A/N

Anni: Sorry about the wait. I had some computer problems and I didn't start writing before today. Yeah...

Btw, the arcs won't follow the exact series of events, because of Anni's presence. But even if they don't happen in order, most events in the arcs will happen.

Anni's POV

I woke up to pounding on the ceiling. Rolling over, I got up and looked around. Nami and Vivi were nowhere to be seen, so I changed out of my pajamas and into an outfit that Nami had lent me. Actually, it was the only one that she had that I would willingly wear.

The outfit consisted of a a black miniskirt with mid-thigh length leggings under and a dark red tee-shirt shirt with the kanji for nakama on the front. I had black sneakers that Vivi had lent me, and my white socks from yesterday. My tastes in clothing were darker than most girls, mostly involving black and red, but I didn't care. It looked good on me, especially with my pale skin (that stayed the same colour even when I tried to get a tan) and mid-length blonde hair, giving me a slightly evil look.

I started up the the stairs to the trapdoor, when it burst open, revealing a stressed looking face. The face was connected to an arm that held a large hammer, probably the source of the pounding that woke me up.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Nami yelled at me. "We've been trying to wake you up for the last hour! I was about to came in there and hit you with this! But," she looked behind her, "these idiots wouldn't let me do anything... potentially harmful to you."

I climbed up the rest of the stairs to see most of the crew packed into the small room. Nodding seriously, I said, "Yes, I completely agree. It would be a shame if I was critically injured or killed on my second day with the crew."

Sanji stepped forward. "Do you know what time it is?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

He whacked my head lightly. "It's lunchtime, idiot!"

Surprised, I raised one eyebrow. "So you guys are worried because I slept in?"

Nami hit me with the hammer in her hand. "No! Because we thought you were in a freaking coma!"

Luffy laughed. "And we didn't want you to miss lunch. Sanji's gonna make us each a bento!"

"Thank you! At least someone has a legitimate reason for waking me up!" I said.

A voice came from outside. I recognized it as Usopp's. "We've reached Little Garden!"

The crew members inside ran out to look at the island. I followed them, only pausing to feel the two huge lumps that were forming on the back of my head.

I ran to the front of the boat to get the best view, but that wasn't necessary to see the bright green jungle all around the boat. The island looked wild and ancient, like it was a snapshot of the world from thousands of years ago. In the distance, I could see a giant volcano and two huge white rock formations.

Zoro steered the boat into a little river where we stopped and hopped out.

Sanji turned to the rest of us and said, "We need to stock up on provisions, 'cuz we didn't get a lot at the last town."

I hadn't been there at the last town so I said, "What happened?"

He turned to me. "Well, before we got to your island, we went to a town filled with bounty hunters, and we couldn't get any food. Then, while we did get some good stuff at your island, we didn't get enough to last us for a long time."

Luffy muttered something about a restaurant, and was immediately shushed by the rest of us.

Suddenly, a giant bird lizard thing swooped down and tried to grab one of us. Nami and Usopp screamed, while the rest of us cringed at the sound. I leaped up and hit it, and it flew back up into the sky.

Luffy's eyes sparkled. "I'm gonna go and explore the jungle! Anyone wanna come? It's gonna be an adventure!"

Vivi smiled. "I'll go with you. If I just sit around here, I'll soon get bored."

Nami wilted like a flower in the middle of a desert. "Don't tell me that he's rubbing off on you. You'll die!"

From behind Vivi, a bird that I hadn't noticed before poked his head out. Vivi glanced from me to the bird, and said, "Oh, that's right. Anni, this is Carue. He was scared of you, so he didn't come out earlier." Looking back at Nami, she continued, "Carue will come with me."

The poor bird looked ready to faint

XxX

After a few preparations, Luffy, Vivi and Carue set off on their adventure. Back on the boat, Zoro jumped off onto the ground.

"I'm gonna take a walk."

Sanji ran up to the side of the boat.

"Hey, marimo. We're low on food, so bring something edible back."

"Yeah, ok." Zoro replied. Then, half turning, he said, "I'll hunt something bigger than you could manage, so sit tight until I get back."

