A/N
I apologize that you guys had to wait for this. My real life is a little stressful and hectic right now, so for the next few weeks the updates might be irregular.
Oh, and one more little thing. From what I understand in the anime, the conversion rates from beli to dollars is about one hundred beli to a dollar (or about two hundred beli to a pound).
Enjoy!
Anni's POV
Traveling across the desert was not the most interesting thing that I'd ever done, but it had its interests at times. There was the occasional flower here and there, and we passed a few cacti. The cacti, we soon found out, were not safe to eat. Luffy had picked off a branch from one of them as we walked past, and (being surprisingly smart) plucked out the spines as we continued on. The first sign that we noticed was when he started to walk backwards. Now, while this wasn't particularly odd by his standards, it was the oohs and aahs that we started to hear.
"Ooh, the sand is getting smaller," Luffy said dazedly, looking at the receding sand dunes as he stumbled over his own feet.
I tried to turn him back around, but he spun around in a full circle and continued walking backwards. I tried again by walking behind (in front?) of him and staring right at him, but all that he did was look off into the distance and avoid me. Sighing, I reached out to grab his shoulders, only to stumble and lose my balance as he bent to one side, resembling a limp noodle.
"Nami, do you have any idea what is happening to him?" I asked, giving up on my attempts.
She rubbed at a spot between her eyes. "It's probably because of the cactus juice he drank. I'm no doctor though, you'll have to ask Chopper," she suggested, pointing to the young doctor who was once again being dragged along on a small sled by Zoro.
I skipped over to them and tapped Chopper's forehead. "Chopper, we need your help. Luffy is, well, I dunno really, but he's walking backwards and acting weird," I summarized, bending down to look at him.
"Even when you say you need my help, it doesn't make me happy, you asshole!" he said weakly. Zoro looked slightly exasperated, but dragged Chopper over to see Luffy anyways. Chopper sat up slowly and padded over to the now whistling Luffy. "Oh, yes. This isn't good," he mumbled to himself, shifting into his human-like form to examine his oblivious patient.
"What?" I asked, concerned that Luffy was going to lose the few brain cells he had left.
Chopper shrunk back down to his regular cute-sized form. "I'm afraid that I can't do anything for him at this stage. We'll just have to wait it out," he informed us.
"How long will that be?" I asked.
Chopper looked back up at Luffy. "I don't know. It could be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours."
"Does this mean that we have to put up with this even more stupid version of Luffy until it wears off?" Zoro asked, crossing his arms.
"I hate to agree with the marimo, but this will get annoying very quickly," Sanji said, coming up behind said marimo.
"Don't call me that, lightweight love cook," Zoro snapped, laying a hand on the hilts of his katana.
Sanji's mood switched from mad to curious in an instant. "Oh yes, did Anni-chan win the drinking contest?" he asked, causing Zoro to stand there confused.
"Uh..." he started, stunned into silence by the cook's sudden change in moods.
"Nope!" I said cheerfully, bouncing up to them, "Zoro won because he took the last of the sake."
"Moss-head! You didn't leave the last bit for Anni-chan?" Sanji rounded on Zoro, mad again.
The baffled swordsman put his hands up in a show of innocence. "Hey, what else was I supposed to do with it? She was too slow to get to it!" he defended himself.
"It would have been good manners to offer the last bit to Anni-chan!" Sanji rebuked.
Zoro took a step back, unsure of whether Sanji was going to kick him or just lecture him on manners. "It was a contest! We were both trying to win! Plus, how was I supposed to know that you would have a hissy fit about it?!" he retorted.
Before they could start fighting and waste all their energy, I bounced in between them. "Come on, guys. We have bigger problems to worry about," I said, gesturing to Luffy who was currently guzzling our remaining water supply. "Oh crap! That's actually a problem!" I exclaimed, running over to stop him.
I grabbed the water bottle out of his hands and whacked him on the head with it. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"
He blinked and reached for it again as I lifted it out of his reach, an achievement for me because I was slightly shorter than him (and as a result, everyone else).
"Aw, Anni, can I have it back?" he asked, stretching him arm out to try and retrieve the drink. I waved it around, avoiding his rubber limb.
