."

I realized that I was grinning demonically at the thought of getting the swordsman back for dropping me on my head.

I shook the expression off of my face and smiled. "Sorry. Do you know if there's anything to do, aside from falling off the deck?"

She laughed. "Well, no ones on lookout duty. I suppose you could do that."

I nodded. "'Kay. What am I supposed to be looking for?"

She bent over slightly from laughing. "You go up to the crow's nest and watch out for islands or other ships. We're heading towards a place called Little Garden, so I suppose there would be a lot of trees and forest material."

I turned to the mast and began climbing up the ladder. "Forests... I used to live near a bunch of forests. They were always so peaceful and quiet. Not that that's likely to happen with this bunch. They're too loud for 'peaceful'." I murmured to myself as I reached the top.

Seeing a spyglass laying on the ground, I picked it up and directed it towards the front of the ship. Looking through it, I couldn't see anything except for clouds, sky, and sea, so I decided to modify the spyglass a little.

Heating my hands to the melting point of glass, I focused the heat into the glass, bending it so that it would have a farther range of view. I blew on it quickly to cool it, then raised it to my eye. The range was improved greatly. I could see objects about five times larger, and now that I looked hard, I could see a tiny green smudge on the horizon.

"Oi! Everyone! I see an island! I think that at the rate we're going, we'll be there by tomorrow's lunchtime!"

Cheers erupted from the deck below me as everyone ran to the bow to try and see the island. Not seeing anything, Nami looked up and said, "I don't see an island. Are you sure you saw it?"

"Yeah." I tossed the improved spyglass down to Nami, but accidentally-on-purpose missed, and it landed on Zoro's head. Revenge was sweet.

I heard a muffled "Oi!" as I ducked down to conceal my laughter, followed by a "You did that on purpose, flame-brain!"

At that, I couldn't stand it any longer and I burst out laughing. Poking my head over the side of the crow's nest I yelled, "You deserved it for dropping me on my head, marimo!"

"Pyromaniac!"

"Katana man!"

"Freaky fire lady!"

"Shitty swordsman!"

There was a chorus of 'Oohs' at that one, followed by a rumble that made everyone forget about the name-calling contest.

"W-what was that?" Usopp stammered.

Sanji lit his cigarette and sighed. "It felt like a volcano."

Jumping over the edge of the wood, I stood on the mast beside it to get a better view.

Luffy's eyes lit up. "A volcano? Awesome!"

Nami whacked him on the back of the head. "You would die instantly if you jumped in a volcano."

"How did you know that's what I was thinking?" Luffy asked with a laugh.

Usopp sighed. "We've known you for long enough to predict almost anything you do."

At this, my laughter started up again and I lost my foothold on the mast. The rumbling started again and I slipped off of the mast ungracefully, landing on a trapdoor that gave way under my weight. I stood up and took in my surroundings. I was in a messy room with four or five hammocks and a couple of couches. From the amount of clothes strewn around, I figured that this was the boys room.

"Anni, what are you doing? This is the guys room." Vivi had come running when she heard the crash. There were also a few other heads looking down at me.

I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. "Well, the volcano rumble shook me off of the mast so I fell and I happened to land here. Man, this room is almost as messy as mine. If Kate and Laura were here they'd definitely say..." I trailed off as I realized that my friends weren't here.

Sanji stretched out a hand to help me up. "So, can you tell us about these Kate and Laura people?"

Taking the hand, I climbed onto the deck and paused.

"It's okay if you don't want to. We won't press the matter," said Nami, looking concerned.

Shaking my head, I stood up and looked at my nakama. Sighing, I said, "No, it's okay. Kate and Laura were my friends before I came here. We spent a lot of time together." I left out the small detail of arriving from another dimension. But that wasn't a big deal. I was here now, and I was here to stay.

Looking off into the distance, I saw the smudge of green that I had noticed before. There was a small pillar of smoke rising above it.

I pointed and said, "Hey, there's smoke above that island. Do you think that's where that rumbling noise is coming from?"

Luffy grinned. "There's a volcano on the island that we're going to? So cool!"

I turned around to whack him, but instead got a face full of sunlight. The sun was setting, and tomorrow we were going to arrive at the volcano island.

Remembering something, I asked, "Wait. You guys said that this island was called Little Garden, right? What kind of things live there to make it sound so... ominous?"

"Well, this lady told us that there were creatures that live on the island that are so big that the island seems like the size of a garden to them." Nami replied. "It sounds like there are huge creatures the size of dinosaurs."

"Woah! Dinosaurs? Will we get to meet one? Maybe it can be our nakama!" Luffy fantasized.

Nami, Vivi and I smacked him on the head. "There is no freaking way you can get a dinosaur on this boat without it breaking!" We yelled in unison.

Watching with amazement, Zoro elbowed Sanji. "Oi, love cook. Looks like Luffy has a bigger impact on girls than you do," he teased.

Sanji's head drooped. "I'm a failure." Then he straightened. "No. I must not give up on my life's dream! After finding All Blue, of course." I could practically see the flames in his eyes as he spoke.

"Saaaaaaaaanji! Make me some food!" Luffy shouted from inside, banging his fists on the table. "It's dinner-time! Din-ner-time! Din-ner-time! Din-ner-time!" he chanted.

Sanji looked ready to cook the captain as he walked to the kitchen.

"Stop chanting already, rubber-head."

The rest of us grinned at each other with devious looks. We ran up to sit at the table and pounded our fists on it.

"Din-ner-time! Din-ner-time! Din-ner-time! Din-ner-time! Give us food! Give us food! Food! Food!"

"AUGH! STOP IT!"

"Food! Food! Food!"

XxX

After that late dinner, all of us except Sanji (who had volunteered to take first watch with a scowl) felt tired and decided to go to bed. Nami and Vivi offered to set up a bed on the floor of their room for me, no matter how much I protested that I could sleep in the kitchen room.

Nami's counter argument was that Luffy stole food at night, and unless I wanted to be nearly eaten too, I should stay out of there at night. After that, I gave up on arguing.

As I lay down on my makeshift bed, I wondered what we would see on Little Garden.

A/N:

Anni: So? I had a few random ideas, but I think they fit together pretty well. If you guys want anything specific to happen, don't hesitate to tell me. I'll include all the ideas that are... relevant to the story. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and the next one should be out in the next week.

See ya!