Sanji looked ready to explode. "Alright then, if you're so confident, why don't we have a little contest?"

"Sounds good to me."

I could feel the tension in the air as they glared at each other.

I felt that I had to do something to ease the tension. "Oh, hey. Can I join too? If I sit around here I'm gonna get bored to death!"

They both shifted their glares to me and I flinched involuntarily.

I'm glad they're my nakama, not my enemies.

I grinned. "Well, anyways, whoever brings back the most edible meat wins... hmm... do we have a good prize?"

Nami smirked at us. "How about... the losers have to do whatever the winner says for a day?"

"Hmm... kinda overused, but okay!"

"I agree."

"I'm looking forwards to your faces when you lose."

I leaped off the boat. "Bye Nami, Usopp. You guys can be the judges, 'kay?"

They both paled at the thought of the losers rage while the three of us ran off into the jungle, hoping to find something good.

XxX

"Okay, where are the big things?" I muttered to myself as I walked.

So far, I had seen a tiger, a big lizard, and a smallish elephant-like thing, but nothing huge enough to win.

A noise rang through the forest to my left. Spinning around, I saw a... dinosaur? It had dark yellow-green scales and a long neck, and looked kinda like brontosaurus but with a slightly shorter and thicker neck. It walked on all fours, but as soon as it saw me, it reared up and started charging towards me.

Yelling in surprise, I started running back the way I came, dodging the repeated head-butt attacks.

Wait... which way did I come? It all looks the same! Then again, it's probably not good to lead this thing back to the boat. Squishing the judges won't let me win. Oh yeah, and I don't want Nami and Usopp to get hurt. That's important too.

I skidded to a stop and faced the dinosaur. The fight went like this:

Punch. Punch. Punch. Slice.

Anni: 1. Dino: 0.

I jumped up on top of a tree and saw something amazing. Two gigantic people were fighting above the treetops. One had a sword, and the other fought with an axe, but the strangest part was the fact that they were both laughing as they fought. I decided not to get in their way.

Jumping down from the tree, I picked up the dino by it's tail. Groaning under it's weight, I began the long trek back to the boat.

XxX

When I got back to the boat, Sanji and Zoro were both already there, fighting over whose catch was bigger. I saw that they had both caught dinosaurs of about the same size as mine.

Walking up to them, I called out, "Yo! Where are our judges?"

The two men turned to me with scowls on their faces.

"That's what we want to know!" They said in unison.

I thought for a moment. "Well, they've either gone out by themselves, gotten dragged into one of Luffy's adventures, or been kidnapped by one of those fighting giants."

"Fighting giants?" Zoro asked incredulously.

I nodded. "Yeah. I saw them from up in a tree. Did you notice all the shaking going on?"

Shaking his head, Sanji answered, "No, I was focused on beating you two."

Zoro looked thoughtful. "Oh, I thought that it was just more dinosaurs. Although, I already took down the biggest, so that was a bit confusing."

Before a fight could break out, I stepped between them and brought out the Clara Glare. They immediately looked at me and stopped fighting.

"Okay. Now since they wouldn't go out by themselves, and Luffy hasn't been back yet, we can conclude that they have been kidnapped by someone." I said seriously.

They nodded.

"So we must go look for Nami-swan!" Sanji said, running into the jungle by himself.

"Oi! Cook! Stop and let me tell you which way I think they went!" I yelled after him.

Zoro sighed. "Did you notice that he said, 'we'?"

I actually hadn't, but now that he pointed it out, it was really funny. Laughing, we started walking in the way that he ran.

XxX

Walking along in a prehistoric jungle semi alone isn't something that I would recommend to normal people. However, I didn't fall into the 'normal' category, so it was only slightly unsettling. Every once in a while, we would see another dino, or carnivorous lizard, or giant snake. They didn't pose much of a threat to us, because we could one shot most of them. We took turns dealing with attackers, I would destroy one, then Zoro would annihilate another, and then it would turn into a game of who could defeat prehistoric monsters faster.