"So, that cactus stuff finally wore off?" I asked, changing the subject and hoping to distract him.
He stopped reaching for the water bottle and grinned. "Yeah. Man, that stuff was strange. It must have been a mystery cactus because it made everything fuzzy and weird. But now I'm fine, so nothing's wrong."
I deadpanned at his stupidity. He was so optimistic about it that it was almost frustrating. One day, he was going to get his leg bitten off by a rabid bear and he was just going to shrug it off and hop along on his merry way. As it was, however, he just grinned and started walking over to Usopp.
He took a step, then paused and looked back at me over his shoulder. "I hope you get your back problem fixed soon, Anni," he said sincerely, with a surprisingly knowing look.
"No-no! It's not anything like that- I mean, I didn't even ask! It wasn't me!" I stammered in protest. I knew that Luffy could be observant at times, but it still took me by surprise that he knew about Ace coming to sleep with me.
He flashed me a silly grin. "What are you talking about? I was just saying that I hope you get better soon," he said. I could tell that he meant 'I know about it, but I won't tell anyone'.
Why do I get the feeling that Luffy is actually the most observant one of all of us?
XxX
I had been walking in silence next to Nami when she suddenly smirked and moved closer to me.
"Anni?" she asked conversationally.
"Mm?"
"Which Devil Fruit did you eat?" she continued as if we were talking about the weather.
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Well, exactly what I said. Which Devil Fruit did you eat?" she inquired.
"Umm..." I started, "I didn't eat one. I learned my powers at an... academy." I really had, but there was a little more to the story than that and I just didn't feel like talking about it.
She nodded as if I had just proved a theory. "So that's why you can swim. I thought that it was interesting that you saved the two idiots without drowning yourself. Although, Anni, this piece of information would be better kept within the crew and whoever I deem trustworthy."
"Who you deem trustworthy? Don't I get a say in it?" I asked, pouting slightly.
"No. I don't want you to tell random people that you have superhuman abilities without eating a Devil Fruit, at least not without consulting with me first. If this information got out, then people would start to try and develop a way to do it," she stated, "And if I find out that you told someone without asking me, I'll tell everyone about your yaoi books."
I held my hands up. "Nope. In fact, I'll let you tell the crew about it. And anyone else. I don't really have any desire to tell people."
She smirked. She really knew how to blackmail people. "And by the way..." she started. I desperately hoped that she didn't know about Ace. It would be a powerful bargaining chip for her, and I didn't want the crew to make a big deal of it.
She looked back over her shoulder. "Usopp, you owe me two hundred beli. Zoro, you owe me four hundred and fifty beli. Sanji-kun, you also owe me four hundred and fifty beli."
"You bet on whether I had eaten a Devil Fruit or not?!" I shouted incredulously.
"Yep!" she replied cheerfully.
"No! Not willingly!" came a scared voice from behind us.
As Nami went off to collect her earnings, I drifted to the back of our little pack. I zoned out into my own little daydreams. Daydreaming was one of my skills, as it only took imagination and the will to escape reality. As my very useful skill progressed, I could eventually walk with my eyes open and have my subconscious guide my feet while being completely unaware of anything outside my little world inside my head.
Off in my own little place of total world domination, I didn't notice the other pyromaniac of the group come back to me and repeatedly poke my arm. It wasn't until he bonked my head that I snapped out of my daze.
"Hmm? Can I help you?" I asked, swatting his arm away.
He smirked, adjusting his hat. "I was just wondering if that burned you."
"Uh, sorry? I don't understand," I said, completely lost.
He held up the hand that had been poking my arm. His finger was on fire, and from the colour of the flame, it was quite hot. He poked my arm again, and this time I could tell that his finger was burning, but it didn't hurt.
"Nope," I said, shaking my head, "Didn't hurt. What about this?"
My finger burst into flame and I gently touched his forearm. He paused for a second, but then shook his head. "I didn't feel anything. Well, it felt different from normal flames, but that's about it."
My eyes widened in surprise. "Well, what about this?" I increased the temperature about fifty degrees and touched him again.
"You're going to have to do better than that. I've never been burned," he smirked, retaliating with a poke of his own. I didn't feel any pain, so I shook my head and continued to attempt to burn him.
Our little game lasted about half an hour before I started to feel the heat of each poke. Our fingers were blue, almost white, and resembled mini welding torches. We had backed off from the rest of the group once they (Usopp in particular) had mentioned that they weren't fireproof. I could still see them walking about a half kilometer ahead of us, but they were far enough away that they wouldn't get burned.
Poke.
"Ouch..."
"Do you give up now?"
"No."
Poke.
"Ow."
"Do you give up?"
"You wish."
Poke.
I flinched and drew my arm back. "Ow. That hurt."
Ace smirked and pushed up his hat. "No surprise there. If you were a normal human, you wouldn't even have an arm anymore."
"Ha! I never said that I was normal, you just assumed that I was," I laughed. My arm kind of stung by now, but I wasn't going to let Ace win. I intensified the heat of the flame on my finger and firmly poked his arm.
He gritted his teeth, but managed to smile it off. "Well, I have to admit that I never thought that someone without Devil Fruit's powers would be able to hurt me with fire. I think..." he trailed off, "Uh, where are the others?"
I looked off into the distance where they should be, and after a few moments of frantic searching, I spotted them. I jumped up onto a boulder in the sand to get a better view of them. The small group was wandering across the golden sands in a zigzag pattern, with no apparent destination.
"There they are," I pointed out, "Do you think they're lost?"
"Well, seeing as Yuba is over there," Ace started, gesturing to a small dark smudge on the horizon, "And they're going that way," he continued, motioning to the small group wandering about thirty degrees to the right, "I would say that, yes, they're lost."
I laughed. "Yup. They're lost. Do you think they realize it?"
He shook his head. "Probably not. Let's go catch up to them before they get completely turned around and end up back at the Going Merry or something."
I jumped down from the boulder, but a bright cloud caught my eye and I turned around to face a beautiful vibrant sunset. I hadn't noticed that it was that late yet, so it caught me by surprise. The undersides of the clouds shone a bright gold, while the colours of the clouds themselves ranged from blood red to gleaming orange to soft pink. I stood in awe of its beauty, completely forgetting about the rest of the group.
"Anni, are you coming?" Ace said, then caught sight of the magnificent sunset, "Wow, that's just... wow." he said, coming to stand next to me. We stood for a moment in silence, until Ace said, "Hey, you wanna know how to travel really fast on the sand?"
"Yeah!" I exclaimed attentively.
Ace took off running, then shot jets of flame from his hands, propelling him forwards at an incredible speed. I copied his actions, shouting in surprise when my feet nearly lifted off the ground. I tried to adjust my arms, but instead of going forwards, I face-planted into the sand. I sat up, spitting out dust while Ace laughed at me, so I threw sand in his face. He retaliated by kicking more sand in my face and laughing even harder. I scrambled to my feet and attempted to pull him down into the sand, but he dodged out of my grip and I stumbled over my feet. As I fell, I grabbed one of his feet and pulled him down into the sand along with me. We both lay there laughing our heads off until we remembered why we were running in the first place, and got up and started running towards the small directionless group that was my crew.
We sped off towards our nakama and caught up to them in minutes. As we were drawing nearer, I realized that I might have an issue with stopping, as evidenced by my previous fail.
"INCOMING!" I yelled, trying to stop myself as I headed like a bullet towards the shocked group. I planted my feet in the sand, but being sand, it gave way to my weight and I skidded to a stop in the middle of the group spraying sand everywhere. I stood in the middle of my sand-covered nakama looking sheepish as they glared at me and Ace bent over laughing behind me.
"Exactly what did you mean to accomplish by doing that, Anni?" Nami asked icily.
I cleared my throat. "Well, I was trying to catch up to you guys to tell you that you're going the wrong way."
Vivi checked the map and the compass, then said with a small laugh, "Actually, we are going the wrong direction. Yuba should be over there." She pointed in the direction of the now-slightly-larger small dark smudge. Nami sighed and turned to walk in the correct direction.
"By the way Anni, you now owe me eight hundred beli for covering us in sand," she said without looking back, "I started small, because this is your first offense. Next time it will be much more." she threatened.