The only problem we had was when I climbed a tree to see if I could see anything, and I looked at my feet, where a giant spider was chilling. I screamed loudly, and Zoro jumped up next to me, ready to kill something because of the unnatural noise I was making. He ended up missing the spider and cutting my knee instead (yeah, it was that big), but that was my fault because I moved to get away, startling the spider.

Jumping down from the tree, I stumbled and fell over. I dragged myself to a tree stump and pulled out my first aid kit. Grabbing a needle with my shaking hands, I tried to stitch up my cut, but before I could start, Zoro landed behind me and grabbed the needle.

I flinched at the sudden movement. "Hey! I need to close the cut before it gets infected."

He stared at me like I was crazy. "Yeah. That's what I'm going to do. You'll only end up making it worse than it already is with your shaking hands."

He had a point. I might stab myself. Sighing in agreement, I handed him the first aid kit.

"Just don't stab me." I said, looking away.

I hated looking at wounds being closed unless I was fixing my own injuries, so I looked away for the entire process. My knee was going numb, but I could feel Zoro's warm hands on my knee and the occasional prick of the needle when it was farther away from the cut.

Finally, Zoro stood up and stretched. I tried to stand up too, but he pushed me back down onto the stump.

"What now?" I asked with some sarcasm.

Not answering, he took out a roll of bandages from the kit and started wrapping my knee up. He stood up again and rolled his eyes.

"Have you ever pulled a stitch?" he asked me.

I thought back. "No, I haven't. Why?"

He sighed. "Well, let me tell you. It really, really hurts."

"Ohh..."

Finally understanding, I stood up for the second time, this time successfully. However, after a few steps, a spike of pain shot up my leg and I nearly fell over, but Zoro caught me. I straightened quickly after that.

"I'm okay. I've had longer cuts." I said, slightly frustrated at myself.

Saying nothing, Zoro kept walking, but he was a little closer than before.

XxX

We didn't find Sanji. Instead, we found Nami and Usopp. They explained what had happened to them. They were brought to one of the huge rock formations by one of the fighting giants that I had seen earlier. They thought that the giant, who introduced himself as Brogy, had wanted to eat them, but he had clarified it, saying that he just wanted some company.

Brogy explained the reason behind his fight with the other giant. He was from an island called Elbaf, and when someone had an issue that could not be resolved, they would come to Little Garden and fight until the god Elbaf awarded one person the victory. However, they had been fighting for a hundred years every time the volcano rumbled with no winner, and they had forgotten their reason for fighting.

Personally, I thought that it was bullshit that they were fighting without a reason, but I wasn't about to say that out loud. After all, they had fought for a loooong time.

Suddenly, the biggest volcano rumbled.

Brogy stood up. "I have to go fight now. I'll see you humans later. Kaapapapapaa!"

I decided to follow him at a safe distance and watch the fight. As the second giant approached, I noticed something that I hadn't seen before. He was stumbling slightly, with a small smudge of blood on his chin. I didn't see him get injured in the previous fight, so what had gone wrong?

I decided to try and stop the fight that had been obviously sabotaged. As I ran through the trees, I saw the other giant trip and Brogy cut him down. I could tell that something was wrong with the two giants when Brogy fell down as well. I wasn't even halfway there, but I was running as fast as I could when I heard a scream that sounded suspiciously like Nami.

I couldn't turn around so I hoped that Zoro and Usopp could do enough to protect her and themselves.

XxX

When I got to the clearing I was met with a shocking sight. Nami, Vivi and Zoro were caught in a giant white cake-thing with a spinning top that was... snowing? The three of them, along with Brogy were slowly being covered with the snow. There was a man with a '3' hairdo laughing at them, and a small girl sitting on a blanket drinking tea.

The '3' haired man looked in my direction and I ducked behind a tree. My wounded leg hurt suddenly, and I stumbled out of my hiding spot. The man looked at something behind me and yelled, "Add her to the collection, Mr. Five!"

I spun around and was met with a huge explosion that knocked me unconscious.

A/N

Anni: I. Did. It. I wrote this whole chapter in one day! Sorry if it's a bit short. I had to look up the summary of the Little Garden arc again and I tried to fit most of the leading up events into one chapter. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and the next chapter should be out within a week.

P.S. The spider might return. (^-^)

See ya!