Muttering curses, I dug around my bag for the correct amount, handing the bills to her. She smirked and pocketed the money, walking towards the faint outline of Yuba.
XxX
When we approached Yuba, it was as bad as Erumalu. There was sand covering the streets and piled up against the walls of buildings. The plants were shriveled up and dry, while the bricks of the buildings were spider-webbed with cracks. One solitary figure stood in the middle of the road, digging into the sand. Vivi covered the lower half of her face with her cloak and approached him, asking, "What happened here?"
The man raised his head slowly, leaning on his shovel for support. "Sandstorms. But no matter how terrible they get, I will keep digging Yuba out of the sand."
"That's terrible," she said, "But I heard that the rebels had a base here-"
"What do you want with them?" the man interrupted forcefully.
Vivi opened her mouth to respond, but the man continued, "They have left Yuba. The fools moved to Katorea when the water started to dry up."
"Is Katorea close to here, Vivi?" I asked.
"No," she said quietly, "It's all the way back near the port that we came to first, Nanohana."
What? So we came all the way out here to find out that the people we're looking for moved?!
"Vivi? Is that you, Princess Vivi?" the man asked, seeming to recognize her.
"Nonononono! Vivi isn't a princess," Luffy said, jumping in front of her.
"Yeah, she's just a regular person!" I continued, waving my arms.
"Shut up, you two!" Zoro said angrily, bonking our heads together.
The man walked cautiously up to Vivi and whispered, "Do you recognize me? I lost some weight."
Vivi's eyes shone with tears, and she replied, "Toh-Toh?"
"I still believe that the king is a wonderful person. This rebellion is sheer idiocy, and only you can save us, Princess. They are willing to lose their lives for this stupid, unproved cause, so I beg of you, stop them before the kingdom falls apart!" Toh-Toh said tears running down his face into his beard.
"Don't worry, Toh-Toh," Vivi said, a smile on her face, "I'm going to stop this rebellion, no matter what!"
"Thank you, I will help you in any way that I can!" Toh-Toh replied enthusiastically.
Right on cue, Usopp and Chopper yawned enormously. Seeing them, I yawned too, tired after the long trek across the desert.
"Well, it seems that I can help right now! Yuba is well-known for it's hospitality, so I shall get you a place to stay right away!" Toh-Toh offered.
"Thank you, that would be wonderful," Vivi replied.
In no time at all, the nine of us were ushered into a room with five bunk beds. After many pillow fights, we decided to keep with the same groupings as last night. Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, and Vivi took the top bunks, while Ace, Sanji, Zoro, Nami, and I took the lower ones. Most of us were asleep within minutes. The room was filled with gentle breathing and some quiet snores, when a slight creak woke me up out of my dazed state.
Opening my eyes a slit, I watched Luffy climb down from his bunk and silently make his way outside to where Toh-Toh was still digging for water. I shut my eyes again, only to reopen them when another soft squeak came from that direction. A dark silhouette stood next to me, not making any move.
"Do you mind?" Ace's voice drifted softly from the silhouette.
I rolled over to look up at him. "Mind what?" I asked.
"Chopper said it would help your back if we did the same thing, so..." he trailed off, sounding unsure of how to phrase his question.
"I don't mind. Thanks for asking, though," I whispered, rolling over to face the wall. "But only if you move before everyone else wakes up. It would be weird trying to explain this."
"Not really," he mumbled, slipping between the covers, "I'm just trying to help you with your nightmares."
"Mmhm, sure," I muttered sarcastically as he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me close.
He chuckled softly, "Well, I did ask. And you agreed, so you must like it too."
I didn't answer, instead, I closed my eyes and fell into a nightmare-free sleep consisting of a wonderful dream where I killed Fluffy in many different ways.
XxX
Nami's voice pierced through my head, waking me up.
"What the hell are you two doing?!"
A/N
Ooh, what happened? I wonder if they found out about Ace and Anni (well, not really, but you do!). I dunno what else to say other than due to my insane life I've been trying to find time to write, but I haven't been very successful. I hope that in a few weeks I will get back to normal, but until then, I have no idea what will happen. I have NOT abandoned the story, nor am I planning to.
See ya!